Can't believe all the gripes about the M1710, although it is now very "long in the tooth". However, it was the fastest lappy on the market a couple of years ago and loved and worshipped by 99.9999% of its owners and members of this forum.

I've been using my M1710 that I built from parts over two years ago and it still runs great. But guess what sports fans...this thing does have a supreme maintenance issue. An issue that Dell has never admitted. I might even call it a design defect.

And that major issue/design defect is the fact that dust bunnies form between the cooling fan outlets and the heatsink cooling fins located on the ends of the CPU/GPU heatsinks arms. The result is that air flow is blocked and heatsink efficiency goes way down, so "baddaboom baddabing"...higher temps. If your lappy is getting hotter than normal, check your fan speeds if you have I8kfanGUI as they will most definitely be running faster than normal. As an example, my maximum fan speeds are pretty consistant at 42CPU/38GPU. Right now, as I'm typing this they are 44/40 and my CPU/GPU temps are above average so I have to do something I hate to do...

...and you'll hate it too if you're having heat problems, but it MUST be done sooner or later. You, or someone you trust, will have to carefully disassemble your lappy to remove the offending dust bunnies. This requires removing the top palm rest and power switch/hinge covers, keyboard, myriad motherboard connectors, and the video card. Of course, you'll also want to remove the battery first. Here is a link for the Dell service manual to guide you in your disassembly if you don't have access to one: http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...n/SM/index.htm. Until the video card is removed you won't be able to see the dust bunnies since Dell seals the tops of the fan outlets with black tape. After peeling up the tape you'll still have to remove the fans and they will need cleaning also. This is when you'll see why your "Precious" has become a POS. If you've ever looked at the mesh filter screen on your clothes dryer you'll see the same damned thing. So what's next?

After removing the bunnies, thoroughly clean the fan blades, heatsink arm fins and don't forget to clean the bottom case inlet/outlet vents. A mini-sized vaccuum is good to start with and/or take dampened-with-water Q-Tip swabs and maybe even an old soft toothbrush to do the deed. And then?

Afterwords, carefully reassemble your lappy, but don't forget to reseal the tops of the fan exhaust areas. Electrical tape works great. If you unplugged your CMOS battery you'll have to re-enter your bios settings. After boot-up you'll notice the lappy is cooler and quieter and the fans won't be running wide-assed open as often.

Don't forget these lappies generate a lot of heat naturally and any air flow blockage yields dire results. I was quite disappointed after I installed an unlocked T7600G CPU and could crank it up in the U.S, but here in Thailand I can't run it hard above 2.33Ghz for long due to higher ambient temps. This means the cooling system is just adequate and there's not much room for poor conditions.

One more tip. I usually do this cleaning every three or four months and there's always a dust bunny, or two, even if the fans don't look too dirty. Last Spring I actually disassembled the whole unit and used a Dremel to open up the exhaust slots in the back of the case bottom to hopefully increase exhaust air flow . After re-assembly I cut up some old panty hose and taped a small piece over each case fan inlet vent to filter out the dust. If you also add the panty hose filters be careful not to block any of the vent slots with tape. I did this about six months ago and it finally needs cleaning again, so it just about doubled my maintenance interval.

Now then, why do I say this is a design defect? Simple, as this same problem has existed since the XPS Gen2 for all models with discrete graphics cards plugged into the motherboard as they're all the same design. Dell should have revised the design to avoid this problem or at least they could have made the bottom cases such that the cooling vent areas could be easily removed for access. This also should have been added to the manual as a periodic maintenance requirement. I guarantee that they've spent a huge amount of money by having to service or replace probably thousands of these for overheating over the last few years when the condition was avoidable to begin with. How sad, and moreso for the unhappy customers.

Another problem I had with my Gen2 was that the graphics card heatsink wasn't transferring heat away from the GPU and it kept overheating. It was easy to tell once the power switch cover and keyboard were removed because I could then touch the heatsink over the graphics card and it was hot as Hell while the cooling arms were much cooler. Dell replaced the 6800 with a 7800 under warranty so I was happy at the time. However, I don't believe this is such a common problem, but it can happen and is something else to consider when diagnosing a heat related problem. Good luck!

ps - Hope somebody makes this a sticky as this has long been and will continue to be a problem.

hey, thanks for the effort. this issue had been discussed huge amount of times in the forum but you actually made an effort and put it all together.

Thanks for the kind words. I wish I had found the solution to this problem in the beginning myself. I'm still not 100% comfortable ripping this thing apart each time, but there is no alternative unless you live in a laboratory clean room, free of dust.

Cheers!
Jim

happy to know that someone put it all together and i will see if someone can get you a sticky.

Good deal Fidget! BTW, I just made a few changes to hopefully improve and clarify the message.

Cheers!
Obmij

yeah, i have witnessed this phenomenon first hand, i had to pull it apart once a month to clean the heat sinks out

Basically the same applys to the 1730. Mine would get smokin hot while HD gaming. After removing the card I found a complete clog of the heatsink with a layer of dust, like the stuff you pull from the clothes dryer. Not sure if it can come out by reverse flushing or not. Next time I know where to look anyways. Also with the new drivers that declock for 2D mode helps a ton with heat.

Wow, that's pretty frequent! You must have a dusty environment similar to my location. During diasassembly Every time I unplug one of the several motherboard connectors I worry something will break as someof them are a bit flimsy. Of course, you know this already. You ought to try the panty hose filter "mod" as that should reduce your cleaning intervals. You can also clean these filters periodically with a dampened cloth which also extends your cleaning interval. Give it a try. It's easy to remove if you don't like.

Well, in Dell's defense, it must be really tough to design adequate cooling in such a confined space. Haven't seen the M1730 close up, much less a disassembled one, but that beast must produce immense amounts of heat! I don't think most people realize how much air is drawn through the cooling system cummulatively to keep these things cool. I'm operating my M1710 in dual screen mode with a 32" LCD set as the primary monitor and that drives up both CPU and GPU temps so internal fans are running longer, which means they're trying to suck more dust through the system.

Don't want to sound like a broken record, but adding the vent filters may help you also.

Cheers!
Obmij

i have cats... lots of crap builds up

i dont have the m1710 anymore but i will have to start cleaning the beast soon... even more involved

hey Obmij, i'd throw in a service manual link to your original post..

I think most people have access to the service manual. The problem is that the Dell service manual doesn't address this problem probably because I think Dell realizes that most people don't want to disassemble their lappys, or they may cause more problems if they do try. I remember the first time I tried to disassemble mine, the power strip panel was very hard to remove since it snaps into place very tightly in many places, especially the hinge areas. When you first try to pry it up beginning from the right hand side it feels like it is going to break before it releases from the right hand hinge area. After that it's not too difficult to remove if you've done it before, but the first time is very scary. Now, after many times removing it, the power strip panel is easy to remove. Of course now I know exactly where to apply pressure and when to do some wiggling to get it off.

I hope this clarifies the service manual aspect. If not please let me know.

Thanks!

Obmij

my intention was that if people are going to treat your post as a guide, it'll be nice to have the disassembly guide for the lappy in the post itself.

Stickied for you.

And yes, you should have a link to the service manual(s) for the laptop(s) so people know what they're doing.

I have just added a link to Dell's online M1710 manual. That link also works for other Dell models by entering the model number in the "Search" box. Since I have to clean my lappy within the next few days, I may add some more details of the process and add them to the original post.

Thanks for your input guys and Fenuxx, thanks also for the Sticky! I'm pleasantly surprised at the positive and constructive responses. Together we'll make this a great guide!
Cheers!
Obmij