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.
This is a continuation of a series of posts that document how I cleaned the cooling fan.
Step 9: Clean the fan with a damp cotton bud, cleaning all the accumulated dust.
Step 10: Clean the cooling block as well. The layer of accumulated dust actually becomes an insulation layer that prevents heat from dissipating effectively. You have to reach all the way to the back to clean the grill too, since a lot of dust gathers there are blocks the exhaust air flow.
Step 11: This is how a clean grill should look like (I hope!)
Step 12: Make sure the fan housing is dust free as well
Step 13: Look around the rest of the notebook and clean any hair, dust or food crumbs.
Step 14: Eww, look at all the dust!
Step 15: Put everything back, by reversing steps 8 to 2.
Done! Turn on your notebook to make sure it still works. Your notebook will run at a lower temperature now.
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Technorati Tags: Dell Inspiron 5100
May 6, 2007 at 05:12
Thank you so much for taking pictures for this walk through. It helped me out thanks!
May 6, 2007 at 09:49
No problem Deedra, feel free to drop by if you have any other problems. Always glad to help!
July 6, 2007 at 21:40
Wow! Thank you so much! That was exactly the information I needed in a very well defined and documented format. I bought a Dell 5100 new three years ago and it was trouble free until last month when after about 20 minutes (depending on what it was doing) it would get hot and (instantly) shut-down. I took the back apart – that didn’t help and put it back together. Now that I know where the fan is, and how to get to it I’m sure the problem can be solved. My only other complaint with the system is the video card won’t run some newer games, but I’ll save that for another time.
Thanks again!
Brent.
Adino: So glad I was able to help you Brent.
Adino: You’re welcome, Brent. Glad to help
I’ve given up on playing newer games now. Mostly playing those mini-games that don’t need a new video card.
September 12, 2007 at 02:42
Hi Adino, I also have dell inspirion 5100 and am having trouble with error messages i keep getting. The error messages I keep getting is irql_not_less_or_equal and page_fault_in_nonpaged_area. I was wondering if you had ever recieved those errors and knew how to fix them. I’m not exactly qualified as a computer technician but I was considering trying to clean the fan since I’ve heard that may be the root of the problem.
Adino: From what I know, page faults could be caused by faulty RAM. Perhaps you should give Dell a call.
December 9, 2007 at 23:53
Adino, thanks so very much for putting this information together. When I bought my 5100 four
years ago, I I thought I was being wise by going with the P4 processor rather than a Celeron. Well needless to say we all learn from our past mistakes! I sent mine back to Dell last year to have the heatsink and thermotape replaced (free of charge even though off warranty, see link http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_general&message.id=184252&view=by_date_ascending&page=6 ). now a year ;ater I started having troubles again. Using your instructions, I am now back in business!
Thanks again! If you’re ever in Central New York, look me up and I’ll buy you a drink
as a thank you!
Adino: No problem, I’m just so glad I could help. Thanks for your offer, but it’s highly unlikely that I can have the opportunity to visit New York in the near future
January 7, 2008 at 05:20
Thank you so much!! This was exactly what I needed to gather confidence to fix my old laptop. It’s been overheating like mad and I have been quite worried actually. After reading your guide I went to work and guess what I found? I can tell you this, if that thing was found in the tumble dryer, I would be in serious trouble…
Thank you again for bringing my computer back to life!
Adino: No problem Håkan, glad I was able to help
In fact, I just re-cleaned my fan yesterday because my laptop was overheating again.
April 1, 2008 at 02:04
ok let me start off by saying thanks. let me tell u all a story. about a year ago this 5100 started to make this crazy fan noise my gf was like what the hell. thought it was the same problem her brother had with his 5100. so after reading a bit on the world wide web i found this page. about 4 months i replaced the keyboard on the unit but never went and looked for the reason about the noise. well last night i got a new 120 gig western digital hd for free for this laptop so i decided to look around some more on the world wide web. well i came to this page and saw this about the fan i opened the unit up again its simple if you have taken the keyboard out of it before and for $20 bucks for a new keyboard this pc rocks. i found that little fan you where showing in the pic and opened it up grabed some qtips and found a bunch of junk in there. hair / dust balls i cleaned it all out and then threw the fan back on. WOW is all i have to say the pc is now running about 16 hours and is running AOK.
2ND thing i need to tell u about.
my bios on this computer was at A06 <— this is really old i went to DELL.com and found there is a A32 BIOS well guess what when i went to run it it told me the unit was UNSUPPORTED. LOL i looked at the model again and was like this is it LOL i found some page with the DELL A22 so i burned that and bam the BIOS got updated to A22 next i tried the A32 BIOS and BAM it worked.
^^^ THIS HELPED ASWELL IT HAS A FAN CONTROL IDLE BLAH BLAH IN IT SO I WOULD TELL ALL TO UPDATE IF U HAVE NOT ^^^
thanks again to the person that threw this up it helped and should help all that have a 5100. you should do this step atleast once each 6 months i would say to keep your system running smooth like the wind.
**** KEEP ALL THE SCREWS SOME WHERE SO YOU DONT LOOSE THEM **** LIKE A STRIP OF TAPE THIS IS SO THEY DONT DROP SOMEWHERE AND CANT BE FOUND AGAIN ****
Adino: Thanks for the tip to update the BIOS, and glad I was able to help!
August 4, 2008 at 17:55
I need to fix the power jack on my inspiron 5100. What is the best site to help me do this myself. Thanks.
Adino: Sorry I can’t help you there. Perhaps you can do a search on Google or post it in the Dell support forums.
August 6, 2008 at 06:37
Adino,
I have no idea who you are or what you do. But thank you!
I gave up on my Dell 5100. You’ve brought it back to life.
I pulled it out after finding your site, followed your instructions and pulled out something that looked like a dead cat from my laptop.
Now she’s running smooth - and I think I’ll bring her out more often from time to time.
Thanks Adino!
Great job explaining this, photos, text - perfect!! You’re going places … if you’re not there already.
Cheers,
Mik
Adino: You’re welcome… thanks for leaving a comment!
October 10, 2008 at 05:14
Hey Adino,
Thank you so much for taking the time to post this. you REALLY helped me a lot with my 5150.
Adino: You’re welcome Nick
October 17, 2008 at 05:21
you have fixed one of the 2 problems i have with my one and only love. I’ve been using it for years and just recently started cracking it open to fix various problems (keyboard, monitor..etc…)
heck, keeping a 5100 alive should be a nationally reconized hobby!
thanks for your help!
Adino: You’re welcome Fritz!
November 19, 2008 at 20:21
This worked. The entire back vent was blocked and even though she was trying so hard to cool, it just wasn’t happening.
After finishing and testing the difference in airflow is amazing and that loud fan is a thing of the past.
Thanks for taking time to compile this. You’ve added lots more time to the life of my Inspiron.
Adino: You extracted a great carpet of dust didn’t you? Glad I could help John!