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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.
November 4th, 2011 at 1:20 am
Good guide – my XPS M1530 was running hot with a lot of fan noise and the picture of the heatsink clogged with dust made me investigate further. I could see with a torch without dismantling the heatsink assembly that the heatsink was clogged with dust. Rather than disassembling everything, I simply attached a drinking straw to a vacuum cleaner nossle with some sellotape, and carefully passed the straw through the fan and hoovered out the dust on low power. Laptop now working fine again, with much reduced fan noise and heat.
October 18th, 2011 at 4:47 am
Thanks for this guide. My m1530 was running warmer and warmer and had started to shutdown by itself when I was playing FPS game. Just like the fan in picture 6, my fan had collected a lot of dust. My m1530 is back to normal after following this guide.
October 6th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Thanks for the guide–very easy to follow. But screw number 5 is a little bugger!!! It didn’t want to unscrew at all! After trying a few different sizes of screwdriver, I finally got it to break loose…but now there’s no amount of pressure I can apply to get it to screw back in. It simply won’t catch, and just spins freely. Why did they make the thing so short!?
August 7th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Brilliant guide and almost at the end of my tether trying to work out what was wrong
Thanks M1530 back in buisiness
July 16th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Brilliant guide! Easy to follow, and effective advice – my XPS1530 now running considerably cooler. Thanks!!
July 16th, 2011 at 10:50 am
nice#! thx
July 15th, 2011 at 9:25 am
REAAAAALLLYYY THANK YOUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
u have no idea how this helped!!!!
June 21st, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Hello,
I’m in quite a bit of frustration. Screw #5 will not unscrew and it seems like i’ve worn down the cross on the top of the screw to the point where it’s now a circle…..
I’ve seen some advice as to removing such screws, such as superglue-ing the screwdriver to the screw. If I were to do that, what is the right size and where can I find the replacement screw???
Please reply as soon as you can!
Thanks so much
May 9th, 2011 at 11:47 pm
I’m also having trouble removing the screws for the heatsink. Would very much appreciate advice on the screwdriver needed or from anyone else who’s had similar problems.
Thanks
Jennifer
March 26th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
This was very helpful! Thanks for taking the time to post it.