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Things you will need:

• A clean bench or table.
• Anti-static protection. We use anti-static heels, wrist band and ESD mat on the ground.
• Phillips screwdriver.
• Thermal Paste. We use Arctic Silver 5.
• Cleaning Alcohol. It should completely evaporate and not leave residue.
• Shop Towel. Household paper towel will work too.
• Electronics spray air can or a vacuum cleaner.

Cautions:

• If you don’t have Anti-static protection you should not undertake this project. Opening a laptop exposes circuit board and a single shock of static electricity will render your computer useless, likely forever.
• Always remove the battery; in this case you have to remove the battery to begin working on the computer.
• Avoid using power tools. Unless you have a lot of experience and your gun has electric brakes, don’t bother – you will crack the case. If you have a lot of experience then you shouldn’t need to watch this video.
• Keep all screws labeled. We use an Ice cube tray pre-labeled for different parts of the computer. If you install wrong screw you can not only crack your case but you can also go through your motherboard completely disabling the computer.
• Keep the detached hard drive in a safe place where it will not get exposed to any kind of magnetic sources or shock.
• Be very patient when pulling the motherboard out of the case. If it won’t come out easily, you have left a screw somewhere. Do not use force or your computer will take damage.
• Use extreme caution when using vacuum cleaner or can air as you can lose screws in the process.
• Use extreme caution when pulling wires from the motherboard. They are made of very cheap plastic but if you break it, they are very expensive to replace. Again, don’t use any force.
• Using tweezers is ok but keep very good grip on it. One slip and you can damage the motherboard. It’s safer to use your fingernails to remove small wires.
• Wi-Fi wires are very easy to strip. You can even strip them with your fingers. Use care when pulling these wires because if you slice it your Wi-Fi won’t work correctly. Electric tape to mend the wire might help a little but ideally will need replacement.
• CPU fan fins will break if you’re using high pressure air. For example, don’t touch the fins with anything while forcing air to clean it. It will spin very fast and any contact with screwdriver, tip of the vacuum cleaner or air can’s nozzle will instantly break off the fan and it will be rendered useless.
• Heatsink screws are numbered and they are numbered for a reason. Follow the numbers from 1 to 6 – unscrew number 1 first, then move on. Same for assembling the heatsink, start with number 1 and move to number 6. Always hand-tighten these screws and go over once again from 1 to 6.
• Make sure thermal pads are intact and you replace the heatsink, if the pads are dried up, you will need to replace them. If they are soft and moist, mostly they work fine.
• Use rubbing alcohol gently; don’t make any scratches on heatsink surface as those scratches will create a bubble causing horrible overheating issues. Remember, we’re trying to fix overheating laptop.
• Take extra few minutes and be sure all connectors are plugged in. No one wants to find that out later just to re-open an entire computer.
• Replace all screws accordingly; don’t swap any longer screw for a shorter one or vice versa.
• Channel all wires and cables as they were. Pinched, stripped or cut wires are no good. Touchpad cover in most computers is made of some kind of metal and has sharp edges and will cut wires with no problem.

Now that all the cautions and warnings are out of the way, feel free to contact us if you get stuck. Only do this if you are confident, Toronto PC Service can’t be held responsible for damaged equipment. If you are concerned, call us at 416-223-2525 and we can professionally clean out your computer.