Support Center: Under the Case
Oct. 21st, 2009 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
A lot of the work day yesterday was spent installing a new fan assembly for my laptop, which my boss had ordered online to preserve his own sanity and everyone else's in the office - the computer had been making noises like an annoyed zombie with stomachache for some months. The process of getting into the computer was rather more involved than I had thought, involving the use of a screwdriver, a pen magnet to extract loose screws, a second screwdriver to use in conjunction with the first for unplugging tiny little fragile components, thermal paste, compressed air to blow away the dust because it was like Raiders of the Lost Ark in there, and old-fashioned brute force. Unsurprisingly my mind didn't stop when the operation was eventually successful, and on the new and improved quiet laptop this was soon produced:

(Don't use the magnet anywhere near the hard drives or you'll get up to 10 points of... data loss.)
To explain the middle item on the right, this came from an easier procedure that was performed a few months ago, following a recommended fix for getting around a design flaw of IBM's laptops. Some of the fan assembly went over the graphics chip and I could probably have left the now-baked-solid stack of paper out if the fan provided the necessary pressure itself, but it's still in there to be on the safe side.
Now it's much quieter, and seems to be running cooler as well - I keep on having to check that the fan is still actually spinning as I'm not used to it working with any degree of subtlety.

(Don't use the magnet anywhere near the hard drives or you'll get up to 10 points of... data loss.)
To explain the middle item on the right, this came from an easier procedure that was performed a few months ago, following a recommended fix for getting around a design flaw of IBM's laptops. Some of the fan assembly went over the graphics chip and I could probably have left the now-baked-solid stack of paper out if the fan provided the necessary pressure itself, but it's still in there to be on the safe side.
Now it's much quieter, and seems to be running cooler as well - I keep on having to check that the fan is still actually spinning as I'm not used to it working with any degree of subtlety.