Noisy Netbook

Lazarus

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
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Ah, the good old days.

Tower PCs were always easy to get into and easy to clean.

My 5 year old Toshiba NB250 Netbook has become quite noisy of late - when the fan runs.

So I thought it must be time to give the old machine a good clean.

Removed loads of screws and still couldn't find a way in. Then noticed a couple of rubber spacers in securing holes had gone AWOL. Hmm. Time to give it up as a bad job?

Well, I managed to relocate one of the offending items, but in seeking the other discovered a loose label, about 5cm long and 4mm wide, floating about unsecured. Hoiked it out and now the fan runs silently.

Sadly, I could see that the innards of the Netbook were well and truly caked with dust and as I can't get at it, I suspect the time is nigh to look for a new Netbook or perhaps a 10" Tablet.
 
No plastic clips holding the case together?

Could try a really fine screwdriver to try and prise open the laptop maybe if your feeling adventurous
 
Get a can of compressed air and give the inside a good squirt - thats'll shift a lot of the dust. If you replace the hdd with a solid state one the entire computer will run cooler - and much faster too
 
Yes, done lots of prising and blowing.

As for the HDD, the caddy cover was secured by two microscopic hex sockets - far smaller than I had a proper tool for.

Still, some lateral thinking and a Manchester Screwdriver sorted that.

I'm thinking of getting a 10" Tablet when this dies. Cheaper than upgrading an old machine with an SSD (But probably less fun!)
 
across the top of the keyboard under the hinge there should be (*might be) hidden screws (normally beneath the strip with the power button on), check the sides and back near to the hinge and lift it with a screwdriver to unclip it, that should have a few screws to remove the keyboard and the back casing (sometimes there are screws beneath the keyboard in the middle too)
If you remove the keyboard watch out for the ribbon cable attaching it to the computer
 
Aye. I found the hidden screws you mentioned and also another under the HDD cover.

But as I've cured my immediate issue, I'm not going to tempt fate further until I'm obliged to. Tworks!
 
At least I haven't lost my Duhok [emoji2]
 
I don't use canned air when cleaning a PC or laptop, it can force dirt/dust into places that may be a problem later.

I use an new makeup brush, (the wife/girlfriend/mistress will not miss it) and a small vacuum, vacuuming as you brush towards it will keep the dust/dirt out of places it should not be.

For those of you that smoke, I would not do that type of thing around a PC or laptop, a particle of cigarette smoke can kill a hard drive, there are some very small vent holes on most all hard drives, blowing canned air at these holes can wipe it out as you can/could push loose smoke particles into the drive.

Unless you have a SSD drive in that laptop that is.
 
Terryl said:
I use an new makeup brush, (the wife/girlfriend/mistress will not miss it)
Click to expand...

I´ve smoked over my pc´s and laptops for years now, no problem, new gear every 3 months, claim on the insurance!
As for the makeup brush, I know you buy your own!
 
I work in a school - you shoul;d see the state some of our workstations get into. The woodwork rooms get into the worst state - Ive been known to take the top covers off these two elderly computers & take them outside to bang them gently upside down on the ground to get the sawdust out!!

They are only used for registration purposes, and when the staff complained about the 5 minute boot times I stuck solid state drives in them - what a difference they made. Boot times improved to about a minute. :D
 
Terryl said:
For those of you that smoke, I would not do that type of thing around a PC or laptop
Click to expand...

Having seen some of the worst computers owned by smokers, I'd 2nd this, fixing a computer that is not only packed with dust, but packed with cigarette smoke impregnated dust is disgusting!!! It stinks, it's sticky, it's horrible, and it's a killer, pretty much all the computers I had to work on like that were dead, be it the PSU burnt out, the CPU burnt out, motherboard burnt out, etc., smoking kills, not just the alvioli in your lungs causing COPD, but the components in your PCs too...
 
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