Question I CAN NOT OPEN MY TOSHIBA NOTEBOOK and the fan is (sometimes) noisy as hell with the whole notebook vibrating

[Tomsguideuser2022]

I am Toshiba Notebook owner (yes it is 11 years old and has a dedicated graphic card which made it expensive and still valuable, model name: Satellite Pro L670-1E6, part number: PSK3FE, see the two URLs below) and it is many times overheated resp. since I used my vacuum cleaner on the fan (without blocking the fan as I have read afterwards!) the fan is once per month really, really noise and the whole case vibrating. I can knock on the case as much I want, it doesnt help to make the fan more quiet. But then, after resting the notebook for a day or two or three the fan noise is back to normal (it is every time like a little miracle and I am every time grateful).


Now my real problem is that I can not open my Toshiba notebook plastic case and there is no official support or repair shop for this old notebook.



==>> Main Question: HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO OPEN A TOSHIBA NOTEBOOK???
(I tried so many times, was every time convinced that I removed all screws, and failed every single time. I was just producing a little gape at the edges but something somewhere blocked and the backplate was just beding)


==>> Question 2: Is it possible to replace the Toshiba fan with a "standard" fan?

==>> Question 3: Somebody (Fishyy200) wrote in an old, close thread that he was drilling holes in the case over the fan for better venting, and I wanted to ask for details on that idea. I have plastic grids over the fan and over a copper heat pipe. I could cut them out with a side cutter, but would that bring much? Besides that woul bring the risk that a finger or something else stabs into the spinning fan ...


==>> Question 3: Does it bring much to apply new thermal paste (CPU, GPU)? I was just reading that for the first time in Fishyy200's threa and I have never hearethat this is before that this is required/useful.




I' be REALLY GRATEFUL for some help here, I just dont have the money to replace my 1400.- $ notebook at the moment.


My rough plan is maybe to wait till this new INTEL ARC ALCHEMIST comes on the market, hope that it will become much cheaper than current dedicated graphic cards (and that it doesnt suck), and buy then FROM A NOTEBOOK BRAND WHO HAS NOTEBOOKS WHICH ARE EASY TO OPEN (I still have to find out what brands that would be)

==>> Question 4: Which Notebook brands are known/famous for having notebooks which are EASY TO OPEN (and upgrade and reapair)?

I think that I will never again buy a Toshiba Notebook which I can't open, even though I am mighly impressed that my notebook is still running after my many and heavy knockings and hittings on the back plate and on the lid when the fan drove my nuts and I tried to hush it up and knock some dust out of the case.

URL 1 to the notebook I have: https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/produc...ntel-core-i5-460m-4-gb-500-gb-notebook-249347

URL 2: https://ch.dynabook.com/de/discontinued-products/satellite-pro-l670-1e6/

 

[AlHuneke]

Try to search on line for a service manual for that machine. You will likely find one. That will help you with disassembly. Pay attention to the warning about ESD precautions. This is important.

There are often screw under rubber bumpers or strips. You have to peel those off (and can never get them to stick on again.....).

Fans are difficult to find as there are any different models. Hopefully, you can find the exact fan manufacturer and model number and maybe find one on Ebay.

I'm not a fan of repasting. That is just risking breaking something. You only need to consider this if the processor is throttling back because it is overheating. It won't do anything to make the case cooler or the fan run less.

Don't be running a vacuum brush around inside the machine. That is a big ESD no-no.

I hope you are running Win 10 or 11. Every other version is long out of support for security updates and is a risk. If you have no personal/financial info on your computer, may not be a big concern. Don't think that anti-virus will protect you. It won't help with those type of attacks, in general.

 

[Tomsguideuser2022]

Thank you AlHuneke for the clear words about thermal repasting. I think in my case it is not worth the trouble.

Thank you especially for hint with the "service manual", so I found this fitting maitenance manual, hurray! https://www.manualslib.com/manual/798665/Toshiba-Satellite-L670-Series.html

But I am honest with you, I am very poor at filtering information, I get overflooded and tent to not see the forest because of too many trees.

So far I have NOT found how to open the back plate.

(only how to open the small service plate (which is obvious) and how to remove the keyboard (which I hope to avoid!)

==>> But I am wondering if I do need to remove the KEYBOARD first, to remove the BACKPLATE/BACKPANEL afterwards?

That would would be a nightmare in terms of getting the notebook back to work afterwards

About vaccum the inside: Yes, I will do it, but without touching anything. I know compressor air would be better but I dont have. Maybe I will additionally use an toothbrush while beeing grounded and with great care (softly and grounding the brush itself too every few seconds)

 

[AlHuneke]

Not a very good manual. For my quick scan around page 160, it appears you do need to remove the keyboard first and then twenty some screws the back. Nasty. If you are not experienced, I would be hesitant about taking it apart and expecting it to work again. Lots can go wrong. But you do have the manual to follow..

Usually the manuals talk about ESD. I would not use a toothbrush as that will create a lot of static unless it is a special conductive brush. You can get those on Amazon. If you don't have a wrist strap, next best thing is to spread aluminum foil and work on that--trying to frequently discharge yourself by touching grounded surfaced inside the computer.

If you haven't updated to an SSD, that will make a large difference. So will have 8GB of RAM. However, you may not want to spend much money on such an old machine. Don't believe that hackers are not out there looking for Win 7 machines. There are still millions of them. Run the MS assesment program to see if your machine will run Wn10. Last I knew, you could still upgrade for free but MS doesn't tell you that. With Win 10 and the MS Windows Defender (free) antivirus you should be pretty safe.

 

[Tomsguideuser2022]

Thank you AlHuneke

Removing the keyboar to open the case is really the worst case, epening on how the keyboar is connecte. I really ont want to risk it. On the other sie the fan is riving me crazy.


I really ont unerstan why the fan can be quiet for weeks an then again very noisy. I know I amage the ball bearing with the vacuum cleaner, but the problem seems not to be purely mechanical, neither purely thermic. Once the fan is lou an noisy no stirring, no knocking no pulling on the fan is changing anything (yes, I removed the gri covering the fan). Putting the notebook one hour in the winterly cool air ist not helping. But next morning, or one moring after that, pure magic, the fan is quiet again... I learne Electronical but that is exceeing my technical unerstanding... Can you explain that?

Thanks for the tipp with the brush on Amazon. Indee that woul be much better.
An yes: I upgrae my notebook with an SS an more RAM 4 years ago. that was like having a new Notebook! 🆒


One last question:
If I buy a new Notebook an remove the existing drive with the biggest SSD avaiable: With just having one notebook, is it possible to clone the SS? Probably not right?

So if NO (if cloning is not possible) then I woul nee to replace the SS instantly before working with it an fill it with my personal ata. The only question then woul be: How o I get the installe Winows an notebook rivers to a new SS?

I get hea ache from too much worrying. It is really sa that my current Toshiba notebook seeme to have reache the en of its life cycle an the noisy at moment is riving me nuts. Also the keyboar ist not writing "d"s (just wrote it with ALT+100)

Greetings to you

P.S. I never worry about security. Winows 7 is the top of the top for me, la crème de la crème. it is just a personal notebook. whenever I ha a virus (last time over 10 years ago) I just install antivir, kill the bug, an uninstall antivir again. the worst thing to have is an antivirus program running in the backgroun an causing troubles...

 

[AlHuneke]

First off the issue with Win7 is not solved by antivirus. Viruses are only one way into a machine. There are many others and those are no longer being fixed by microsoft. If you run anything older than Win10 you are vulnerable to attacks. A good example is Ransomware which if often spread by corrupted web pages. BTW, I have used only the MS built-in antivirus for years. It works well and causes no issues.

You can clone an SSD with just one computer. You need an external adapter that will hold your sdd and connect with a cable to the USB port. Many new SSDs come with cloning software for this purpose. Don't handle the SSD without taking ESD precautions or you may damage it.

 

[Tomsguideuser2022]

So there are USB connectors that emulate SATA resp. PCI-express (depending which kind of SSD I need to clone)? No, correction: ... depending TO which kind of SSD I need to clone. I guess that the full SSD must be in the notebook, while the new SSD is connected to the USB adapter.

After a quick search I find USB to emulate SATA, but no USB to emulate PCI-express (only the oposite: PCI-express to provid more USB is found at https/www.digitec.ch/search?q=usb adapter for pci-express

SATA SSD are slow compared to pci-express SSDs if I am rightly informed, so the pci-express emulator would be much more interesting!


(P.S. I am tempted to clone Windows 7 to the largest SSD avaiable for the new notebook, but then I would not have all the drivers which are on the new notebooks preinstalled SSD. Maybe I could download them but I am not sure how good new hardware is complying with Windows 7. Iam not worried at all about "security" but the hardware must work properly and efficient.)

 

[AlHuneke]

If you are buying a new laptop, you don't want to clone the existing drive. It won't work in a new laptop. Windows installations are machine specific for a lot of reasons. You will need to remove the drive from the old machine and connect to it via a USB adapter to the new laptop and copy any files you need that way. A better/safer way is to get an external drive, copy the files onto that and then copy them back to the new machine. You are doing backups like this now anyway, I hope. If cost is an issue, you can also copy files in batches using a thumb drive. You will, unfortuately need to reinstall all your programs on the new machine. I don't know of a reliable way around that.

 

[Tomsguideuser2022]

If you are buying a new laptop, you don't want to clone the existing drive. It won't work in a new laptop. Windows installations are machine specific for a lot of reasons.

Yes, you are right. When I buy a new Laptop first thing I do is cloning the already installed SSD to the biggest SSD avaiable. So the new SSD will be on USB, the installed one inside on PCI-Express.


==> But this proceedure will only work if there are USB adapters that emulate PCI-Express. And uf I buy a notebook which I can open without such crap as removing the keyboard first, etc. I really hope people will be a bit more cooperating on my other thread..

==> As I have shown you with the digitec link above, that there were unfortunately no USB adapters emulating PCI-Express (only USB adapters emulating SATA). Where would I find such a thing? Maybe I used the wrong keywords/search words?

 

[AlHuneke]

I'm not understanding your issue. Sorry. FYI--here is a good article on SATA vs PCIe:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/sata-vs-pcie/
I'm not a laptop professional. I'm a hobbyist/engineer. I've seen SSD in both a SATA form factor (about 2.5 inches wide) and the M2 form factor (about an inch wide). I have adapter for both these that connect to USB without issue. There may be other types, but I have not experienced them. I have a few adapters I bought from Amazon and they work fine. Don't go super cheap with what you get.

 

[hang-the-9]

==>> Main Question: HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO OPEN A TOSHIBA NOTEBOOK???
(I tried so many times, was every time convinced that I removed all screws, and failed every single time. I was just producing a little gape at the edges but something somewhere blocked and the backplate was just beding)
==>> Question 2: Is it possible to replace the Toshiba fan with a "standard" fan?

==>> Question 3: Somebody (Fishyy200) wrote in an old, close thread that he was drilling holes in the case over the fan for better venting, and I wanted to ask for details on that idea. I have plastic grids over the fan and over a copper heat pipe. I could cut them out with a side cutter, but would that bring much? Besides that woul bring the risk that a finger or something else stabs into the spinning fan ...

==>> Question 3: Does it bring much to apply new thermal paste (CPU, GPU)? I was just reading that for the first time in Fishyy200's threa and I have never hearethat this is before that this is required/useful.

I' be REALLY GRATEFUL for some help here, I just dont have the money to replace my 1400.- $ notebook at the moment.

For the replacement notebook, the CPU and video card in it are not as fast as something you can get from a Ryzen 5 or a modern Intel onboard video, so don't worry about having to buy a 1400 laptop to get the same speeds, a used one a few years old for $300-400 would do it, and a new $700 or so system would be quite a bit faster https://www.amazon.com/Acer-i5-9300...locphy=9001834&hvtargid=pla-923146954545&th=1

As far are replacing the fan, a web search for your model has a video on how to do it. https/www.google.com/search?q=Satellite+Pro+L670-1E6+replace+fan&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS904US904&sxsrf=APq-WBsZY3flZ5RATKtflnvtKG4WGysZBQ:1649099273462&ei=CUJLYpHfG-G1ggfowLaADQ&ved=0ahUKEwjRh5PDjfv2AhXhmuAKHWigDdAQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=Satellite+Pro+L670-1E6+replace+fan&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQghEKABMgUIIRCgAToHCCMQsAMQJzoJCAAQsAMQBxAeOggIABCwAxCGAzoGCAAQFhAeOgUIABCGAzoFCCEQqwJKBAhBGAFKBAhGGABQuQNYhh5gyB9oAXAAeACAAbACiAHlCZIBCDEwLjAuMS4xmAEAoAEByAEEwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz

Yes applying new thermal paste to the heatsink should help quite a bit with temperatures.

 

[Tomsguideuser2022]

I'm not understanding your issue. Sorry. FYI--here is a good article on SATA vs PCIe:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/sata-vs-pcie/
I'm not a laptop professional. I'm a hobbyist/engineer. I've seen SSD in both a SATA form factor (about 2.5 inches wide) and the M2 form factor (about an inch wide). I have adapter for both these that connect to USB without issue. There may be other types, but I have not experienced them. I have a few adapters I bought from Amazon and they work fine. Don't go super cheap with what you get.

Thank you for the link to the article and please don't give up on me. I appreciate your patience.

I just wanted to point out, that in my favorite shop www.digitec.ch, were I buy since over 20 years all my computer related stuff, my searches found no results to "USB to PCIexpress" or "USB emulating PCIexpress". ==> But since you have both kind of adapters simply link it to me. It is the one you describe as 1 inch wide and you call it "M2 form factor". So I guess "M2 form factor is the PCIexpress SSD (where you see directly the memory chips because there is no casing). So the link to the USB adapter for this M2 form factor SSD is what I need.

And so God will that the cloning software accepts such an adaptor.

 

[Tomsguideuser2022]

For the replacement notebook, the CPU and video card in it are not as fast as something you can get from a Ryzen 5 or a modern Intel onboard video, so don't worry about having to buy a 1400 laptop to get the same speeds, a used one a few years old for $300-400 would do it, and a new $700 or so system would be quite a bit faster.

My english is not that good so I like to doublecheck if I really understood you right:

Do you want to say, that a modern laptop with Intel Onboard Video (we talk here about an IGU chip - Integrated Graphical Unit - right?) will have a better performance than my 11 year old Toshiba Satellite L670 with dedicated Graphic Card "AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5650" for 1400??

If so it would be very good news!!

Because I believe that I do prefere a notebook without dedicated graphic card, if I could stream 4K movies to a TV or PC monitor (at moment I can only issue Full HD). And if I could also play old 3D shooters like Unreal Tournament 3 or Deus Ex (or similiar) in just Full HD I would be even more happy.

Do you think this is possible with an IGU? And are there different IGUs from say ... Intel .. (like with AMD and Nvidia who are in a constant warfare to confuse their consumers with a zillion of new models and product lines (so they end up spending too much money after the rational part of their brains surrrenders) ... or do I just need to choose a IGU from the years 2020/21/22 and I'll be fine?

The main reason why I would prefere a notebook without a Dedicated Graphic Card is my believe or guess, that Dedicatd Graphic Cards consume more power in 2D (not speaking about 3D - just normal 2D use when surfing the web or streaming a movie) ==> and therefore heat up more ==> and therefore making the notebook noisier than a laptop with just an IGU chip aka Onboard Video. Also let aside the cost, bulk and battery runtime, I am just talking about heat and noise during non-gaming use. Is my guess or my believe right, that a notebook with IGU/Onboard Video will be less noisy during non-game use?

Maybe this thread here iss already sufficiently informative for a final decision on that matter. If not I just open a new thread about "Dedicated Graphic Card" vs. "Onboard Video AKA IGU chip".

As far are replacing the fan, a web search for your model has a video on how to do it.

Wow, you are AMAZING that you found this video! 🧡💛💚

I am going to write you back when I've watched it thoroughly through and was successful to apply it on my own notebook. I really gave the hope up and used the side cutter on the grids on the back, but it did not bring a lot. My poor, old notebook. Iwas very rough with it the past months. With the help of your video I hope that I can mend it. That would be so amazing. The world needs more resourceful people like you!

Yes applying new thermal paste to the heatsink should help quite a bit with temperatures.

Yes, as soon that I have managed to open it I will do that. I've read that the termal paste "Kryonaut" shall be good https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/produkte/2-kryonaut thought I am not sure if different thermal pastes will really make much difference or if its just different for the wallet.

 

[Tomsguideuser2022]

a new $700 or so system would be quite a bit faster
https://www.amazon.com/Acer-i5-9300...locphy=9001834&hvtargid=pla-923146954545&th=1

Your link with the impressive Acer Notebooks with GTX 1650 resp. GTX 1650 TI (they are tempting for this price - despite what I've written above about IGU:

==> Either it is written on Amazon.com "We don't ship to Switzerland" or they do want a crazy shipping costs of ludicrous 550$

==> and if I find the the same laptop on Amazon.de then in US laptop cost's 750$ while the one in Germany costs 1100$. That is a surcharge of 50% and I have to import the laptop from Germany which will result in another surcharge.

I am telling you, it is ... not easy ... to get a laptop with dedicated graphic card here in Switzerland for under 1000$. 700, 800, 900$ seems to be impossible. If I look at Digitec.ch - my favorite shop in Switzerland for computer stuff since 20 years - Acer Nitro 5 with a GTX 1650 start at 1100$. it is incredible how lucky you Americans are. And I heared in Japan consumer electronics is even cheaper (and comes years earlier on the market) ...

==> So the insane prices here in Europe for dedicated graphic cards (DGC) are just another reason to buy a notebook with IGU, if my above mentioned needs are met and my believe about the loudness difference during non-gaming use between notebooks with IGU and DGC should happen to be true.