Kablammo!
Stop with a mighty blow! Power Ruin!
Averatec 3150 overheating: solved
January 31, 2006I’ve had my Averatec 3150 laptop for about 18 months now, and it’s served me well the whole time. It’s tiny enough that I had a hell of a time finding a bag small enough to carry it in comfortably, and I’ve been able to leave it running for weeks at a time with no problems. After a while, my habit of leaving Firefox running for a week with a few dozen tabs open made me want more RAM, so I added 384 megs’ worth. The touchpad started failing on me after a year of heavy use, but with a little help from eBay I was able to swap in a replacement part. I wished I had a DVD burner in the thing, so I replaced the original optical drive. (The hardest part was cutting a corner off the new drive’s faceplate so it would fit in the provided opening.)
In short, I really like this machine—I only wish the battery held more of a charge—and I’m not afraid to open it up and tinker with the insides. Of course, buying it refurbished and thus having the warranty end after 90 days probably helped my courage. You might not be so ready and willing to tear off your stickers marked “Warranty void if removed” if their threats aren’t meaningless.
So when I recently noticed a disconcerting tendency for it to hard crash during heavy CPU usage, I naturally wanted to fix the problem. Whenever I was doing anything very CPU intensive, like compressing a lot of audio (or video for that matter), playing a game, or even running an innocent CPU torture test, my computer would do two things: (a) get very hot and (b) turn itself off. Naturally, I suspected the cooling system.
As it turns out, this was the culprit:
Apparently having a solid wall of dust keeping any air from flowing over your heatsink is a bad thing. Who’da thunk?
Here’s some more pictures of the disassembly/reassembly process for anyone who gives a damn about these things.
- Step 1: Remove battery.
You don’t want the computer turning on in the middle of surgery, after all. - Step 2: Remove RAM slot cover.
There are two small screws (you do have a teensy Phillips screwdriver, right?) in the part of the case with your official Windows sticker on it. Unscrew them and you can take it off and see your system RAM underneath. One of the sticks of RAM can be swapped out for a bigger one (or a smaller one I suppose), and this is how to get at it. - Step 3: Remove CPU/heatsink cover.
That panel you just unscrewed was the only thing (besides a little sticker) holding the next panel in place. Carefully remove that next panel and you can see the heat pipe and fan that so valiantly try to keep your CPU cool. You can also see a connector that I believe attaches to the LCD display/backlight/inverter apparatus, but that’s a topic for another day. - Step 4: Unscrew cooling apparatus.
There are three screws holding a copper plate snug to the CPU. Unscrew them and you can carefully and gently start sliding out the whole fan/heatpipe/heatsink combination. - Step 5: Unplug fan.
Unplug the little connector that goes to the fan, so you can remove the whole kit and caboodle. - Step 6: Remove fan.
Three tiny screws are holding the fan to its surroundings, and keeping you from getting at the heat sink. Take ‘em out, and make sure you don’t drop them in your carpet or something. - Step 7: Have at it!
Damn, that is a big piece of fuzz. Now that it’s out of the way, I can actually see light shining through my heatsink. And more importantly, my system doesn’t crash anymore.
Reverse these steps to put your system back together, and if you’re like me you can just ignore the issue of thermal compound between your CPU and heatsink. An hour and a half of Prime95 and my system is still going strong, so my cooling is absolutely working well enough for my taste.
13 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Powered by WordPress with Hiperminimalist Theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS.
Just what I was looking for, thx ;)
Comment by Ravnos — July 17, 2007 #
How can you suspect if you have memory, hardrive, or processor problems causing intermittent startups.
When I press the power button, nothing happens, I may hit the reset button, but it doesn’t turn on all the time either. When I am able to get it on, I don’t get a flicker on the screen, so I’m not sure if it’s posting or what. The screen doesn’t even come on. I can hear the fan running, but don’t know how to check that each component is functioning correctly or what could be the root of the problem. Can you help?
If you need to reach me, my cell number is 541 223-8275. I love this computer and don’t want to part with it, so if I can salvage it, then I want to do it. Even if it involves removing that Do Not Void sticker.
Comment by Valentino Plummer — October 31, 2007 #
Some people say that I must be a horrible person, but that’s not true. I have the heart of a young boy — in a jar on my desk.
Comment by Tyson Frost — February 16, 2008 #
Great post. Tell you what, though: Clean the old thermal compound off the surface of the aluminum heat sink by carefully scraping it with a small screwdriver blade until it shines. Wipe the excess compound off the top of the CPU, and put a dab of new compund on. If you’ve gone this far, why not do it right? You’ll hav e assembled it better than they did at the factory.
Comment by cdz12250 — March 23, 2008 #
I have had my averatec for 4 years and have had problems with overheating. I found this information and it helped alot my computer has not shut off! The details and the pictures were a great resource.
Thanks!
Any other tips?
Judy
Comment by Judy — May 17, 2008 #
After reading your fix, I took apart my averatec 6200 - it’s put together a bit differently, but essentially the same, and my clump of dust - about 2/3 the length of my pinky - was not underneath the fan, but between the fan and the heatsink.
For the first time in ages, I can run a virus scan!
Thanks a lot!
Comment by Dale in Georgia — June 12, 2008 #
My daughters Averteck has ben sent back to Circuit City Warrent Repair for 3 times and has gone threw 4 power cords, due to heat/melting the end of the cord.Just recieved the laptop today and the cord as already started to melt
This will be the 5th cord.
Comment by gary kilduff — June 12, 2008 #
Thank you, I had taken the heatsink off many times (it didn’t solve the problem) but never had the idea of actually removing the fan. Big chunk of dust there.
But PLEASE, PLEASE, you must put thermal paste on! Do not forget! Clean the residual on your heatsink and on the CPU and apply a new batch. I skipped this step and the comp would shut off in one minute. Put thermal paste back on and it has never shut off ever since!!!! I feel like apologizing to my laptop for not having done this sooner!
Comment by Edhellos — June 13, 2008 #
I found this extremely helpful. I had not even thought of the idea of dust buildup before I came across your post, but sure enough my girlfriends laptop had just as much as yours. I had a checklist going of things to do to reduce the heat, I’ll bet this helps a lot. P.S.- To help I also bought a cooling pad to help circulate air.
-Thanks
Comment by Aaron B — June 23, 2008 #
I have had my computer for four years now and it was overheating. I took it to Best Buy and they told me there was no dust in the fan and my computer is probably “reaching the end of it’s life.” I just graduated college and relocated to my first job. I can’t afford a new labtop! Thanks for your informative instuctions. I just pulled out a whole lotta dust. Best Buy wont get my money today!
Comment by May — August 14, 2008 #
WOW!!!! Thanks so much for this little journal documenting entry, finally pulled this laptop out of the closet and started using it again, gotta fix that darn heating problem and your journal sure has given me a good idea how to go about it. thanks again!
Comment by jabahut — October 9, 2008 #
Great article!!! Do you have anyting similar for hard drive replacement in the 3150? Thanks
Comment by Jim — October 12, 2008 #
Has not sounded this good even when new. Half hour and 10 screws later. Thanks a ton.
Comment by bstwelve — October 21, 2008 #