Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

Its been like 3 years that I am using my w520. Lately its been getting very hot. That slows down my computer and makes video play back lag. I was thinking about safely performing a cleaning. I remember cleaning my old ASUS laptop's vents and cooling fan. I discovered a tonne of dust inside. It became significantly cooler since I did that. Have any advice for this procedure? I have never attempted at taking it apart before (w520).

I'd like to be a bit objective. Can anyone suggest any software to track my fan speed and temperature for the before and after? I want to know how much difference the operation will make.


Thanks

Just took a SpeedFan reading

http://s24.postimg.org/432o2ccg5/speedf.png

alarming, right?

I use inflatable mattress electric air pump, cheaper than air cans and very good results so far, just be careful do not overdo it

Once there is a lot of dust – it looks like a felt pad on cooler's fins – blowing it out with a presurised air is not going to work.

Just disassemble that thing, clean it up and apply a new thermal paste. It is not as complicated as it seems There are nice tutorials on YouTube.

Sleepy664 wrote:Once there is a lot of dust – it looks like a felt pad on cooler's fins – blowing it out with a presurised air is not going to work.

Just disassemble that thing, clean it up and apply a new thermal paste. It is not as complicated as it seems There are nice tutorials on YouTube.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try to search things on youtube. I don't know why its getting this hot. Took a SpeedFan reading of the idle state:

http://s3.postimg.org/y63myuwr7/speedf_idle.png

I generally don't recommend using youtube videos as reference.

The Hardware Maintenance Manual provides detailed disassembly instructions. It can be found here: http://www.thinkpads.com/support/hmm/thinkpad-hmm.html

Don't forget to remove all traces of the old thermal paste.
Follow the application instructions for the thermal paste you bought.
If the heatsink uses a thermal pad for the GPU (consult the manual), buy a replacemend before disassembling your W520.