Sager forgot my HD

The worst part about calling them to rant is that you just get to rant to a voicemail! That really sux dude, sorry to hear about all that. BTW on my 5680 the HDD is under the floppy drive/secondary battery, not sure about the 5660 tho. On mine if i take out the floppy the HDD is sitting right there in plain view. Hope they take care of you quick!

Check out this thread, you may have the same problem:

http://talknotebooks.com/showthread....e&pagenumber=2

Keep us updated.

That burnt out paste is a carbon compound. Very cheap and completely useless...sometimes retards heat transfer...

I did the same thing when I opened up the 5660. Adam did it for me once when I was working on the 5670 review and I did it again after a couple of weeks.

Took apart the heatsink and exposed the heatsink lattice. Used a compressed air can to blast all the gunk out of it (from the outside to the inside (towards the fans). Then I used a special mixture of Naptha (spray) and WD40 and sprayed it over the lattice (mild cleaner and the napthalene prevents stickiness...hopefully it keeps the lint out or allows it to flow right through and out). I cleaned up the fans and the intake grill till everything was clean and shiny, blew out any residual liquids, cleaning materials etc.)

Then I removed that aluminum pad on the heatsink before applying thermal paste. The Arctic Silver 3 instructions recommend removing any thermal pads and so I did. Cleaned the contact surface with Hydrofluoric acid (working in the IC Labs has a few advantages) with an etch rate of 50 micrometers per minute for 3 minutes (just to remove the oxide layer) and then applied the arctic silver paste after neutralizing.

The CPU core is not visible - there is a metal pad over the core already and cleaning it was something I have never done before. Still...I gave it a shot with WD40 and Ethanol and a microfibre metal brush to remove the oxide and whatever coating intel had on it. The CPU pad certainly looked a lot more cleaner after that and I applied AS3 compound to fill up the grooves (all of the order of a few microns so there was no big deal). Finally I inserted the CPU and applied some more AS3 on top (generously) before putting the heatsink in place without any sliding or shifting (as far as possible).

Reassembled everything and in the process took a good look at the PCMCIA slot (this poor thing is sooo exposed to the heatsink...must get pretty damn hot!! )


Result?? Amazing cooling...more hot air flow at less frequent intervals (a sign that the heatsink and cooling system is working perfectly)

And the graphics quality actually stayed steady over a many hours of gaming.

IF MEMBERS HAVE NOT CLEANED OUT THEIR HEATSINKS YET - DO IT - THE RESULTS ARE QUITE STUNNING...

However dont do it if you dont have the necessary equipment or the skill. And I dont recommend any of my processes involving chemicals. I took a chance and it worked - others may not be so lucky especially if the process goes wrong. (localised etching is a skill and not a procedure...some innovation is required)

sweet GS but

One note, hydrofluoric acid is also fairly toxic, anyone who does have access to it knows already, but that is a definate high ventilation, special glove chemical.

used to write up lab procedures for liberating fluorine from stuff in high school, teacher never thought it was funny.

Randy

Most of the stuff I did was in the clean room with full precautions, suit, gloves et al...Handling HF and Acetic Acid, HNO3, N2 gas etc. is not a joke.

I used my laptop in the clean room once and it raised the temp of the room immediately the climate control took a few minutes to catch up and the prof wasnt too happy I slunk in the next time to do the cooling mod.

That thermal pad is a "must remove" if you plan on using thermal compound...its a very unstable medium between the CPU and the Metal of the heatsink. Id wanted to have direct contact with a high quality compound as the medium for heat transfer so I went the lab route

Dont try that at home!!

Quite honestly - even though I know taking the machine apart is easy - I am still s*****g myself about opening it up to blow out the fans - something I know has to be done regularly.

I guess I will just read the hell out of the review etc before I do it.

Nice Sig. Bratag Good Stuff

how regularly should cleaning out the fans be done? what exactly do i have to do? i want my counting machine to work well, but am fuzzy on the details.

Cleaning up depends on your environment...If you use your laptop in a messy place with tons of dust, spm, carpeted floor etc. then you should look to clean out your fans once every 3 months.

In any case...once every three months is a good time-table (but im sure you'll all forget )

I forget easy...so I just clean it whenever I have the time or feel the need.

Best Solution :-
-------------------

Take a quick look at the desk under the laptop. Do you see any white lint or dust there?? Clean this out - keep the surface under the laptop clean at all times.

Next - take a look at the fans in the laptop. Do you see a lot of dust on the edges?? Laptop has to be off or the fans have to be off for you to be able to see this...

If you find unnaceptable levels of dust on the fans then your heatsink is also probably suffering from the same problem...cleaning time!!!

Get a can of compressed air from walmart or wherever you prefer. Keep a tube of Thermal Paste ready, Have all the tools (Screwdrivers, boxes for holding the screws that you removed etc. - I note which screw was taken out from which hole and replace them in the exact same place)

A brush is also helpful...or you can use a damp cloth (while cleaning the heatsink)

If you have a 56XX and want detailed instructions then lemme know. I have pictures of my 5660 when I took it apart a long time back for cleaning. Im not sure if I did the Arctic Silver mod back then but i'll check and see...