Prevent Lap Top Death
Heat is the “cause of death” for most laptops. The heat not only causes all components to expand and contract a little (as you turn it on and off), but will also reach dangerously high levels and make your laptop crash or shut down if the fan(s) and the heatsink(s) are clogged with dust.
All computers work a little bit like vacuum cleaners – sucking air from one side and blowing it out from the other. Unfortunately they don’t come with filter bags to catch all the dust and debris. After just a few months the fans and heatsinks are well coated with dust. If not cleaned, their effectiveness quickly drops and eventually goes down to zero when the heatsinks get fully clogged. Here are a few of the unintended consequences:
· An overheated processor slows down and operates less efficiently.
· The efficiency and output of electrical current through hot copper wires gets reduced.
· Increased heat causes increased chemical reaction in batteries that reduces the battery life and amount of time they stay charged. With prolonged exposure to high heat, the battery may even become unusable.
To clean your laptop regularly, get a can of compressed air and blow the dust off the fan and heatsink. This has to be done every couple of months. The compressed air is quite handy for the keyboard too, blowing away all the debris from between the keys.
However if the heatsink has already been clogged, this won’t help. The compressed air will not be enough to unclog it. If you have never cleaned the heatsink and you had used your laptop for over a year, chances are that both the fan and the heatsink are clogged with dust and debris. The solution in this case is to remove the heatsink, clean it and install it back.
This is best done in a laptop repair shop, as it takes quite a lot of experience and dexterity. One slip of the screwdriver may kill the laptop.
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