Computer Repair Job

For those of you who are avid Facebook stalkers (Um, I mean, frequent users) you may have noticed that Haidee and I purchased a new laptop computer.  After much research and some advice from some of our more 'techie' friends we purchased a Dell Vostro 3350.  

Haidee’s old Toshiba Satellite (purchased in 2006 before she left for Japan the first time) was on its last leg.  The main problem was that it had grown incredibly slow.  And, we couldn’t use iTunes, Skype, or the DVD player without the machine overheating and freezing up (sometimes English doesn’t make much sense).  I had tried several software fixes and troubleshooting tips found online, but to no avail. 

Now that Haidee’s new laptop is up and running, I was a little more comfortable trying a more intrusive “surgery” to see if I could improve her old Toshiba laptop.  Haidee and I had the hypothesis that the interior of her laptop was clogged with six year’s accumulation of dust.  Simply blowing compressed air throw the vents didn’t seem to cut it.  So, armed with an array of small screwdrivers, a damp rag, cotton swabs, a can of compressed air, and (most importantly) step-by-step instructions from the internet (loaded up on Haidee’s new laptop) I sat down to work.

What to do on a HOT day during summer vacation?  Some computer surgery!

The most difficult part of the job was actually the first step:  prying off the keyboard housing.

 

I was a little nervous, because I’d never done it before, but I carefully removed the keyboard.

 

After disconnecting countless wires from their motherboard sockets (such as the audio and microphone cables, the WiFi card, the video card, the DVD cable) I was able to detach the screen.

ALL of this was necessary just to remove the laptop casing to expose the motherboard (sheesh!).

Here’s a picture of the fan – very dusty.

    

I removed the exterior housing of the fan to find the real culprit:  a formidable carpet of dust!

I think I should save this dust bunny, as a keepsake.  Or, maybe I'll try to sell it on Ebay.

Look how the plastic grid (creating a vent below the fan) is damaged.  It looks like it had started to melt from overheating so often!

Nice and clean!  The improved ventilation will allow the fan to cool the machine more easily.

After this extensive computer cleaning job Haidee and I came to a very important conclusion:  Everyone should clean out the air ducts of their laptop computer on a regular basis!  It takes one minute to blow out the air ducts with a can of compressed air, and I’m sure it would prevent a dust build up like the one we saw on Haidee’s old Toshiba.  Overheating can cause irreversible damage to your laptop.  And, here in Japan, during the Atsui summer, our computers can use every bit of help they can get.