Curious..........does doing something simple like this ............... (I say simple because I've just gotten done taking my old Thinkpad that won't boot completely apart down to the mainboard for about the 6th time this month!!) ............... void our warranty??

(I suppose what's even more comical is that if Dell were to void our warranty for doing such a preventative measure, it'd truly be hilarious 'cuz I can't imagine that they'd rather replace an entire laptop for frying an entire $1K + laptop vs. this simple procedure & saving them the financial disaster!!)  LOL!!!

P.S.  Your 1100 is about the most loaded I think I've seen.  No Celery w/ 128 of ram there, eh??

er.. im not too sure if it will void your warranty.  id say ask around, but generally unless you purchased an extended one, the warranty only lasts 30 days.  ive had the laptop for over a year and it was far out of the warranty range. it will most likely still be covered though, as long as you dont change any of the orginal hardware (ie. the processor, or anything else like that, that isnt supported in the manual.  but ask around for advice because i personally dont know

only 1 thing left to upgrade and thats a new HD running at something faster than the stock 30gb with atleast 60gb

Thanks aikidox for the feedback..........

Any MODERATORS out there listening that can comment on this??  Will our warranties be voided if we take such a preventative measure???

I also understand we can blow compressed air through the vents without removing anything, but I think Aikidox has done a great job of showing how to do a very good and thorough job of this without guessing by simply pointing a nozzle into a vent!!  Kudos to aikidox for this tutorial!!!

another comment: you really should take your laptop apart to clean the dust out of it, because if you dont take the heatsink out of the laptop and just blow the compressed air in through the vent in the back of the laptop, IT ONLY BLOWS THE DUST BACK INTO THE LAPTOP, it doesnt clean all the dust out, it just pushes it into other parts of the computer and back into the heatsink/fan. this will cause the problem over again.  take the extra 5 minutes and take your computer apart to clean it correctly. 

I would have absolutely no problem doing that except...........    I won't give Dell the satisfaction of voiding my warranty by doing such a thing UNLESS I have their blessing!!

Believe me, after taking apart my Thinkpad, I have no reservations about being able to take an Inspiron apart!!

Message Edited by quietpc on 07-19-2004 03:23 PM

Ahhh........thanks very much Matt!!  Very encouraging.  Too bad we had to wait for you to reply & not a moderator!!! 

By any chance, do you have a link to reference which parts are CRU and which are FRU???  I recall IBM's online hardware manual showing which was which and that would be nice in this case also as to make certain no particular item I touch would void the warranty!!

Oooooh.....ooooooh.......one more thing too.......when I remove the fan, obviously I'll expose the thermal paste.  Is it the typical white stuff under there or something different??  I know arctic silver is a good replacement, but curious as to what Dell's using for compound!!  TIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(2) Before reinstalling the heatsink be sure to put a thermal grease or compound on the processor.  FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS PROVIDED WITH THE COMPOUND.  (I’m not trying to advertise, but the best compound that I have used it the Antec Silver Thermal Compound)  These compounds help to increase the heat transfer between the processor and the heatsink.

Thanks for your very useful post, but where could I get the compound that I should put on the processor?

Is there a dell utility software that controls the CPU temperature and the fans? I don't really trust the program that is not approved by DELL

Thanks again

gkettani

Message Edited by gkettani on 08-19-2004 10:46 AM

To be honest, you won't find anything from Dell regarding this type of monitoring but it wouldn't matter anyway.

Sure, Dell could make it so that all or more of the features would be enabled......(the fangui8600 program is really intended specifically for the 8600, it just *happens* to also work in similar Dell bios systems)......but the program can only work within the Dell sensor/fan control parameters anyway, so all you're really doing is looking at exactly what the Dell bios is seeing via temp sensors, fan speed sensors, etc. that are in place already.  The program is only a "gui", not a hardware/software control mechanism. (Yes, you can control the fan speed, but if there was absolutely "zero" fan speed control in the system bios already, then this "gui" program wouldn't be able to *allow* you to control the fan.  It's just opening up the door for you to do it since Dell's got you blocked out.

What this software is allowing ***you***, the laptop owner, is to look at and control some of those things that you're just being blocked from doing in the first place, from Dell.  (Obviously, Dell wants to take the control out of your hands, if there's potential for problems.)   FWIW, about the only *damaging* thing you can do with the program is to turn the fan completely off & even then, your Intel chip and board chipset already have safeguards in place to shut the entire system down once/if you ever ran into that scenario simply to protect all of the devices inside.  Sure, you wouldn't want to ever get to that point, but the message being, that you really can't *hurt* your system with this program even in a worst case scenario.......(at least not that I've found yet).

Hope that helps.