Laptop Over Heating, Getting Hot

This particular laptop would get very hot and then shut off, in the following pictures you will clearly see why. This laptop is not very easily accessible when it comes to accessing the vent and CPU assembly. It nearly required a complete disassembly of the the laptop.

So you understand how most laptops vent their heat, I included this picture. In this picture the copper tube you see takes the heat from the processor and transfers it to the vent that a fan blows to the exterior of the laptop. This heat is transferred up from the CPU through a thermal compound gel that you will see later on in the following pictures.

In this photo, I have removed the heat sink from the laptop exposing the hidden mess that is causing the laptop to overheat and shutdown. You can see that there is a significant amount of dust/lint trapped against where the air wants to exit the laptop. since it can not 100% exit, it will back up into the laptop. Thus, the keyboard should feel really warm or hot to the touch. Take note to the crusted thermal compound on top of the CPU as well. Larger photos to follow.

Nice and clogged isn't it? It looks bad, but simply blowing off the dust with some compress air or vacuum will do the trick for removal for this type of clog. Cigarette damage requires some more aggressive cleaning.

When laptops overheat, even the thermal transfer gel eventually cannot take the heat, yikes! This is critical, because at these temperatures, it isn't too long before the temperatures will burn out the CPU or worse, cook the motherboard and other components. This is a big reason why most modern laptops are set to auto shut off without warning once the temperature hits 85 degrees Celsius or 185 Degrees Fahrenheit. This picture, while it is hard to understand by the photo alone, the compound is completely rock hard. Normally a little isopropyl alcohol will remove it safely, however in this case, I had to be extremely careful to chisel the hardened compound away without hurting the CPU. I used 100% acetone on the top of the CPU. Using Acetone, while very effective, is risky due to the possibility of it eating away at the circuit board. BE CAREFUL!

Again, I do suggest using Arctic Silver 5 . I have seen this particular compound drop temperatures 5c - 10c versus other compounds.