subject: Tech Help for CPU and Heat Sink Component [print this page] Tech Help for CPU and Heat Sink Component
A laptop user was facing a computer problem over few months which started when his laptop would crash when he was playing a new MMO. This would happen quite often. The user reported that he usually did not play anything on it. As a result, he could not confirm whether it was due to MMO or the problem was related with something else earlier.
According to the user, his laptop would heat up significantly and would run very slow. The user tried to cool it by running it on flat surfaces, using lap coolers, etc., but nothing worked.
As a keen learner, the user did his own research. He noticed that the heatsink was getting clogged. According to him, after normal gameplay, his CPU would range in temperature 150-170 F.
The user cleaned the heatsink. He noticed that it was very clogged. After that cleaning of heatsink, the user found that laptop would function normally for a short period of time. But after a period of one hour or so, it would heat up again and slow down. Even If the user would restart, it did not help till his laptop cooled.
After a week or so, the laptop started functioning still strangely. It then started taking over 10 minutes to reboot the laptop.
The laptop user replaced his RAM from 512 to 1 GB. He was also advised to install a new, faster harddisk. But neither replacement of RAM not installation of new harddisk solved his computer problem. The user was assisted in cleaning all unneeded programs. This was carried out using remote repair facility. As the user had already reinstalled Windows XP, the problem was definitely not with the software.
Inspecting everything, the online computer consultant came to a hard conclusion that the problem must be either with the CPU or with the motherboard. Step-by-step, first of all the processor was tested. Indeed the problem was fixed as soon as the CPU was uninstalled and after applying heat sink component, the CPU was reinstalled.
It was found that the problem was because of the removal dried up of the heat sink component.
