Replacing my laptop's fan?

[hbomerman]

Hey everygody,
I've got a Gateway model W6501 laptop and it's being a real pain. It's from the FX line of gateway's notebooks, marketed for gaming (yeah right).

My main problem: it overheats and freezes/bluescreens, particularly when I play world of warcraft. The panel just under the fan has been slightly popping out for the longest time, but the fan still works (idk how well, but it's blows out some hot air).

How would I go about fixing/replacing my fan? I'm not sure what kind of fan it uses.

I'll upload a picture when I can.

Thanks!

 

[abully]

disassembling notebooks is a pain in the neck... if you havent done it before i would suggest you take it to a specialist to have the fan changed...

since you said that the fan is blowing out hot air you can try getting a notebook cooler pad (try something with a big 200mm+ fan like Antec Notebook Cooler 200)... this will cool the other components inside the notebook as well as the cpu heatsinks...

 

[vvhocare5]

If there is hot air being blown out of the laptop then the fan works. Laptop fans are not the type where you can buy one at your local store if they fail.

What it would likely benefit from is replacing the thermal material between the heatsink and cpu, and checking to see if the heatsink fins are clogged.

If you are meticulous about taking things apart and putting them back together, then you can do this. IF not, dont try. There are a lot of little screws and connectors and you have to be very gentle or else you break it with far more consequences.

Good luck

 

[rubix_1011]

My brother had a Gateway laptop that got a huge fuzzball stuck in one of the cooling fans...it would just shut down because the fan wouldn't turn at all and overheat. We pulled it apart (check for vids on YouTube...there are several for teardowns) and cleaned the fan.

FYI...as abully stated...real PITA, but worth it if it takes care of your issue.