The Inspiron 1150 CPU cooling system does become clogged with dust very easily. Cleaning it will very often resolve performance issues. "Canned air" can be purchased at almost any office supply store, computer supply store, electronics store and any online vendor selling computer products.
I have an Inspiron 5150 that became really caked on with dust. The placement of the intake fan on the underside acts like a hoover vacuum, inhaling all of the junk on your desk that you keep telling yourself you will dust off :).
Honestly, if you don't keep up with dusting both the laptop and the area around it canned air alone won't fix it. Some of that dust mingles with oils from your fingers using the keyboard and bits of potato chip that fall into the chasis of the laptop to form a dusty, clingy, gross compound.
Before reinstalling anything, try cleaning out the computer. With the power off, battery removed, try just turning the laptop upside down and gently shaking it a little with the screen fully extended. You'll probably be surprised at what falls out of there.
Next, go down to your local staples, home depot, radio shack, or wherever and get a can of compressed air. You will need it to get this junk out of there. You can search the Dell website or even find your 1150's user manual and follow the instructions to remove the keyboard and any access panels on the bottom of the laptop (memory access panels, PCI slot panels, etc.). The keyboard can be the tough one, the others are just screws on the bottom that are easy enough to get to.
BEFORE YOU REMOVE ANYTHING, MAKE SURE YOU ARE PROPERLY GROUNDED! Touching the outside chasis of the laptop is one way, but the best way is to buy a grounding strap that you put on your arm. You can get one at Radio Shack. Personally, I've only just grounded myself by touching the outside chasis of the laptop and I've never had any problems.
Once you have all of these panels and the keyboard off you should have a really good lay-of-the-land. You'll see a lot of dust on the fan, but you'll probably see a coating of dust on other components inside of your computer. The dust on the fan does make the fan less efficient, but the dust on the components (memory sticks, CPU) causes the fan to turn on more often because the dust is an insulator. It is trapping the enormous amounts of heat that your computer is creating and forcing the fan to turn on to cool them down.
This is where the compressed air comes in. Make sure to hold the can upright because you don't want excessive condensation on any of the internal parts of your computer. Use the air to blow the dust off of any parts that you see in there. Small, short bursts should do it. If there is dust that is clinging to the fan, attempt to use a soft cloth to rub it off. Don't use a cloth to touch any exposed circuit boards: you don't want to get the cloth stuck on a solder and inadvertently pull something off. If you have a vacuum with a very soft brush attachment you can use that as well to get some of the dust out.
Now, pop all of the panels back on, screw in the keyboard, and you should be ready for business. With my 5150 I not only noticed better performance, but that ridiculously loud fan was a little quieter and didn't turn on nearly as often. Once you've done this, regular dusting will help you from having to do this any time soon. Also, short blasts of compressed air into the keyboard, side, rear, and bottom vents every once in a while will keep the dust from settling and sticking inside your laptop.
I would do this before the reinstall because even if you reinstall XP, you'll still run into these same issues later on. With the way these laptop fans are configured it is almost impossible to not have this problem. Doing this cleaning every once in a while will seriously extend the life of your computer.
It has been shutting down on its own for the last little while now.. today it did it again. When I restart it the message comes up that it "had to shut down due to maintaining system temperature". It also says to give ERROR #M1004.
I vacuumed the keyboard and fan on the bottom, cleaned the desk. But yes, Im sure there is a ton of dust caked inside. Problem is, Im far from qualified or confident in doing this. You freaked me out on the "be sure your grounded" point. Im not in North America, so canned air may be tough to find, Ill look around though.
BigBrother
2 Intern
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4.8K Posts
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May 27th, 2007 15:00
rochs77
59 Posts
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May 27th, 2007 21:00
Honestly, if you don't keep up with dusting both the laptop and the area around it canned air alone won't fix it. Some of that dust mingles with oils from your fingers using the keyboard and bits of potato chip that fall into the chasis of the laptop to form a dusty, clingy, gross compound.
Before reinstalling anything, try cleaning out the computer. With the power off, battery removed, try just turning the laptop upside down and gently shaking it a little with the screen fully extended. You'll probably be surprised at what falls out of there.
Next, go down to your local staples, home depot, radio shack, or wherever and get a can of compressed air. You will need it to get this junk out of there. You can search the Dell website or even find your 1150's user manual and follow the instructions to remove the keyboard and any access panels on the bottom of the laptop (memory access panels, PCI slot panels, etc.). The keyboard can be the tough one, the others are just screws on the bottom that are easy enough to get to.
BEFORE YOU REMOVE ANYTHING, MAKE SURE YOU ARE PROPERLY GROUNDED! Touching the outside chasis of the laptop is one way, but the best way is to buy a grounding strap that you put on your arm. You can get one at Radio Shack. Personally, I've only just grounded myself by touching the outside chasis of the laptop and I've never had any problems.
Once you have all of these panels and the keyboard off you should have a really good lay-of-the-land. You'll see a lot of dust on the fan, but you'll probably see a coating of dust on other components inside of your computer. The dust on the fan does make the fan less efficient, but the dust on the components (memory sticks, CPU) causes the fan to turn on more often because the dust is an insulator. It is trapping the enormous amounts of heat that your computer is creating and forcing the fan to turn on to cool them down.
This is where the compressed air comes in. Make sure to hold the can upright because you don't want excessive condensation on any of the internal parts of your computer. Use the air to blow the dust off of any parts that you see in there. Small, short bursts should do it. If there is dust that is clinging to the fan, attempt to use a soft cloth to rub it off. Don't use a cloth to touch any exposed circuit boards: you don't want to get the cloth stuck on a solder and inadvertently pull something off. If you have a vacuum with a very soft brush attachment you can use that as well to get some of the dust out.
Now, pop all of the panels back on, screw in the keyboard, and you should be ready for business. With my 5150 I not only noticed better performance, but that ridiculously loud fan was a little quieter and didn't turn on nearly as often. Once you've done this, regular dusting will help you from having to do this any time soon. Also, short blasts of compressed air into the keyboard, side, rear, and bottom vents every once in a while will keep the dust from settling and sticking inside your laptop.
I would do this before the reinstall because even if you reinstall XP, you'll still run into these same issues later on. With the way these laptop fans are configured it is almost impossible to not have this problem. Doing this cleaning every once in a while will seriously extend the life of your computer.
I hope that this helps.
Rich
mikojello
9 Posts
0
June 1st, 2007 01:00