over heated fan??

[claire-louise]

Hello everyone,

Once again, I need your assistence. I was using my computer the other day, downloading music onto my brand new I Pod (which my parents kindly bought me because I passed my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, after nearly 8 years!), anyway and I was half way through downloading and my computer made this horrible noise, I cant remember how exactly. The computer (PCG-K415B) became very hot, so I took every thing out of it then it froze. I held down the power button and it finally turned off.

I have reinstalled everything back onto it, and it took forever, as the computer will now only work for about 30mins, maybe longer then it shuts down. I have managed after 4 days to reinstall everything back on (I mean do a system recovery of Disk C) and to back up my D drive. As I have said thou it only works for 30 mins and I have to wait a long time before been able to use it. It seems to work faster as well if there is a fan by it pointing at it.

My dad has agreed he will open the laptop up and we have got Compressed Air and cotton buds, I am wondering has anyone got any good ideas of what the problem may be and what I could do to help myself, I am outside the garantee time. I am happy to listen to any suggestions, as I am desperate for ideas. I cant find anything on the internet about my specific model to help with this problem (I am assuming its overheated or dust has clogged it up!)

Any ideas I would be grateful, and clear instructions on how to open the laptop with completely ruining it would be helpful! As usual I will help answer any questions I can.

Best wishes

Claire Louise

[Twisted-Rizla]

Hi Claire

It might just be a build up of dust on the leading edges of the fans. This can be enough to disrupt the airflow into the machine causing it to overheat.

Try the compressed air as that should certainly help. Also, it might be worth trying to track down a 'mobile meter' which you can use to monitor the temperature of your CPU which might be getting too hot.

[tweety2b]

Hi Claire-Louise,

You also might want to check if you have the latest bios installed on your machine.
You can find them @downloads on www.vaio-link.com

[kee-lo_]

Hi again claire-Louise

Congrats on your Gold award

I think your dads got the right idea, opening it up and removing as much dust is a good idea.

[claire-louise]

Thank you, on your congratulations on my award Kee-Lo,

I think my dad's option is the best, but I dont know how to open my computer and remove the dust without destroying the computer, I would like to ask if the removal of dust idea doesnt work, what do I do?? I am asking:

1. How do I open the computer and remove dust effectivly without destroying the computer, I have never opened a computer up.

2 .What to do if the dust removal doenst work

3. Also on the back of my Vaio laptop (PCG-K415B) there are three panals, what is behind each of them?? I dont want to destroy the hard disk hence why I am asking.

Thank you to everyone for trying to help me, keep the advice coming in, as my dad has agreed to open up this weekend on the basis that I find out the information.

I am on a mission guys, please help me!

Claire Louise

[claire-louise]

Also sorry people, is it ok for me to put a fan directed at my computer, I dont want to melt my HDD or something!! I am very weery of doing anything out of the blue. I find the fan helps the computer work faster

Claire LOUISE

[Twisted-Rizla]

I'm afraid the fan pointed at the pc idea won't really work as the air from it won't be able to penetrate through to the hot CPU etc.

Have a look on Vaio-Link for the manual. It won't tell you much but may give explanations as to what's under the 3 panels you mentioned.

Can you see any dust on the exhaust vents? I find vacuum cleaner with a small nozzle useful for sucking the dust away.

[claire-louise]

Dear twisted Rizla,

My dad refuses to let me use a vacum cleaner because of potential stactic electricity build up. I don't know where the exhaust fan is?, therefoe I dont know if I can see dust.

I have tried looking at the vaio manual and it doesnt tell me anything, I need to know how to open a PCG-K415B up, there has to be way and someone must be able to help me! Please! Also some one must know what the three panals at the back are!

Please can someone tell me! I think its an overheated fan that has caused the dust but I dont know how to dismantle a vaio computer (PCG-K415B) and therefore I dont know how to get to where I want to, to remove dust without breaking it!

Claire louise

[kee-lo_]

Hmm I don't see any guides damn

Your dad's right about the vacum, don't use it.

The three panels are for memory and PC cards like wireless.

Sometimes the ones you need to unscrew have an arrow pointing to them

[Twisted-Rizla]

There's a manual here