Vostro 1500 cooler fan problem

Only do this if you feel competent in doing so.

Pulling apart laptops is not for the faint of heart.

If you really must do it there are some good guides here.

An alternative is to get a can of compressed air used to clean computers. Put the nozzle on and spray it in every hole you can see without putting the nozzle itself inside the laptop.

Do this outside with glasses on.


You may also want to remove the hard drive and ROM drive.

Take a peek here for more ideas of what is involved.

There are a few are tips for various things in there.

DON'T touch the CPU cooler unless you know what you are doing and have some thermal grease for CPUs to hand.

To make newer laptops last longer between cleaning a good 3 fan cooling pad is suggested.
never use a laptop on soft surfaces as the ventilation can act as a mini vacuum cleaner and encourage dirt build up.
Soft surfaces also block the vents causing fans to run more and burn out sooner.

Hope this gives you the information you need

The fan only runs because the machine is telling it that it is too hot
Questions:
Is the fan running up to speed , are the fan blades dirty, is the outlet from the fans blocked , is the heatsink that the fans cool blocked.

Get a can of compressed air from your local Tandy if you are in the US or Maplins if your are in the UK

Take off the base cover (normally 4 screws) and give the fans a really good blasting and then do the same for the heatsinks etc.

Put the cover back on and try it , dont operate the machine on top of a bed or a table with a heavy cloth cover on it as that will impede the airflow

In extremes you can buy a cooler of Ebay which the laptop sits on and gets even more through flow of air