Heat pipe failure?

[sorcerer]

Got a laptop in that's running slow. Done all the usual hardware diagnostics and everything OK, and it's all clear of malware. I took out the heatsink/fan assembly and got rid of what dust and fluff there was. The thermal paste had gone solid and crumbly so I cleaned and put new stuff on but didn't lower the temp much. CPU is running at 62C at idle according to Open Hardware Monitor, rising to 75C when running Prime95.

Any ideas on testing the heat pipe for efficient heat transfer?

 

[FoolishTech]

yeah, one of those infrared temp probes. invaluable tool. point and click. gotta just use your finger otherwise, and that could start to hurt.

 

[NYJimbo]

Could you post the make and model. Could help.

 

[sorcerer]

Ah, great idea Nick. I shall go get one of those tomorrow - just love getting new toys

NYJimbo - it's a Dell Studio 1537

Cheers guys

 

[NYJimbo]

NYJimbo - it's a Dell Studio 1537

You lucky dog, that fan is just begging to be played with. Anyway, clean off the pads and heat sinks, reapply and then remount the cooling assembly, take it off and look for any poor contact. Dont listen to idiots who tell you to only put a "grain of rice" sized blob of grease. Look at any thermal pads if they are very compressed or broken. I would like to tell you to put thermal grease on the foam pads as well, but they tell you not to do that so I am not going to try to improve anything here as it's not supposed to help.

If its not an obvious heat dissipation issue due to some bad thermal assembly contact and there is no air flow issues you could be looking at either a slow fan or a heat pipe. I have never seen that model go bad on a bad pipe (could happen but not so far).

We have been replacing perfectly normal looking fans in Sony and HP laptops this summer after trying to just do the "clean and grease" and the fan replacement was the fix. So a new fan could be the fix. Spin the fan with your finger, if it fights you or stops too quick it might be best to replace the fan even though you kinda think the fan is ok. Fans are cheap, some models we factor the cost of the fan into the clean.

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks very much Jimbo, I'll follow your suggestions tomorrow - for now, it's a last beer and off to bed

 

[sorcerer]

Well, I found a brand new fan/heatsink assembly for 12 quid (just under 19 USD) so decided to get one anyway because the fan did seem to slow down quickly after a hand spin.

Thanks guys

 

[ITGroup]

We're finding more and more fans failing on laptops these days. Though sometimes, there seems to be an issue with an on board temp sensor giving false readings and causing units to shut down. Almost all our "overheating" repairs were a clean out and replace thermal paste, not the case any more though.