In hindsight, maintaining the fan in a Toshiba Satellite A105 by completely disassembling the computer is a really bad idea. Unless you work in a sugar factory, I don't see any reason to disassemble this computer in order to clean the fan in this laptop. I know the following will not get the fan as clean as completely disassembling the computer, but the risks to the computer is far lower.
Revised Steps For Cleaning the Toshiba Satellite CPU Fan:
Step 1: Turn off the computer.
Step 2: Remove battery, but I don't think this step is necessary.
Step 3: Turn computer upside down. Find the exhaust port for the CPU fan on the left side of the computer.
Step 4: Cover half of the exhaust port and place your mouth over the other half. Blow hard. You will hear a sound like a party toy. If the heat sink is dirty, then you will see a column of dust come of out the fan intake port. Repeat a couple times.
Step 5: Be happy that you saved yourself two to three hours and that your computer is still fully functional.
PROS: See step 5.
CONS: You will not get the heat sink perfectly clean.
Why didn't I used can air? I hate buying air, and I feel that you get a higher volume of air.
Previous Post In Series: Toshiba Sateliite A105 Fan Maintenance 1.0
Thank you. Your blog was very helpful and efficient For Me,Thanks for Sharing the information.
ReplyDeleteThanks, your suggestion got me started in the right direction although I did it slightly differently. First, I can see the fins on the heat sink through the exhaust port so I straightened out a paper clip so I could slide it in between the fins for about 1.25 inches to try to knock loose the dust on the other side. Then I was concerned about blowing with my mouth into the exhaust port as you did as it might introduce moisture. Two years ago I used a canned air spray to clean the heat sink on a desktop computer. It only worked for 30 seconds after I powered it back up. I took it to a computer repair place and he said that the canned spray can squirt a liquid into the computer if the can is not perfectly vertical and the liquid can kill the computer. My computer would have cost more to repair than a new one so I got a new one. So instead of blowing into the exhaust port myself I used a vacuum cleaner that has the ability to connect a hose to its cleaner's exhaust port so it becomes a blower. Then I used a second vacuum cleaner sucking on the entrance port to the fan while blowing on the exhaust port with the first vacuum. This worked out wonderfully. I monitor my CPU temp with the "Core Temp" program. Before cleaning, when I was doing real time stock price displays of about 60 stocks the core temp would go up to 85 degrees C. At that point Intel/Toshiba slows down the processor clock to try to keep the processor from frying. With the slow clock the computer was operating slowly. Now with the same circumstances my processor is run at 49 degrees C. Back to good as new! Thanks much for your idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input. One thing that used to be an issue, but I don't know if it still is: they make special vacuum cleaners for cleaning computers, because a normal one can discharge static electricity. Something to look into.
ReplyDelete