I also have to clean my M1730 about every months due 8800M SLI need a really good cooling plus the cpu cooler attached to the PhysX card too

Nice guide, Obmij. I agree with you regarding the design flaw. In new condition, the laptops can be ran hard without overheating, but as soon as they get any dust build up, the temps go up. I do my M1710 every three to four months.
I just cleaned out a M1730 that was having problems. It was just about exactly one year old. Here are some pics:
http://s367.photobucket.com/albums/o...30%20Teardown/

The air inlet filters are a great idea. I will try it using some double-sided 3M tape.

Thanks for the time and effort you put into this guide. People should get good use out of it.

You're welcome and thanks for the photo link. I checked them out and that looks like a tough job cleaning the M1730!

Please let me know if the filters help with the M1730.

Cheers,
Obmij

Glad you liked the photos, Obmij. Dells are actually pretty easy to take apart. I will be putting filters on it the next time it comes back for cleaning. I have put some filters on a i9300/XPS2 that I have built. Here is the link to the pics.
http://s367.photobucket.com/albums/o...ust%20Filters/

I will let you know how they work out.

I just wanted to say thanks Obmij, great thread - I just cleaned out my XPS2 and wow it's now running like new. I had no idea until reading your thread what was going on. On my XPS2 there wasn't any tape to pull aside, most of the fluff had built up in the fans and the fins of the heatsinks were totally clogged. Wish I'd done this months/years ago!

Hi Aero - You're very welcome and glad your lappy is back to running like it should. Actually the "tape" strips are black adhesive strips that are originally supplied by Dell and are attached to each end of the top of the GPU heatsink arms. Each strip seals the joint between the top of the fan outlet and each end of the heatsink arms. Of course, the left side larger fan has a double joint with the CPU heatsink arm sandwiched between the fan outlet and the GPU heatsink arm. After you remove the video card a time or too these adhesive strips lose their stickyness. That's why I add a strip of electrical tape to re-seal each joint. Without these seals some of the cooling air from the fans might bypass the heatsink joints as the air follows the path of least resistance. This is progressively more likely as dust bunnies begin to build up in the heaksinks and airflow naturally becomes more restricted. The efficiency of the cooling system drops resulting in higher temps. This happens anyway over time, but good seals may slow down the process a bit so the cooling system remains a little bit more effective. And we all know that anything that can be done to aid the cooling process even a little bit is a good thing. Next time try sealing the joints and let me know if it made any difference for you.

Cheers!

Obmij

It seems you put a filter on the air exhaust (side of case) as well as the air intake (bottom of case). I'd recommend not restricting the exhaust, as that reduces the air flow whilst trapping dust inside.
Unless your goal is to keep creepy crawlies out when the PC is turned off?

Sorry JesseKnows, that's incorrect. The case side vents are also air intake vents. The fans are dual inlet types that draw cooling air in through both top and bottom inlet openings. The case side vents are necessary for those times when the bottom case vents might be blocked such as when the laptop is sitting on a soft surface like your lap, upholstered furniture, rug or carpet, or a bed.

I would also like to add that I would never recommend using these laptops on soft surfaces. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that the case bottom is magnesium alloy and thus helps dissipate heat. Block ambient air to the case and the unit will naturally run hotter. I also don't believe the case side vents are as efficient as the bottom ones since the arriving airflow is perpendicular to the fan inlets while the bottom vents provide direct airflow. The second reason is the possibility of sucking up dust, lint, tiny creepy crawlies (like you mentioned), or whatever particles into the cooling fans, unless you have vent filters installed.

Cheers!

Actually i like the ideal of Vent Filters, Something that could be easily removed and cleaned now if Dell could design such a thing so it was a built in feature that did not require the dissasembly of the laptop it would be great.

nice write up, and I do about a 6 month cleaning with my laptops, and Dust is always there

i have 2 cats so i need to tear down every 3 months, i would love some kind of filter

dave-p - Thanks and I couldn't agree with you more how nice a built in feature for easy cleaning would be. Like I mentioned in my original post, I think Dell screwed up royally by not providing access for cleaning on all of their powerful laptop models. I consider this an intentional design defect as they have to be aware of the problem by now but still haven't incorporated a "fix" even in their latest models, M1730, etc.. While this omission is probably to save on manufacturing costs can you imagine how many units Dell has had to service or replace over the years for this totally avoidable problem? And think about all the unhappy customers that ended up switching brands. I really wonder if Dell actually saved money as this problem ultimately affects every unit.

I had planned to do this mod myself early last year while I was still in the U.S. The idea was to carefully cut out the vent areas with a Dremel then epoxy some nut plates to the inside bottom of the case. The removed vent panels could then be drilled and reinstalled with screws. After totally disassembling the unit I realized this would not be an easy mod. I decided to order another case first because if the severe gutting went wrong I would be in deep you know what if I didn't have a spare. Instead I opened up the exhaust vents on the back of the case which I had planned to do anyway. I left for Thailand shortly after and never did the mod. Oh well.

Cheers!

have had my m1710 for about 2.5 yrs now, installed vista ultimate recently and noticed it runs hotter now especially as i have my desktop set as one of the dreamscene movies. Guess it would be a wise move to extend the warranty another year.

Just out of curiosity, i have a 7950 gtx in it if that goes would dell be able to replace it?

p.s. only just removed the plastic that it shipped with from the cover and a lot of the adhesive stayed behind, what's the best way to clean that off?

almmohd - Vista is a resource hog and has extremely poorly written inefficient code. The result is that it just requires more CPU/GPU cycles for normal operation. Your M1710 is running hotter simply because it's working harder. Of course, you also have dust build-up if you haven't cleaned it per this guide in 2 1/2 years. I'm using Windows 7 RC build 7100 and my M1710 is actually running cooler than XP. That's right, cooler than XP! Because of the Vista fiasco M$ finally realized that an efficiently written fast executing operating system is what people really want. Unfortunately, there is no fix for Vista. You can try turning off all the Vista eye candy, but my guess is that ultimately you'll simply have to upgrade to Windows 7, downgrade to XP, or switch operating systems entirely (Linux variety) to remedy the problem.

To answer your second question I really doubt that Dell still has replacement parts for the M1710. The forums here indicate that Dell is currently replacing them with M1730 models when major component failures occur such as the GPU. If your 7950 GTX craps out before your warranty expires you'll more than likely receive a new M1730.

Goo Gone brand adhesive remover is excellent. I've used it for years and it works great. It won't harm your lappy and you can find it just about anywhere (in the U.S.). Any automobile cleaner wax also works pretty well, but takes a bit more effort than Goo Gone.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

obmij

GREAT POST! put everything we need together... and in a concise, easy to understand format. I will try this on my m1710 as mine can't stay cool even with a cooler UNDER it.

jason

I'm new here and came via search for overheating on Dell Inspiron. Looked high and low for average operating temp ranges and had a hard time getting a good sense of what is "normal"

I clean heat sinks all the time on my desktops, just never crossed my mind heat sinks in laptops had fins to get clogged up until reading this post.

What a pain to have to completely tear the unit down but there was a ton of dust stuck on the fins. It was totally clogged. At first I thought there was a nearly 1/2" filter that was sitting in front of the fan.

Things are much better thanks to your very clear solution.

Thanks!