The Site With the Lamp

April 18, 2006

My father has an Acer Aspire 1600 (or is it a 1601 LC?). it's a bit old now but the fact that it has a P4 processor rather than a 'celeron like' mobile version means it's almost as good as many of the models in the market today.

Having a P4 CPU instead of a mobile version does have it's drawbacks. The main being the heat generated. You cannot keep this machine on your lap. Recently the notebook had started to shut itself down for no apparent reason. I immidiately suspected that it was being overheated. This is something that is easily fixed (by cleaning the heat sink to get rid of dust)

The last time I attempted to fix a notebook it ended up in the garbage, this time around I had more information at hand thanks mostly to http://nfn15037.tripod.com/

The aspire 1600/1601 is slightly different from the one described at the above site. So I have added my own photos to help explain things to the next man who wants to try it. All the images can be clicked on to bring up larger versions.

Don't bother to remove any of the screws at the back. I wasted one our on it but gave up in the end, primarily because I couldn't find all the plastic locks. It was then that I found the that link.

The easiest way to get to the heat sink is to open up the top panel. The panel that contains the the power button and displays the model number. Once you have opened that up, you need to remove the keyboard by unscrewing it and slowly lifting it off the board. Take care or you will break the plastic locks. Four spring loaded screws hold down the heat sink. The order in which they should be unscrewed is marked.

If you want to lift the heatsink right out you need to detach the fan. Once you have done that use either a blower or a vaccume to remove the dust. The article at the above link speaks of removing all traces of thermal grease and applying a fresh coat. I didn't find it necassary. At this stage I made a mistake and unplugged the keyboard cable as well. It turned out to be a reall pain to put back in.

Before you reassemble everything and put the lid back on, remember to power on the machine at least once (you will need to plug the power code back onto the top panel though) to make sure you haven't broken anything.

Posted by raditha at April 18, 2006 5:10 AM