Disassembled and cleaned laptop. Now it wont turn on

[xenobreak]

I have been using my buddies spare laptop to play games on but recently it started to overheat and turn off. I figured it was dusty or something inside (really hot air was blowing out of the exhaust) so i decided to follow a guide online to take it apart and clean it.

It's an HP Pavilion dv7 and this is the guide i followed: http/www.insidemylaptop.com/disassemble-hp-pavilion-dv7-notebook/

After successfully taking it a apart and cleaning out the load of dust that was caked into the fan exhaust, i decided it was probably a good idea to reapply the thermal paste on the CPU. The stock paste was mostly all dry and crusty so i got out my Arctic Silver paste and got ready to replace it. As i was cleaning off the old paste i got some on the little chips that surround the CPU chip. The little legs on those things made it super hard to reach so i couldn't get it all off.

After reassembling everything it wouldn't turn on, no lights or anything, just dead. When i plug the power cable in i can hear a very faint but constant beeping coming from inside somewhere but that's it. It's probably because i got that thermal paste on those little chips isn't it? Would you recommend i take it apart and again and use some rubbing alcohol to clean the paste off? I'm not sure how safe it is to use rubbing alcohol on computer chips...

 

[terryd75]

No......
I would not clean it with alcohol, or anything else. In fact, I bet that arctic Silver stuff probably isn't conductive, and wont harm anything that you got it on. My guess it you simply didn't get it all put back together correctly. You probably accidentally, unplugged a ribbon cable or something. Take it back apart, and very carefully look it over. For it to not come on at all.......that doesn't sound to me like anything that was caused by the Arctic Silver. Hopefully, you were careful when you cleaned it off, and didn't break a capacitor, or something. But, either way, it's gotta come back apart so that you can check it out. Did you remove the CPU? If you did, maybe you didn't get it back into the socket just right? etc. Good luck.

 

[xenobreak]

I'm quite sure i didn't miss anything when putting it all together but i am going to check anyways. I definitely did not break anything because i was very careful when taking it apart.

Also i think Arctic Silver 5 is conductive but that's not the paste i got on the parts. It was the default paste that i got on some parts. I'm not sure if the default stuff was conductive or not.

I read that it was safe to clean parts using small amounts of of 90% isopropyl alcohol with a cotton swab or qtip. It should completely evaporate before it could possibly damage anything. Obviously i wouldn't turn on the laptop for a night just to make sure its all evaporated.

 

[terryd75]

In that case, if you're right, ...... It sounds like you're going to owe your friend a laptop. Good luck.

 

[Mu33rto]

Before trying to open and repair the laptop did you ground your self? Because ESD will damage if not destroy the electronics inside laptop & computers. Remove battery, HDD, and ram and connect directly to wall. Turn it on and wait until you hear beeping. Power off laptop and add one stick of ram and turn it on. Also if you have another ram that matches the laptop try installing that one. Cuz it could be that ESD fried the ram.

 

[chudddds]

the HP curse. that faint beeping noise your hearing is the thermal warning. I had it, and so has many other HP owners.

something is awry with the cooling system or cpu. what condition was the fan in ?

i dont think its the thermal paste. i dont thinks its the ram. its the cpu and the cooling system. you can google the "HP faint beeping" and you will see many.

 

[bryonhowley]

I would have to agree with chudddds. You need to make sure the heatsink is correctly attached.

 

[xenobreak]

the HP curse. that faint beeping noise your hearing is the thermal warning. I had it, and so has many other HP owners.

something is awry with the cooling system or cpu. what condition was the fan in ?

i dont think its the thermal paste. i dont thinks its the ram. its the cpu and the cooling system. you can google the "HP faint beeping" and you will see many.

the fan blades were pretty dusty and the exhaust slot had a caked on layer of dust. I cleaned it all off so it looked new again. I made sure not to blow air into the fan because i know its bad to spin it super fast like that.

 

[Stephanie Cohen]

cleaning laptops is dangerous because its so small parts

 

[Charmgurl]

cleaning laptops is dangerous because its so small parts

Is it best to have it done? My nail guy charges $40 to clean mine, but I've been contemplating doing it but reading this, I don't know now. I'm sick of shutting off when I stream for a while. CPU fan will perm fix this?

 

[Redtux777]

I did the same thing. Took my a1181 Macbook apart. Messed with the heat sink and fan and after it would not boot.
Beeps once every few seconds.
Ended up taking the heat sink and fan back off and re-seating all the little connectors around it.

And now she boots up again.

WHEW!

 

[shahhhassan]

I have been using my buddies spare laptop to play games on but recently it started to overheat and turn off. I figured it was dusty or something inside (really hot air was blowing out of the exhaust) so i decided to follow a guide online to take it apart and clean it.

It's an HP Pavilion dv7 and this is the guide i followed: http/www.insidemylaptop.com/disassemble-hp-pavilion-dv7-notebook/

After successfully taking it a apart and cleaning out the load of dust that was caked into the fan exhaust, i decided it was probably a good idea to reapply the thermal paste on the CPU. The stock paste was mostly all dry and crusty so i got out my Arctic Silver paste and got ready to replace it. As i was cleaning off the old paste i got some on the little chips that surround the CPU chip. The little legs on those things made it super hard to reach so i couldn't get it all off.

After reassembling everything it wouldn't turn on, no lights or anything, just dead. When i plug the power cable in i can hear a very faint but constant beeping coming from inside somewhere but that's it. It's probably because i got that thermal paste on those little chips isn't it? Would you recommend i take it apart and again and use some rubbing alcohol to clean the paste off? I'm not sure how safe it is to use rubbing alcohol on computer chips...

 

[shahhhassan]

you can clean the legs of processor using a soft tooth brush..
it would probably clean off the paste causing processor chip to not fix properly into motherboard.
hope it would work.
And please DONOT use alcohol it would damage processor linings.