Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isn’t there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

"Molly Brown" wrote in message
...
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isn’t there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

Do you have any idea of the make an model?
I have trouble seeing it from here.

On Apr 19, 2:46*pm, Molly Brown wrote:
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isn’t there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

The manufacturer knows that too much access to the machine internals
will always lead to quite a few incompetent/ignorant/well meaning
people messing with sensitive parts and then burdening their warranty
and repair departments with avoidable claims of malfunction.
There are many things best left to professionals, like major auto
repairs, brain surgery, piloting commercial aircraft, the list goes
on. If you need a clean computer, have it done by someone that can do
it right, or clean up the operating environment. You'll spend a few $$
but the results will be better, and your life will be more tranquil.

Joe

On Apr 19, 2:46*pm, Molly Brown wrote:
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isn’t there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

Why didnt they just put in a removable air filter, Dells answer was
because they thought nobody would clean them, its all dumb isnt it. An
air filter and removable panel would allow easy cleaning to keep
machines from failing from heat, mine is clogged to but im to lazy to
take it apart.

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:18:20 -0700 (PDT), Joe wrote:

On Apr 19, 2:46Â*pm, Molly Brown wrote:
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isnt there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

The manufacturer knows that too much access to the machine internals
will always lead to quite a few incompetent/ignorant/well meaning
people messing with sensitive parts and then burdening their warranty
and repair departments with avoidable claims of malfunction.
There are many things best left to professionals, like major auto
repairs, brain surgery, piloting commercial aircraft, the list goes
on. If you need a clean computer, have it done by someone that can do
it right, or clean up the operating environment. You'll spend a few $$
but the results will be better, and your life will be more tranquil.

Joe
There is NO REASON a laptop cannot be made with access to the cooling
fan rerquiring only the removal of a screw or two.

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:52:46 -0700 (PDT), ransley
wrote:

On Apr 19, 2:46Â*pm, Molly Brown wrote:
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isnt there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

Why didnt they just put in a removable air filter, Dells answer was
because they thought nobody would clean them, its all dumb isnt it. An
air filter and removable panel would allow easy cleaning to keep
machines from failing from heat, mine is clogged to but im to lazy to
take it apart.
A can of "canned air" can get rid of MOST of the dust in the cooling
fins. Not saying where else it weill end up though????

Molly Brown wrote:
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isn’t there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

They want it to fail so you will buy another one.



--
LSMFT

I'm trying to think but nothing happens.........

wrote:
On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:52:46 -0700 (PDT), ransley
wrote:

On Apr 19, 2:46Â pm, Molly Brown wrote:
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isnt there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?
Why didnt they just put in a removable air filter, Dells answer was
because they thought nobody would clean them, its all dumb isnt it. An
air filter and removable panel would allow easy cleaning to keep
machines from failing from heat, mine is clogged to but im to lazy to
take it apart.
A can of "canned air" can get rid of MOST of the dust in the cooling
fins. Not saying where else it weill end up though????

I've always had good luck with putting the shop vac hose up against the
output hole for the fan, and sucking the loose dust out. First use the
little round brush to suck crumbs out of keyboard. You never want to
blow into a laptop case. I've opened up lotsa laptops, and they are
mostly pretty clean inside- not at all like desktops. Most of them, the
air never seems to get past the CPU and memory heatsinks. Remember, few
laptops have the power supply inside.

Desktop PCs are another matter. I was resurrecting an dead machine from
an auction a few months ago, and I ended up blowing it out with a leaf
blower in the driveway. Brought the dead floppy drive back to life, even.

--
aem sends...

Turn it upside down and use a natural bristle brush to clean it.

A natural (not plastic) bristle half inch paint brush is a very
important office tool, for dusting.

My unlce was an engineer at a newspaper. Back in the 1970s he told me
he always looked for the easiest problem. As soon as some typist
complained her data entry terminal wasn't working, my uncle tunred the
keyboard upside down ans shook it.`Hairpins, paper clips and staples
were usually the problem. (Back then they tried an early voice system
which went berzerk when one clerk had major dental work!)

I have horrible dandruff. I used to open my 1980 HP2621a terminal
keyboard twice a year and couldn't believe the hair and dandruff in
the keyboard. (Terminal left regular service in 1999 but still works
in basement.)

I couldn't believe it when I saw it a few months ago, but they do make
some laptops with a coffee spill drain in the keyboard.

Where I worked in the 1980s, there was this elderly lady who smoked
like crazy and the computer people used to come in every week and
replace her PC keyboard.

- = -
Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist
http://www.panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---
[Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards]
[Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:45:33 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:52:46 -0700 (PDT), ransley
wrote:

On Apr 19, 2:46*pm, Molly Brown wrote:
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isn’t there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

Why didnt they just put in a removable air filter, Dells answer was
because they thought nobody would clean them, its all dumb isnt it. An
air filter and removable panel would allow easy cleaning to keep
machines from failing from heat, mine is clogged to but im to lazy to
take it apart.
A can of "canned air"

Canned air! Absurd. Once they have that they might as well have
bottled water.

can get rid of MOST of the dust in the cooling
fins. Not saying where else it weill end up though????

Molly Brown wrote in news:8c5b6c6a-38e9-4217-
:

Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isn’t there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?



There are two fan vents: An intake and an exhaust. With the laptop running,
just blow canned air into the intake and exhaust. Most of the crud will
blow out the exhaust.

You can get rid of the rest of the crud just by removing all the covers
that do exist on the bottom of the laptop, and blowing canned air into the
case towards the fan. Or is that what you mean by taking it apart
"completely?

I've actually taken a laptop apart "completely", and it took me the better
part of an hour to figure it out so I didn't break anything. No, I never
managed to get it back together again...


--
Tegger

On Apr 19, 7:14*pm, Tegger wrote:
Molly Brown wrote in news:8c5b6c6a-38e9-4217-
:

Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isn’t there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

There are two fan vents: An intake and an exhaust. With the laptop running,
just blow canned air into the intake and exhaust. Most of the crud will
blow out the exhaust.

You can get rid of the rest of the crud just by removing all the covers
that do exist on the bottom of the laptop, and blowing canned air into the
case towards the fan. Or is that what you mean by taking it apart
"completely?

I've actually taken a laptop apart "completely", and it took me the better
part of an hour to figure it out so I didn't break anything. No, I never
managed to get it back together again...

--
Tegger

Completely: Holding the fan in the palm of your hand.

On Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:14:53 +0000 (UTC), Tegger
wrote:

Molly Brown wrote in news:8c5b6c6a-38e9-4217-
:

Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isnt there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?



There are two fan vents: An intake and an exhaust. With the laptop running,
just blow canned air into the intake and exhaust. Most of the crud will
blow out the exhaust.

You can get rid of the rest of the crud just by removing all the covers
that do exist on the bottom of the laptop, and blowing canned air into the
case towards the fan. Or is that what you mean by taking it apart
"completely?

I've actually taken a laptop apart "completely", and it took me the better
part of an hour to figure it out so I didn't break anything. No, I never
managed to get it back together again...
You want to try replacing the 2mm diameter ccf backlight tube in a
Thinkpad T40 some day - - - - - NOT.
Just did one last week. Or fix the loose power connector on an HP
Pavilion zv5000. I've done that sucker THREE TIMES. It has a bad
tendancy to tear loose from the PC board when people trip over the
power cord--------.

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:20:42 -0700 (PDT), Molly Brown
wrote:

On Apr 19, 7:14Â*pm, Tegger wrote:
Molly Brown wrote in news:8c5b6c6a-38e9-4217-
:

Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isnt there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

There are two fan vents: An intake and an exhaust. With the laptop running,
just blow canned air into the intake and exhaust. Most of the crud will
blow out the exhaust.

You can get rid of the rest of the crud just by removing all the covers
that do exist on the bottom of the laptop, and blowing canned air into the
case towards the fan. Or is that what you mean by taking it apart
"completely?

I've actually taken a laptop apart "completely", and it took me the better
part of an hour to figure it out so I didn't break anything. No, I never
managed to get it back together again...

--
Tegger

Completely: Holding the fan in the palm of your hand.
There a a few Acers IIRC that you can get to the fan and totally
remove it in about 10 minutes - put it back together in another 5-7.
Might have been Toshiba.
Anyway, by the time they got to me to have the fans cleaned they had
overheated badly enugh to kill the MoBo so they were scrapped - I
think I managed to salvage ONE out of about 4 that came to me that
way.

Molly Brown wrote in
:

On Apr 19, 7:14*pm, Tegger wrote:


I've actually taken a laptop apart "completely", and it took me the
better part of an hour to figure it out so I didn't break anything.
No, I never managed to get it back together again...



Completely: Holding the fan in the palm of your hand.



That far. A real Chinese puzzle, that was.

--
Tegger

wrote in
news
On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:20:42 -0700 (PDT), Molly Brown
wrote:


Completely: Holding the fan in the palm of your hand.

There a a few Acers IIRC that you can get to the fan and totally
remove it in about 10 minutes - put it back together in another 5-7.
Might have been Toshiba.



It's not Acer, I'm sure. None of the three Acers I've had allowed that.



--
Tegger

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:46:21 -0700 (PDT), Molly Brown wrote:
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isnt there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

Better yet, don't operate the laptop in such a filthy area. Are you
doing something silly like using it as a smokeless ashtray?

Normally, the fans will wear out and the cpu will be obsolete long before
the fan blades fill with enough crud to matter.

On Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:02:57 -0400, me wrote:
On Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:14:53 +0000 (UTC), Tegger
wrote:

There are two fan vents: An intake and an exhaust. With the laptop running,
just blow canned air into the intake and exhaust. Most of the crud will
blow out the exhaust.

I would recommend doing this with the laptop off, of being very
careful. Your disk drive is spinning when it's on and you should not
be moving the laptop a whole lot. Note that the last disk drive "shock
test" I checked out was a drop of 3/4" to a flat surface. Consider
that.

Also note: The shop vac works well, but do NOT do it with the computer
on. A vacuum generates a serious static charge at the tip that will
drive a computer down and/or even cause damage. We tested this theory
a couple times :-)

It'll also damage the fans by overspinning them.

Tegger wrote in news:Xns9D60BBD9ACD43tegger@
208.90.168.18:

wrote in
news
On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:20:42 -0700 (PDT), Molly Brown
wrote:


Completely: Holding the fan in the palm of your hand.

There a a few Acers IIRC that you can get to the fan and totally
remove it in about 10 minutes - put it back together in another 5-7.
Might have been Toshiba.



It's not Acer, I'm sure. None of the three Acers I've had allowed that.

I put a different CPU in my Acer 3680. Was a great improvement. Not
sure that I can recommend it to everyone, but it wasn't too hard. Now I
have to get the dried up Coca Cola out of the keyboard. Very lovable
grandson, but ...


--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid

me wrote:

Also note: The shop vac works well, but do NOT do it with the computer
on. A vacuum generates a serious static charge at the tip that will
drive a computer down and/or even cause damage. We tested this theory
a couple times :-)


When static electricity in involved, it doesn't matter if the equipment
is turned on or off. Well if on, it may crash and need a reboot, but as
far as it doing damage, it'll happen either way.

Then again, I've used vacuums and even shop air to blow out PC's, and
hundreds of mother boards made for other equipment. Never had a
problem, just keep one hand on the ground and your other hand on the air
nozzle. It bleeds off the static electricity before it can build up.
Even better if it is plugged in, to have a real ground, but many
manufactures changed their instructions and now tell you to unplug it,
so you don't electrocute yourself.

On Apr 19, 3:46*pm, Molly Brown wrote:
Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to
clean dust from its fan? Why isn’t there a simple access door over or
under the fan that you can remove to clean?

Wrong group.

alt.comp.hardware