Laptop Overheats and Shuts Down

Thanks Dougie....maybe I got the idea from you in the first place. Would never try to take a laptop apart. After I go back and read all the above and do what I can, for I am a "fixit" type, it may be a good idea to take it to local PC shop and ask about cleaning it for no way am I pitching it. And I have a busy life and cannot just sit and work on computers all the time, so have to cycle around. Thus cannot think and act immediately. Got to have some time in between, but WILL get to it. Now to read above. Thanks, all.

 

Just for fun I called PC shop and asked usual charge for opening and cleaning an 11 year old laptop that is running hot and never been cleaned. Sounded surprised at 11 years with never cleaning. Said usual is $79-99 and wanted to see it. Does this sound reasonable?
Tried vacuuming and elevating but fan exit is still at 90-95 degrees after 30-60 minutes.

 

I think it is reasonable price. Means you will have the laptop functioning as it is supposed to.
I wouldn't use it till you had it cleaned out and ask them also to apply new heatsink paste.
Electronics that run hot shortens their life span.
For a keepsake that means something to you I think it is a small price to pay.

 

Thanks. I will take it over Monday. They wanted to look at it. Gateway 7320-G purchased 3-5-2005.

 

Here are the specifics on that laptop.
http://www.cnet.com/products/gateway-7320gz/specs/
Pentium 4, 512 meg ram with 80 Gb hard drive....You would have to sedate me and do it yourself for me to spend $100 on that laptop at that age!

 

Here is the manual for that laptop....looks like there is a memory door, hard drive and then one other possibility but if that doesn't do it there appear to be about 8 screws all around the bottom that will most likely take the whole bottom off.
http://static.fixya.com/Manuals/G/Gateway/_7325GZ_PC_N_4CFDCA4262E37BE39FB620B25512EBD1.pdf

 

Actually it is a 7320 GZ but My Computer C:\ says 70.3 GB HD. If you think I might be able to safely take bottom off without ruining anything I would give it a try and at least look at it. Looks exciting anyway.

 

I knew you would go for it....and yes it looks like a simple take off. The third door may also give you the access without having to. Hard drive is 80 Gb. Windows reads an 80 gb hard drive as 74.5. The industry reads their size by decimal method and Windows does it binary capacity.Various Drive Sizes and their Binary and Decimal Capacities

Drive Size--------Approximate--------Decimal Capacity--------Approx Binary Capacity
in GB--------------Total Bytes------(bytes/1,000,000,000)-----(bytes/1,073,724,841)
10 GB-------------10,000,000,000------------10 GB------------------------9.31 GB
20 GB-------------20,000,000,000------------20 GB------------------------18.63 GB
30 GB-------------30,000,000,000------------30 GB------------------------27.94 GB
40 GB-------------40,000,000,000------------40 GB------------------------37.25 GB
60 GB-------------60,000,000,000------------60 GB------------------------55.88 GB
80 GB-------------80,000,000,000------------80 GB------------------------74.51 GB
100 GB-----------100,000,000,000-----------100 GB------------------------93.13 GB
120 GB-----------120,000,000,000-----------120 GB-----------------------111.76 GB
160 GB-----------160,000,000,000-----------160 GB-----------------------149.01 GB
180 GB-----------180,000,000,000-----------180 GB-----------------------167.64 GB
200 GB-----------200,000,000,000-----------200 GB-----------------------186.26 GB
250 GB-----------250,000,000,000-----------250 GB-----------------------232.83 GB

 

REPORT:
OK...After reading all of the above I decided I do not have the knowledge, experience or time to do this myself so I took it to the computer shop nearby to have them look at it. They seemed shocked it hadn't been cleaned out in 11 years. Said they would take it out from top, blow and clean it all out, and put the heat sink paste in for 79.99, and since the power switch hadnt worked for over 2 years and I have left it in standby when not not using with a restart every few days to a week or when the touchpad and keypad quit responding they would see if they had a power switch. Later called me and said they had a used power switch they would install for additional $10. I said OK and picked it up after a short while. 95.39 with tax total and I have a clean laptop with good power switch and low temperature and I can turn it off and easily start without fearing switch would break all the way or PC would break down from never being off.
At home I turned PC on, placed thermometer that showed maximum minimum temperature at the fan exit vent and left it running for 4 hours in a 72 degree room. Then found after 4 hours the minimum was 72 and the maximum was 75...far different than the previous 95 degree high in 30 - 60 minutes. Even if the fan is thermostatically controlled this thermometer told me the high and the low during the period. And less than $9 a year over 11 years, being able to turn it on with switch, and reducing the operating temperature made me completely happy. And the above info educates me and allows me to understand and maybe fix the other PCs should occasion arise, and I am going to watch the temperature and turn them off overnight and when not using for a period of time. So this had a good outcome. Thanks for the advice and help. This was my first laptop and I want to keep it as long as I can.

 

You are close to Guinness book of records so why not go for it. I have to check but I think it is 13 years. Good show and decent price too.