Question laptop running hotter after cleaning the fan

Jan 24, 2022
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I have a 10y/o Lenovo W530 that I'm trying to run Blender on. It was struggling a good bit so I decided to take it apart and clean out the fan. I'm pretty sure this was the 1st time I've ever done this with this particular machine. I've got a decent amount of experience with laptop diassembly/reassembly so that part went fine. Took me a while because I to take it down a lot further than i'd expected to get the fan out but it was okay. Only problem is that it's now running hotter than it did before I cleaned the fan and dusted the inside!
Here's a brief readout from sensors as I was doing a Cycles render:


thinkpad-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1: 4005 RPM

acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +90.0°C (crit = +103.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0: +92.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 0: +84.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1: +91.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 2: +91.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 3: +91.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

nouveau-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
GPU core: -0.02 V (min = +0.80 V, max = +1.10 V)
temp1: -0.0°C (high = +95.0°C, hyst = +3.0°C)
(crit = +105.0°C, hyst = +5.0°C)
(emerg = +135.0°C, hyst = +5.0°C)






It cooled down almost immediately once the render was over to around 47C

Any suggestions? It's an old machine and Blender's a lot for it but this is what I have to work with. Any idea why it's running noticeably hotter now after being cleaned out?
 
Did you remove the heat sink from the laptop? If so, it will need to be repasted. Are you using the service manual for the laptop when you work on it? I would strongly advise you do that and pay special attention to the ESD precautions the manual should describe. How did you "dust" the inside. You should NOT use brushes (unless they are ESD safe) or a vacuum cleaner. Best to use a can of compressed air.
 
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Jan 24, 2022
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I bet it needs to be repasted. Probably overdue anyhow for a computer this old. I dusted inside using either alcohol dampened Q tips or coffee filters. For the fan, I kind of cleaned the bits I could get at then used compressed air. The vents had a mesh on them but I figured it was all just plastic so i just used a hair drier set to cool(this was part of the outside case
, I had to separate it from the motherboard to get down far enough to get the fan). It really wasn't all that dusty for being a decade old!
I'm in Prague and there's probably a place around here I can get some thermal paste but it's just easier to order some on ebay from Germany. I'll post an update if/when it helps.
thanks a bunch!
 
Jan 24, 2022
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Really? I remember being told in class to use them because they're lint free. Maybe a microfiber cloth would be better? Granted my IT days were (cough cough) a few years ago so I could have easily forgotten the details
thanks again!
 
Don't use any clothes around electronic components. I suggest you read up about ESD. Lint is the least of your worries. Latent ESD damage is what will really bite you. You won't even know it happened until somewhere down the road. Again, get the service manual for your machine--usually you can find them for free on line--and follow that.
 
Jan 23, 2022
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Using clothes around components can cause issue. Better get some other equipments for the cleaning.
 
Jan 24, 2022
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Repasted it this afternoon, made a huge difference. The fan still needs to be replaced but I had to order a replacement from China and the shipping ETA is mid April. Oh well, seems to be a lot better now. Made around a 15C degree difference so I'm pretty pleased, i should have done this a long time ago!