Help on keyboard removal in FS-215s

[nvc_vishwanathan]

Hi,

I was looking through the Vaio's manual for help on keyboard removal. but there is no info about this in the manual. i tried looking into the web and wasnt successful... can someone please help me on this. its been 3 years since i have bought my Vaio VGN-FS215s and not cleaned the keyboard.

also, is there any way, i could clean the fans, as i have noticed excessive heating up, recently.

Thanks,

[Thalamus.]

Hi nvc_vishwanathan

welcome to Club vaio..

This FS-series autopsy guide may be of use, not sure how accurate it is though..

As to the overheating issue, what is the normal running temperature of your vaio..?

If your unsure, mobilemeter is a handy application to use..

If your vaio is getting hot you may need to first try clearing the cooling vents of dust with compressed air (you should be able to get this from your local PC shop), holding the can upright give the vents a short blast from a distance of approx. 10cm if you hold the can to close you could damage the fan..

If you do not notice any improvement then your vaio may need to be disassembled in order to deep clean the fan and cooling vents.

[nvc_vishwanathan]

Thanks for the Autopsy guide. that was quite useful. i will try cleaning up my keyboard today.

I had been through this forum on overheating problems in vaio machines... and found that setting the power management mode for CPU to "Adaptive" mode is useful. and i had immediately changed it for my notebook, and ever since the temperatures are down now. its 62 deg for the CPU and 37 deg for the Harddisk, as i am typing now.

however, i am an extreme user of this laptop. i run simulation runs on matlab for my phd project, on this laptop. and many a times it runs for several minutes, say about 30 mins. and in such case, the CPU would anyway run to full power. i tried running a smaller program, for 3 mins, and the CPU temperature went up till 100 deg, and was hovering in that range, and never shot beyond 100 deg.. however, the hard disk temperature was about 47 deg. That seems to be higher, isnt it ?

i will try blowing of the vents with compressed air as recommended, and let you know.

Thanks, for the suggestion, particularly for that link, on autopsy.

Cheers,
Vishwa

[Thalamus.]

Hi Vishwa,

Those CPU temperatures are very high,and passive cooling should have reduced the overall performance of your Vaio in an attempt to lower the temperature..

It would be wise to try clearing the cooling vents of dust, etc with compressed air asap, once you've done please post back the temperatures reported by mobilmeter..

If you have not notice any improvement then your vaio may need to be disassembled using the autopsy guide to dust build up, etc. from the fan and surrounding areas..

[nvc_vishwanathan]

Hi Thalamus,

Thanks again.

yes, its worrying me now. cos i have seen slowness in my computer. it takes a few seconds to increase the CPU to full speed and hence delays the starting of any application.

I had, before, thought of buying some cooling pads for my notebook, but then realised that it must be the dust accumulated on heat-sinks that is actually the problem. However, i have bought some felt-pads from B&Q and placed them at the bottom of the notebook (three felts one over the other, to get more height) so that it would give increased air circulation for passive cooling. still didnt help much.

I have ordered the compressed air cans and will be reaching me by tomorrow or the day after (if unlucky due to postal strike). i will let you know the improvements on my laptop, soon after i use them...

by the way, a small observation. somewhere on the net i read, yesterday, that "if you are sneezing a lot, when working on your laptop, it might be time to dust off the vents"... this seems to be true in my case. i sneeze a lot especially when on my laptop. just realised this, this morning, when i started to sneeze just after few hours of sitting in front of my laptop. So, this overheating is not only a problem for the laptop, but to my HEALTH too... !!!

thanks a lot,

Vishwa

[Thalamus.]

Hi Vishwa

I've not tried it but something like this may help..

[nvc_vishwanathan]

Thanks again Thalamus. Actually, this Xpad is what made me try those felt pads that i am using now. Trying to see how good the passive cooling, "as they claim", works!

I am still waiting for those compressed air cans.. must be reaching me today... will post here, after i clean up the vents...

Cheers,
Vishwa

[Thalamus.]

Don't forget to check the instructions on the can, normally just holding the can upright and giving the vents a short blast from a distance of approx. 10cm will do the trick, be careful not to hold the can to close or you could damage the fan..

[nvc_vishwanathan]

Hi Thalamus,

I got the cans delivered today, and tried it immediately. I blew air on the vents at the bottom of my laptop, and even on the vents near the fan (located on the rear side). but no improvement noticed. i am still monitoring the cpu and hard disk temperatures. to give it a check i again ran my matlab program that would go for 10 mins. i am now in library on a sunny day and so the ambient temperature is also a bit above normal. while running the programme, the cpu temperatures was rising and shot above 90 deg which was shocking to me. it kept rising and rising reached 98 deg and was still rising :smileyd_oh: ...i felt that was alarming, and immediately intervened to stop the programme.

so, i think, as you said, my laptop needs some serious deep cleaning. i will consult our university's computer center if they could do it for me. i am a bit varry of doing it myself. dont want to screw up my laptop.

thanks for all the help. i will post back once i get my laptop a deep flush !

Vishwa

[nvc_vishwanathan]

Hurray.... :smileygrin:

its such a happy feeling having my laptop now under control (i guess so!)

Thalamus, I, opened the back cover of my laptop, with all precautions (as said in that link which you privided) and tried to clean up everything. actually there were not much dust seen at all. however, the outlet opening for the exhaust, on the rear side (near the fan) had quite a lot of dust accumulated (mostly fibre like dust), which seemed to have given a clogging like effect, reducing the overall cross-sectional area for air flow. this reduced air flow reduced the cooling efficiency of the fan. so it was this clogging, that caused the problem. i removed all the clogs using a compressed air gun. reassembled all the things back in place, and took a deep breath, before switching on the laptop. and teh laptop booted with no problem (first succes, cos i had never ever autopsied a laptop). then i ran my matlab programme that takes up 100% of the cpu, for about 5 mins. the cpu temperature was hovering at about 70 deg. then i again ran teh same programme continuously for 15 mins. the temperature shot up very very gratually, and reached a max of 79 and never went beyond it... i was so so so happy.

the temperatures now as i am typing are, CPU 64 deg, and hard disk 36 deg... Does that sound Ok, Thalamus... hard disk seems to be a bit warm, isn't it ?

i dont know how to thank you for your constant support... thankyou so much, Thalamus... thankyou very very verymuch..

Vishwa