Hot Dell Studio... Thermal Paste Help??

R

riotriotriot

New Member
Hi,

I have a dell studio 1747 with a 1.6 i7 and 1Gb radeon...

Lately it's been getting REALLY hot, like burning my fingers to touch the touch pad.... Dell is useless. Even with my 'warranty'.

I'm looking for a DIY fix, all I can see is to re-apply thermal paste between the heat sink and cpu+gpu....??

Watched a few vids and read up, seems like something I can handle.

Not sure if this will help though? I have to figure something out because it hurts to sit with the thing...not to mention my poor fingers...

From what I've read this is a common problem with this model..:(

Help and input are really appreciated, I'm a newb when it comes to the inside of a laptop.
 
How old is it? Is it full of dust in the vents? That's usually the #1 reason for a hot laptop. Take out the fan(s) and blow them out.

You'd be surprised the dust bunnies that can collect in a laptop.
 
Ha! That never even occurred to me, probably because I've never opened a laptop...yet. LOL.

Thank you very much for the reply! So I will pick up some air in a can first and give it a shot.

Should I bother with the thermal paste? I've read a number of times now the factory stuff isn't very good..

Thanks again


Edit: (I've owned it for a little over two years I think.)
 
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Dell doesn't always use thermal paste in their machines - they instead use thermal pads. If you were to use thermal paste you'd need to get copper shims to replace the pad and lessen the gap between the heatsink and the CPU.

And canned air might not do the trick by itself. There may be quite a buildup that you may need to pull out. Hard to explain, but I've pulled out a "pillow" of dust, lint, and cat hair from a laptop more than once before.
 
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Alright, the copper shims sounds pretty complicated. I'm going to drop that with my lack of computer experience.

The dust / lint removal though, sounds meticulous. I think my OCD will fight the good fight here. It's already bugging me that there is a good couple years of muck in there.

Thanks again! Huge help, it's greatly appreciated.
 
Next time I work on an NC6220 that is flaming hot and I pull a lump of fur out I'll be sure to take a picture.
 
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