I had some free time today (just trying to avoid studying) so I decided to dismantle my laptop (due to heating problems).
With some help from my roommate (a lot more experienced than me in that area) I finally found the screw that stopped me the last few times and opened it.
Everything was fine until I settled my eyes on the fan. But first to explain - the fan gets fresh air from beneath it and blows it through a radiator. The radiator itself is connected with a heat pipe to the processor, graphics card and some other stuff. So back to the story - I'm seeing the radiator and the fan and between them I see a "block" of dirt - it was like a chocolate bar - thick and shaped like a rectangle. (Sadly enough I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures).
So after an hour of cleaning and few attempts of assembling it (one of the times nearly until the end until I saw the fan standing outside), we tried it.
Amazing.
The temperatures before the cleaning:
The processor:
65-85 depending on the usage and access to fresh air (being on a couch for example)
Graphics card
65-80 depending on the usage and access to fresh air
HDD
No thermometer, but generally quite hot.
After the cleaning:
The processor
40-55 The fan doesn't even start, but when it does start it could drop it to 39 (previously a number I could only dream for)
Graphics card
~55; After I watch a movie I could say more.
HDD
mild to warm
I'm having ~20 degrees drop in temperatures.
That's amazing. It was undreamed of.
Update: pictures of the dirt in the radiators:
whoa! It is really like a chocolate bar. I have a problem other than that.
After cleaning the dust on the air vents my laptop still overheats. I re-opened again my laptop and viewed the parts and seemed there's nothing wrong and a day after I asked my friend about this problem and he told me that maybe its because of the high performance of my laptop and made me realize that playing high quality games adds-up more speed and produces heat that caused my laptop to overheat. i minimized installed HQ games for the sake of my laptop.. thanks anyway!
Dude, playing demanding games on a laptop is ...well, demanding for the laptop. But if you ventilate it well it is supposed to withstand that. I now have a macbook and playing games on it makes it ultra hot.
it is. so, your using separate laptop cooler?? for my side, that's what I'm doing.. Just don't place your laptop on your lap to avoid infertility.
I agree on the infertility part.
My last macbook was weak and couldn't handle starcraft2 - the only game I play. The new one has two graphics cards and is way better with the game. I can play for prolonged periods of time. It still light the fans but not as much as the old one. I don't use any extra usb fans.