Introduction
The CPU fan of my old notebook, a 2000 Toshiba Satellite Pro SP4270, stopped working: cpu and motherboard temperatures raised above 70°C and 60°C, while they usually were about 40-45°C and rarely reached 50°C.
The most likely cause is dust on the fan, so I decided to open the notebook to make some cleaning.
Steps
Here are the steps to dismount the notebook:- Unscrew all the bottom and side screws; near each screw there's a number which identifies the type of screw; it's a good idea to group the screws with the same number and write down that number, to make the remounting process easier.
- Remove the hard disk from the right side unscrewing the metal safe and pulling the tongue with a little bit of strength: the HDD must unplug from EIDE connector.
- Gently detach the narrow plastic panel near the keyboard with a screwdriver, then unscrew and remove the strip of metal (see 2nd, 3rd and 4th pictures).
- After doing that, remove the keyboard: two openings in the plastic will show the internal hardware and will allow the fingers to reach the keyboard and display plugs.
- Unplug the keyboard cable pulling the little white plastic head just to release the cable; to unplug the display just pull the cable through the other opening.
- Then remove the upper half of the notebook, the one with the display attached; the motherboard, cd, modem, PCMCIA reader and floppy will be uncovered.
- At this point I unscrewed the fan duct from the motherboard and I used an air compressor to clean it from the dust.
Pictures
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