could use some help with heating/fan problem, thermal grease, other?

tyliseea

Solid State Member
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7
hello everyone...

i'm new here, and looking to see if i could get some help. i have a laptop (fujitsu lifebook t4215), that i think had been running hot (the fan would run loud after not very long, and worse when i was running more things).

i opened it up to clean it, thinking it was dust in the fan and elsewhere. there didn't seem to be much, just a little. now i'm wondering if the fan needs to be replaced or that it needs more thermal grease. i've been looking thru the forum, and apparently different thermal grease works for different brands or parts.

could someone recommend which thermal grease would work for this fujitsu? or any other possibilities that could be going on? i know this laptop is old (4 -5 years). is it possible the cpu is just breaking? or maybe the fan? etc. thank you.
 
Run a temperature measuring piece of software, and check the temperatures. If you're not sure what your looking for (temperature wise) post the results here.

Generally thermal paste (Or sometimes called thermal grease :p) any type of paste will be ok for your processor. Artic Silver is a good brand if you are interested in buying some. Clean off whats their currently with some alchol wipes or similar, before you do apply any new paste. Apply a small pea sized drop, and re-attach the heatsink.

It sounds more like it could be something to do with the actual fan itself, make sure its seated / attached fine and theres nothing loose. I wouldnt of thought it was the CPU just dieing either.

Check temps again after all thats done!
 
cool, thank you. now i'll have to go try all of that and see what happens! thermal grease, hehe. i just saw that somewhere, so that's the name i used. since then i've seen it referred to as compound, etc. i got the arctic silver already. this is the first time i've done anything like this, and i wasn't sure what to do with the compound (how to remove it, etc), just finding things online, so thank you for the info : ) and the temperature program...

though, i am not sure what temperature range i should be looking for/what is normal - what would that be? (my computer is already apart right now, so i have no idea what it was running at, but for future reference)
 
Are you running anything like a CD or a program or something that's making your computer's fan go faster causing it too heat up?
 
Tyliseea,

Let us know whats happened after you sorted your laptop out and re-measured the temperatures. You can use something like 'SpeedFan' to measure temperatures - or google other temperature measuring software. Youtube is handy for mini guides for applying thermal paste too.

Generally, temperatures when a laptop is idle might be somewhere around 30-50c. Under load (or high load) It might go up to 70c-85c maybe, obviously, the cooler the better, but It depends on how old it is, how much RAM it has in comparison with the programs its running, if it has a decent cooler, if theres dust / hair etc.

Make sure you aren't putting the laptop somewhere where the air outlets are getting blocked. A nice flat, open surface, so the air can regulate is best.

Also little things can increase the temps. If you have Performance hungry programs, that eat a lot of ram, try lowering the settings etc. (Silly things like Vista is also quite intensive, in comparison with say XP, if you are already running a lot of programs)

Give us a shout if you need anything else
 
clacker - it would be when i was using a web browser with many tabs open, like 50. i was using safari, which maybe takes up alot of memory. i've begun using opera now on another computer. but i'm sure it still needed to be cleaned, there was some dust around the motor area of the fan, maybe that's what was doing it. and maybe the thermal paste was drying out, idk.

thank you luke. i still have my laptop apart, i am having to re-tape the heatsink and the fan, and don't have the correct tape - do you know what the name of it is? i went to an electronics store asking for laptop tape (showing them what i had taken off) and they said just use electrical tape....it's not sticking very well. the tape is needed to close an overlap of the fan over the side of the heatsink fin area, which seems tricky. it was some clear/yellowish color tape, kind of thick. the other tape was a thin black, reminded me of cassette tape material.

i had always tried to keep the vents clear, thinking that was the issue. i am using XP btw.
 
clacker - it would be when i was using a web browser with many tabs open, like 50. i was using safari, which maybe takes up alot of memory. i've begun using opera now on another computer. but i'm sure it still needed to be cleaned, there was some dust around the motor area of the fan, maybe that's what was doing it. and maybe the thermal paste was drying out, idk.

thank you luke. i still have my laptop apart, i am having to re-tape the heatsink and the fan, and don't have the correct tape - do you know what the name of it is? i went to an electronics store asking for laptop tape (showing them what i had taken off) and they said just use electrical tape....it's not sticking very well. the tape is needed to close an overlap of the fan over the side of the heatsink fin area, which seems tricky. it was some clear/yellowish color tape, kind of thick. the other tape was a thin black, reminded me of cassette tape material.

i had always tried to keep the vents clear, thinking that was the issue. i am using XP btw.

That's a lot of tabs to have opened there perhaps that is the problem. I use safari I don't think it takes up too much memory.
 
i read about the tape - thermal tape or kapton?, electrical just didn't seem right, and it wasn't working besides.
 
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