Thinkpads Forum

Does anyone know places where I can get my X60s opened up and cleaned (heatsink and fans especially)?

I don't know about others, but mine gets pretty dusty after 6 months of use (it is on basically 24/7).

I can clean the screen and keyboard etc, but i do not feel confident doing the cleaning inside the laptop. BTW, I am not sure what influence that could have on my warranty (170469U, 3-yr warranty) if the service is done by a 3rd party.

I asked places like bestbuy, they don't do it, too much liability.

Therefore, please help me. Thanks everyone.

I know you said you don't feel comfortable cleaning it yourself. The fans are exposed once you remove the keyboard. 3-4 screws and you should be able to remove the keyboard and see it. All you need is a can of air and it should clean up real nice. Just a suggestion.

Thanks for the info. Here is my story. I have a 4 years old compaq presario. It has a little overheat problem and needs to send back to HP for service once in a while. It is a desktop replacement (w/ a desktop P4 CPU). Every time I got it back from HP, it was nice and clean from inside out. When it is idle, the fan barely runs and the keyboard and palm rest are always at room temp.

After its warranty expires, i decided to clean it by myself. I followed the factory service manual and took it apart. i removed the CPU from HSF and the whole casing from the mainboard. i even put the heatsink under a faucet and use high water pressure to push the dust out (between the fins). Then i let it dry and put them back together (w/ better thermal paste). It turns out that it does not overheat anymore, but it is far from cool and quiet also.

This gives me the impression that either HP generally replace the HSF with a new one or there is a better way to do it. and i wonder what it is, and if there are someone besides the manufacturer can also accomplish it.

My X60s is far from overheat but it does feel warmer and warmer. And most of all, I am a lazy guy. So, any more suggestions?

echen770 wrote:Does anyone know places where I can get my X60s opened up and cleaned (heatsink and fans especially)?

It's rather easier than you'd think to open up the machine. I traded out my WiFi card and I was amazed by the ease and how clean the machine turned out to be. Download the maintenance manual and look for the WiFi card replacement instructions. The keyboard removal requires 4 screws and a removal of the cable. The rest of the top plastic takes (maybe the fingerprint scanner cable, if you have one) the removal of six screws and some careful removal of the plastic.

You'd probably be fine with just the removal of the keyboard. Like I said, the thing wasn't dirty and I use my machine about 15 hours a day since June. It seemed so clean I didn't even use compressed air on the insides. However, the keyboard is significantly easier to clean when it's detached.

Warning, it's big:
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mo ... 847_01.pdf

ah also lenovo website even have movies that shows you how to remove the keyboard and few other things easily if you can search well in the website. I just don't have the link to it anymore but they did show movies on all models including x60's

thanks, i'll give that a try.