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Does your Dell Inspiron 5100 run hot and shuts down by itself? Apparently it’s time to take it apart and clean the cooling fan. These instructions will help you take apart Dell Inspiron 1100, 5100 and 5150 series laptops.
If you own a Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook, you may need to do this periodically. Otherwise you may find that your notebook will overheat and shutdown unexpectedly…The best way to solve this is to clean the fan. The weakness in this notebook model is the ventilation fan cannot be accessed from the outside. You have to take apart your notebook.
Here’s another guide for cleaning a Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, similar to Inspiron 5100 and 5150.
The cooling fan makes noise and has to be replaced? You can find a new one here really cheap, just search for Dell 5100 fan.
While you are inside the laptop, it’s a good idea to replace thermal grease on the processor.
1. Remove the heat sink.
2. Wipe the old thermal grease off of the heat sink and processor.
3. Apply new thermal grease on the processor.
4. Install the heat sink back in place.
You’ll find more detailed instructions for replacing the thermal grease in the service manual.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:38 am
I have a DELL inspiron 5150, 512mram, 3.06GHz. I downloaded http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html. While running a stress test using prime95. while the cpu is at 100% the cpu temp peaked at 72%. What would the normal Peak temp be at 100% and at idle.
I intend to dissassemble and clean my laptop in the comming days. I am very interested in the difference this will make.
Regards Mark
June 29th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Tom,
Usually, I spray from the bottom first, right into the fan grill at a 90 degree angle. After most of dust is removed, I spray into the grill on the side and then repeat both steps if needed. Spray air until the dust stops coming out.
June 28th, 2009 at 4:50 am
Can you clairfy what you mean by ‘spray it inside the cooling fan’… from what angle? From the rear or from the side.
Thanks!
I take my 5150 apart once a year and clean out the dust matt the has formed. It is a real drag, no less than 20 screws or something.
November 16th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Julie Dahlberg,
Here’s what you can do for preventing the same problem happening in the future. Buy a can of compressed air and once in a while spray it inside the cooling fan. This simple procedure will help you keep the cooling assembly clean.
November 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Thanks – this worked great for me. There was a large amount of dust built up along the heatsink. I removed this and now my 5100 is running quieter than i ever remembered.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:27 am
Jon Gill,
- Test the laptop with an external monitor attached to the VGA port. If the laptop displays video on the external monitor but internal LCD is not working, check the video cable. Make sure the cable is properly connected to the motherboard. Maybe you accidentally pulled the cable and there is no signal going to the LCD screen.
- Did you remove memory for some reason? If you did, make sure it’s properly connected to the slot. Try reseating the memory module.
- Here’s another guess. Make sure that all screws are located in proper places. If you place a longer screw into a shorter hole, it may touch and short the motherboard. Make sure all screws you removed during the disassembly process are positioned correctly.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I followed the instructions to clean the fan on a Inspiron 5100. Several dirty q-tips but nothing major. After re-assembly power lite comes on, fan runs, DVD drive kicks on for a second, then nothing else. Any suggestions??
Jon