Recently my notebook has been giving me a lot of trouble. When I run too may applications, or sometimes when I’m watching DivX shows, the CPU will suddenly slow down. I can feel hot air coming out of the exhaust port When I place my hand there.
Well, I guess it was time to give the cooling system a cleaning.
If you own a Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook, you may need to do this periodically. Otherwise you may find that your notebook will overheat and shutdown unexpectedly. An alternate solution is to download software that allows you to control your cooling fan. However, the best way to solve this is to clean the fan. The weakness in this notebook model is the ventilation fan cannot be accessed from the outside. You have to take apart your notebook.
This is a step-by-step guide for cleaning your Dell Inspiron 5100 ventilation fan. Warning: This voids your warranty. Warning: Don’t do this if you don’t know what you’re doing. Warning: Watch out for static discharge! Warning: Turn off your notebook before attempting this. You can print out these instructions first or write them down.
Step 1: Lay your screen flat. Make sure you do this with enough lighting.
Step 2: Use a screwdriver to pry open the blue panel. There’s a little opening at the right hand side of the panel. (Pardon the dust)
Step 3: Use a screwdriver to remove four screws that are holding the keyboard down. Make sure you keep all the screws in a safe place, and group them together so you don’t mix them up.
Step 4: Gently flip back the keyboard to lie against the touch pad. Watch out for the cable connecting the keyboard to the motherboard. Don’t break this cable. (Notice how I’ve cleaned the dust from the monitor). You should be able to see the cooling fan on the right hand side. See how dusty it is!
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Technorati Tags: Dell Inspiron 5100
November 15, 2007 at 09:34
Hi Adino!
I stumbled upon your website after googling “my stupid dell insprion keeps shutting off fan not working” and with your guidance, I was able to clean out a glob of dust that was so nasty I nearly vomited…but I just wanted to say thank you! (although I should mention that when I turned the computer back on select keys didn’t work - so I had to pull the keyboard off again and redust again) however, I am completely grateful for you help with this task - you saved me mega bucks in comp repairs for something that took me 20 minutes.
Thanks again!!
Adino: Hi Caitlin! LOL on how Google brought you to my site with such an ‘angry’ search term. I’m glad I was able to help.
Thank you for your kind words. Comments like this really makes my day, and keeps me motivated to carry on blogging!
This reminds me… it’s time to clean my cooling fan again!
January 23, 2008 at 17:16
Hi Adino,
Thanks for all your help, it was driving me mad I was about
to throw the laptop out to the rubbish until I came across your site in Google!!
In fairness I have the Dell Inspirion 5100 4 and a bit years never caused me a problem
until recently and unfortunatly the warrenty ran out in August just gone!!
I followed your instructions sucessfully and the laptop is back to working order.
I left it on for 3 hours yesterday and it didnt shut down once. The fan was alot quiter and
the bottom didnt heat up at all.
So thanks again
Elaine
Adino: No problem Elaine. Glad I could help
Other than this overheating issue, I don’t find other problems with my Dell Inspiron 5100. Okay, maybe the CD-ROM drive is a bit damaged and can’t pop open by itself. It’s is almost 5 years old now, and still running fine. I would probably upgrade to a new computer next year. Nice to know that many people are still using their Dell Inspiron 5100s.
January 25, 2008 at 02:56
About 6 months ago my Touchpad stopped working, Dell was Kinda enough to Sell me another. About a Month ago the Keyboard stopped working, Dell was So kinda to sell me another. Then the Fan started going high/low/high shut off…. in final Desperation and Unwillingness to Ever give dell another penny I searched and found YOU! I followed your Very easy steps and Tada! Works Fine it seems! while having this poor little dell in pieces spread over my desk I noticed some discoloration on the back of the heat sink. My best bet is this fan thing had been going on a while and caused the keyboard and touchpad issues.
Lesson Learned! Folks, if you have ANY weird issues check this first!
And yes, the pics of Qtips are real eeuuww as you will see!
Thank YOU ADINO!!!!!
Adino: You’re welcome! I heard that some Dell 5150 owners won a class action suit against Dell because of this issue. Perhaps if you’re in the US, you could consider doing the same for the Dell 5100
May 21, 2008 at 14:14
Hi Adino,
While you are inside your laptop, you can apply new thermal grease on the CPU. You’ll find step-by-step instructions here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins5100/en/sm/thermal.htm#1084976
Great tutorial! I linked to you from my site.
Adino: Thanks for the tip and the link!
July 25, 2008 at 06:55
Thank you so much for your instructions - my husband I were just able to clean out the fan, and it is already running so much quieter and cooler. We were SO frustrated before — thank you!
Adino: I’m glad I could help you Megan.
In fact, I just cleaned out my fan again last night. You’ll find that you need to do the cleaning every six months or so.
July 25, 2008 at 10:04
Found this via Google…great how-to post!
Adino: Thanks!
August 3, 2008 at 03:04
Hi There, What luck that I stumbled upon your HOW TO note about cleaning the fan. Who knew? I am going to try it right now.
Thanks.
Ann in Los Angeles
Adino: Hi Ann, hope I was able to help. How did it go?
September 8, 2008 at 07:16
Hi!
Fixed my laptop with your guide…the only real hard part is prying out that blue panel.
Anyway, when I got it all open I was wondering. Hey, where is that grill? I can’t see it…Then I pulled a 7mm thick wall of dust out of it. The laptop works fine now!
Thanks,
Ewout.
Adino: Haha… the first time I did it, the dust was really thick too! Glad I was able to help you!
September 23, 2008 at 23:12
Great Site! Before I tried cleaning my fan I monitored my CPU temperature using this free tool http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html.
While importing CD’s to itunes (when CPU is almost 100% for 10-15 minutes) the temperature would reach 72C with my fans on. After cleaning my fan and exhaust vent the highest I hit is about 56C. There was a layer of dust on the back vent only…
THanks again!
-Chris
Adino: Thanks for the tip, I think I used something similar before. You can also control the fan speed. I set it to the highest speed and it helped for a while. But I found cleaning off the dust works best.
October 29, 2008 at 07:53
This worked great! After many years of good service my 5100 started giving me troubles and I found your site because the fan was running all the time which I found odd. Cleaned it out and now it works like a charm.
Adino: The Dell Inspiron 5100 is really built to last!
November 8, 2008 at 12:22
HI! I had my inspiron 5100 laptop for 5 years until I finally decided to clean the fan. I wasn’t much of a techy guy so I didn’t know what to do but with your simple guide, it was as easy as pie. Now when im watching a movie, my temperature is about 53c while idle is 45 while before watching a movie would of been 60c and idle would be 55c. THANK YOU!!! THIS IS THE BEST LIFE SAVER EVER!!
Adino: You’re welcome Sam!