Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Sony Vaio heat fan clogged

My Sony Vaio (VPCF113FX) had been having trouble with heat.  I found it odd that the Fan would be running full throttle while I am still having heat problems (CPU temps above 90 Celsius). Sometimes, it overheated so bad, the whole machine shut down!!

 I checked the corner where the heating-sink fins were located and realized that there was no real air-flow.

So, despite my reservations, took the back cover off.  In order to get the back cover all you have take out ALL the screws.  Plus, removed the CD Tray.  If you're not comfortable working on small electronics, I would not recommend attempting this.

Below is a picture of the under-side of my Sony Vaio.  Followed by a picture of the clogged heat sinks (that black area above the fan).  Finally, there's a picture of the cleaned heat sinks fins. I used a toothbrush while simultaneously holding a vacuum next to it. You'll notice you can now see all the copper.  (you can click on the pictures to make them very large).

After the cleaning, the temps are closer to 52-70 Celsius and it runs a little faster now too.  The air flow now feels similar to a hair dryer running on its lowest setting.

Note: In order to get the fan open and clean the fins, you'll need to unscrew the heat-sink channels (those copper tubes) from the CPU and the GPU.  You'll want to have some Heat Sink Grease on hand to re-apply to your processors when you put the heat-sink back on.

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