Home
In this guide I explain how to clean or replace the cooling fan assembly in a Dell XPS M1530 laptop. The cooling fan can be accessed from the door on the bottom of the laptop and replacing/cleaning procedure takes only about 10 minutes.
I’m taking this XPS M1530 laptop apart because the cooling fan started making noise and laptop shuts off on its own when hot. I will replace the fan, clean the heat sink and apply fresh thermal grease on the CPU and video chip.
If you need a new cooling fan, you can find it here. You can buy just the fan or entire heat sink assembly.
STEP 1.
Turn off the laptop, unplug the power adapter and remove the battery.
Unscrew five screws securing the memory/fan cover and remove the cover.
STEP 2.
Remove six screws securing the heat sink assembly to the motherboard.
Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.
By the way, here’s how you can upgrade memory modules in this laptop.
STEP 3.
Remove the heat sink assembly.
STEP 4.
Remove four screws securing the cooling fan to the heat sink.
STEP 5.
Lift up and remove the cooling fan.
STEP 6.
The heat sink is clogged with dust and has to be cleaned. You can use canned air to blow off dust from the heat sink and fan.
STEP 7.
Before installing the heat sink assembly back into the laptop take a look at thermal grease on the processor and video chip.
If thermal grease dried out, it has to be replaced.
Remove old grease from the heat sink using a piece of paper towel soaked in 99% alcohol.
Do not remove thermal pad. It can be reused.
STEP 8.
Using same paper towel remove old thermal grease from the processor and video chip.
As you see, I cleaned only the top side of the NVIDIA chip. There are many very small chips buried under thermal grease and I was afraid to damage them.
STEP 9.
Apply a small drop of fresh thermal grease on the processor and NVIDIA chip before installing the heat sink assembly.
I’m using Shin-Etsu gray thermal grease.
In the next post I explain how to remove the LCD sceen and inverter board from a Dell XPS M1530 laptop.
October 6th, 2012 at 11:58 am
Thank you very, very much for such a great set of instructions. Just finished cleaning the dust from the fan and the side of the heat sink. Your step-by-step guide was easy to follow and the photos helped a lot. Previously I thought a new thermal control unit was going to be needed, but this repair did the trick. Thank you again!
September 7th, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Oh, but you missed a screw in Step 2 — on my machine the one at the very end of the heat sink (bottom middle of the picture) was there. But it’s obvious from the pictures that it needed to come out.
After reading the comments, yes — get a proper screwdriver designed for the job. I started with my multipurpose and quickly realized I was going to strip the screw irreparably if I didn’t go and find the correct one. With that in hand it was a breeze.
September 7th, 2012 at 10:04 pm
Brilliant guide, I just followed it and cleaned all the gunk and cat hair out my fan. Laptop back together and working brilliantly, hopefully it’ll run a little cooler now.
Thanks for putting this guide together.
July 25th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
My fan and the heatsink area got clogged up with dust. Gave me plenty of warning and groans before it died. I opened it up when it died, removed the dust, but the fan wouldn’t spin up. Possibly because the fan spindle bearings lubricant had fried with the heat. Lifted the fan spindle out, and put a dab of silicone spray lube in the receptacle, and put the fan back in place. Fan spun up, nice and silent – ie no replacement was needed. Temperature stays nice and cool.
Silicone lube is one of the wonders of modern tech, along with duct tape, araldite and WD-40.
April 25th, 2012 at 3:24 pm
I’m typing on my iPod because my laptop isn’t currently working! Whenever I attempt to turn it on the Dell page comes up and so does the loading bar. Then it takes me to a black screen (still lit up) with a flashing small dash in the top,left corner. It stays like that…just flashing. I tried pressing f1 and f12 to get to the setting page. The page comes up…but there seems to ne nothing that would help. I ran an option that ran rests on my computer. A blue screen came ip making beeping noises and first said to press y or n if colors were appearing. Then the page ran a series of tests that took approximately 1hr. After it was finished the page just froze. I’m desperate for A solution and I can’t spend the money it would take to fix it. Will this tutorial fix the problem I’m having?
April 2nd, 2012 at 3:48 am
An excellent guide.
I have a different problem. I believe I’ve blown the power input circuit on the laptop – Dell XPS1530. The laptop itself worked ok off the battery until the battery charge was exhausted. Dell tell me the power input circuit is integrated within the motherboard. but I have read elsewhere that a plug-in card is available. I cannot find any guidance on the web for motherboard access / replacement. Can you help.
Many thanks.
Allan
March 28th, 2012 at 11:18 am
Thanks for this perfect instruction guide!
I took out a lot of dust and its a lot better now
In my XPS M1530, there was one more screw to take out in step 3 that is not marked in your picture.
KUDOS !!
February 28th, 2012 at 1:56 pm
@ Petter,
It’s not screws, it’s your screwdriver. Use a good quality screwdriver and you’ll never have this problem.
I’ve been using same Wiha screwdriver on daily bases for over 6 years and the tip still like new.
February 25th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Thank you for the guide!
I had to replace my fan because the old one had a defective bearing and was massively noisy. The thermal paste was pretty hard to get off after almost four years. *g*
Most of the screws Dell used for my computer are just plain bad quality and won’t survive one more try I’m afraid — I hope I won’t have to open the case again in the future.
November 4th, 2011 at 7:34 am
@ Dave,
LOL. That was a smart idea.