Hi,

I have had, what I think are overheating problems for about 1 year now
and yesterday I think I borke my fan. Basically, whenever I used my dvd
drive, the computer would eventually shut down. Before it was'nt that
much of a problem but recently it was happening after no more than 30
minutes. Yesterday, I was looking into this problem and saw that many
recommended cleaning the fan and also updating BIOS. Since I dont know
much about computers I updated the BIOS and then looked at the fan and
blew into it to see if that would help. After blowing into it, the fan
stopped working. No noise, nothing. Now the computer turns off after
about 20 minutes even if Im not doing anything with. If someone knows
what I can do, and if there is any chance of avoiding sending it for
repairs I would very much appreciated. Thank you again.

Sebastian wrote:
I doubt that blowing into the fan could fail it. Rather, the fan is
possibly clogged with accumulated fibers, dust, and other debris. Get a
can of compressed gas "dust cleaner" from any computer store. Blow from
the exhaust port(s) to remove accumulations from the fan. Restrict the
fan with a paper clip to prevent overspeed damage when doing this.

If this does not help, then you can open the case and manually clean out
the cooling channels. If the computer has a heat pipe cooling system,
the heat pipe inlet can become fouled with a mat of fibers and dust that
can become thick enough to prevent the fan from moving any air or block
the fan from rotating.

Q

Thank you for your reply,

I just realised it was the fan was clogged. What I did was look at
while the computer was running and I could see the fan was trying to
move but not getting through. I gave it a push with a pin, and voila,
the fan is running as before. However, I will still use the can of
compressed air to get rid of any extra debris and as a preventive
measure for my computer. Do you recommend I open my laptop to clean the
fan even more? If so do I need to wear some sort of static protection
garment. Thank you again.

Sebastian wrote:
I "suspect" that the compressed air will help, but not necessarily cure
the problem if the system has not been cleaned regularly. If you have
limited experience with electronics maintenance, particularly
disassembly/reassembly, your might consider taking the laptop to a
service tech. Some laptops are easy to expose the innards, some are a
collosal pain. Compaqs tend, in my experience, to be in the latter
category.

Q

If yer lucky, compressed air alone fixes it.

Othewise use a lupe/magnifier glass and shine a light in there and
hopefully u can see what the nature of the cloak is.

Worse case scenario is that tons of air have wound themselves tightly
around the fan's spindle, and good luck getting rid of that, may have
to replace the fan assembly.

I just posted a separate link for how to dissassemble your laptop.