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Please help! Laptop turns off automatically

Jan 1, 2015 9:23AM PST

I have a dell studio 1458. I use windows 7 64.

The laptop was running slow lately and overheating even with simple tasks.

I thought I should clean the fan, so I disassembled the laptop. I was as careful as possible. I did it all in a very organized way to avoid getting lost with the screws or matching the cables on the right spot.

After all the process, I cleaned the fan. It was really dirty...
( I don't know if this is important, but there was some type of gum between the processor and a piece of metal connected to the fan. That gum was very thin over the processor, so I slightly reshaped it to give more 'cushion' between them)
... After cleaning the fan, I asambled everything and turned on the laptop. It worked great for some minutes. The fan was very loud, but I assumed that it was because now it's working properly.

However, after 10 minutes, the laptop stopped working. If I try to turn it again, it automatically turns off in a couple of minutes.

Please help me. What could be the problem? I can't afford a technician Sad So I want to solve it with my own hands.

Discussion is locked

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I'd replace the gum.
Jan 1, 2015 9:27AM PST

That stuff is called heatsink compound which has many YouTube videos about replacing it.

And get a new fan as it sounds like it failed.
Bob

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Thanks!
Jan 1, 2015 11:35AM PST

The fan was working when I turned on the computer. I realized two more things:
1. I didn't connect properly the mouse pad to the mother board.
2. I may have swapped the (RAM) memory cards. But both are exactly the same brand and size.

Would any of these two issues cause a threat high enough for the computer to shut down?

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No.
Jan 1, 2015 2:11PM PST

Heatsink compound is not gummy. It's about 2 to 6 bucks of compound so you've described old dry compound which is a great reason for the failure. Replace it and hope for the best.
Bob

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Should I replace the fan and heatsink?
Jan 1, 2015 11:59PM PST

I read that the thermal paste should be all around the surface of the processor. So by reshaping it, I might have left some area without thermal paste?

Also, I noticed that the heatsink turned black near the fan. It looks like it burned. But that happened before I opened the laptop. So it's not because I moved the thermal paste. Should I replace the fan and heatsink?

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No. And no.
Jan 2, 2015 12:06AM PST

Thermal paste does not have the consistency of "gum." If you find gum instead of heatsink compound, then you replace it. It's cheap.

I'd wait to see if the heatsink compound replacement helps.
Bob

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Thanks!
Jan 2, 2015 3:06AM PST

Thank you very much. This is really helpful. I'll replace the heatsink compound and see how it goes.

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While not your CPU in this link.
Jan 2, 2015 3:11AM PST
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Directions with the thermal paste.
Jan 13, 2015 11:21AM PST

I finally got the thermal paste. The heatsink is touching the cpu and one more part. Is it the gpu? This second part is also covered by a grey material. Is this material thermal paste too? It looks slightly different than the one on the cpu.

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For this round we
Jan 14, 2015 12:18AM PST

Either use our past experience or more web pages. I can't see what you see so I can't tell if this model used a "thermal pad" but even if it did I found that over the years I can remove those and use compound if the heatsink mechanical clearances and contact are good.

Be aware that if the machine has failed, well, this won't fix it but given the cost of compound versus boards, the choice is easy. Try it anyway.
Bob