So, I had an overheating problem. I've been driving myself nuts lately; downloading new GPU drivers, reverting to older drivers, clean installing drivers, and attempting to adjust fan speeds...all for naught. No matter, I was still getting massive temperature spikes and as a result my GPU was auto-underclocking when the red line was reached. I just purchased Skyrim, I wanted to play, and now I was angry. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I decided that now was no time for caution, so I got brave and decided it was about time I knew my laptop a little more intimately.
A short trip to the garage later, and I was ready for some surgery. I had disassembled the entire laptop and discovered that the designers had quite entirely neglected the need for the CPU fan to have an adequate inlet for clean air. No worries, I was going to remedy that.
I took the backplate and viewed the area that would be resting over the fan intake. I selected a hole saw that matched the diameter of the CPU fan as closely as possible, and I got to work. A trick I learned a long time ago was to run the saw in reverse first, to establish a groove. This lets the saw get a good bite and it cuts better instead of "grabbing" like a saw sometimes does when first making contact.
As this wasn't a piece of lumber that I could quickly pick up a replacement for at The Home Depot if I made a mistake, I was going to try and avoid all possibilities for one. I traced the hole, and started cutting. In seconds, I had a nice neat hole right over the fan shroud. I rigged up a neat little cover with some fine steel mesh that I happened to have laying around, and secured it on the reverse side of the backplate with some high-temperature glue that I also had sitting unused.
I put the laptop back together and fired her up for the moment of truth. As soon as I booted my OS, I checked my temperature readouts and......a solid 20°C drop! Fantastic! 10 minutes at the workbench had saved me a couple of hundred dollars that would have been spent on the new GPU that I've been eying.
On the drawing board next: new heat sinks all around! Stay tuned.
A short trip to the garage later, and I was ready for some surgery. I had disassembled the entire laptop and discovered that the designers had quite entirely neglected the need for the CPU fan to have an adequate inlet for clean air. No worries, I was going to remedy that.I took the backplate and viewed the area that would be resting over the fan intake. I selected a hole saw that matched the diameter of the CPU fan as closely as possible, and I got to work. A trick I learned a long time ago was to run the saw in reverse first, to establish a groove. This lets the saw get a good bite and it cuts better instead of "grabbing" like a saw sometimes does when first making contact.
As this wasn't a piece of lumber that I could quickly pick up a replacement for at The Home Depot if I made a mistake, I was going to try and avoid all possibilities for one. I traced the hole, and started cutting. In seconds, I had a nice neat hole right over the fan shroud. I rigged up a neat little cover with some fine steel mesh that I happened to have laying around, and secured it on the reverse side of the backplate with some high-temperature glue that I also had sitting unused.
I put the laptop back together and fired her up for the moment of truth. As soon as I booted my OS, I checked my temperature readouts and......a solid 20°C drop! Fantastic! 10 minutes at the workbench had saved me a couple of hundred dollars that would have been spent on the new GPU that I've been eying.
On the drawing board next: new heat sinks all around! Stay tuned.
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