How to clean or replace cooling fan in Dell XPS M1530 laptop

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.