random overheating

[TheDarkMage]

ive just got hold of an old Tiny laptop and it has a bit of a strange overheating problem.

when it came in the cpu was blatantly overheating. I stripped it down and cleaned it thoroughly, removed the old thermal paste, applied new paste, checked the heatsink was flush and all appears well.

the first time i ran it i was getting temps of around 23 degrees C under stress.

once it was restarted it started hitting 70 under minor stress.

It seems to overheat randomly. sometimes when you switch it on its fine and sometimes it just overheats.

anyone got any ideas?

its an old athlon 64 3000+ cpu. must be a good 6 years old as well.

 

[cpaul123]

They sell cooling fans to keep the device cool. I had a laptop that was doing the same thing, so I ran SIW and I would monitor the temperature. All I did was to elevate the back of the laptop and I watched the temperature go down and it never overheated again (as long as it is elevated).

 

[TheDarkMage]

fair enough, but this is a definite hardware problem. When i say overheating i mean to the point where it shutsdown regardless of what you do. Its a recent issue and a laptop cooler wont be the answer for this. thanks for the reply anyway though, its appreciated

 

[meanderer]

This is going to be a long shot, look around the motherboard for dust, they might be shorting the board.

 

[TheDarkMage]

i managed to find the problem.

after going through all the stripping and cleaning of the laptop, it turned out that there was a huge clump of dust wedged inside the heatsink.

lesson of the day? dont use belkin canned air.

used another high powered can of air and it blew it out.

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

i managed to find the problem.

after going through all the stripping and cleaning of the laptop, it turned out that there was a huge clump of dust wedged inside the heatsink.

lesson of the day? dont use belkin canned air.

used another high powered can of air and it blew it out.

Lesson # 2
Don't use compressed air. Grab a cheap air compressor it will save you lots of money over time from having to buying cans of air. Blowing air into the machine without taking of the necessary components just pushes the clumps back into the machine. Depending on accessibility it's usually just easier to take the fan out and clean it.

 

[TheDarkMage]

Lessor # 2
Don't use compressed air. Grab a cheap air compressor it will save you lots of money over time from having to buying cans of air. Blowing air into the machine without taking of the necessary components just pushes the clumps back into the machine. Depending on accessibility it's usually just easier to take the fan out and clean it.

who said i didnt take it out. It was stripped and cleaned. Its just that due to the shape if the heatsink i couldnt see that that there was a big clump of dust lodged inside it. it had been blown out with a can of air so it was just a bit of bad luck.

thats a good idea though to get a small air compressor - i might just do that. thanks for that

 

[meanderer]

so it was dust after all...

I routinely take apart the heatsink fan assembly to clean up the dust, compressed air and toothbrush soaked in 99% alcohol. A good thing is that these are rather easy, just a few smaller screws and you are in. Sony laptops are easy to get to the heatsink, so are Dells and Gateways. HP? not so much XD.

last night I just cleaned out a heatsink that did not spin fast enough. Turns out that the fan was stuck and a few drops of lubrication oil did the job.

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

who said i didnt take it out. It was stripped and cleaned. Its just that due to the shape if the heatsink i couldnt see that that there was a big clump of dust lodged inside it. it had been blown out with a can of air so it was just a bit of bad luck.

thats a good idea though to get a small air compressor - i might just do that. thanks for that

Gotcha. glad its resolved