Acer Aspire 5536 overheating

Hi guys,

I have an Acer Aspire 5536 laptop which seems to be gradually overheating (and is now out of warranty!). I've noticed over the past few days it getting progessively hotter when I'm barely even running anything (just Windows 7 with Chrome running is enough to make it start running very hot). Haven't installed anything to monitor the temp yet, but there is little point as I'm fairly sure things will gradually get worse until it stops running, so I've decided I want to take it apart in order to give it a clean and reapply the thermal compound.

Just wondering if anyone is aware of any guides out there for taking apart/ressambling this particular model, or if anyone here has attempted it before. I've got plenty of experience with desktops, but never taken apart a laptop before - watching the guides for other models it looks complicated and easy to screw up if you don't take photos of everything you are doing!

Any advice much appreciated,

Thanks, Kev

 

Hi

Yes, photos are good, and take video if you can as well. I've disassembled a few laptops, also good to have papers (or little containers are better) labeled for what screws go where, as there are many different sizes and lengths of screws.

Appears to be a disassembly guide at this link, has a captcha code to download:

http://www.devicemanuals.com/guide/...6-Notebook-Service-Manual-==TXpBNU16QXc=.html

 

I'm wondering if the battery is continually trying to charge causing the heating problem, or maybe just adding to the problem. Does your battery last as long as it used too?

 

Thanks for prompt reply. Took a look at that service manual and it has no specific instructions unfortunately, but it was a long shot anyway, and the manual could come in handy for other reasons. Will have to be a wing and a prayer I think! And plenty of video and photo evidence etc.

 

You may be onto something here but I've not noticed that the battery is suddenly lasting less time.. The battery has never lasted that well. Guess I could remove battery and keep it on mains to see if it makes any difference?

 

One thing most people are not aware of is that laptop batteries should NOT be in the laptop if it is plugged into external power (unless you are charging the battery). Even though they are lithium, it severely shortens the laptop's battery life to leave it in while the computer is plugged into external power.

While keeping the battery out might help with the heating issue, cleaning inside is still a good idea.

 

Used canned air to blow dust out by the vents on the laptop. At least until you can figure out how to disassemble it, it will help a wee bit. Can you hear the fan(s) spinning?

 

You make a good point - I am going to trial running the laptop without the battery in it at all to see if it makes a difference.

 

Tried this already, think if there is any dust causing a problem it is probably too far inside. Can hear the fan spinning, don't think this is the issue.. Everything sound normal.

 

hi i have a acer aspire 5536 seems to be getting hot near the fan ive ordered a new fan and heatsink also sum compressed air

any information wud be gratefull to rectify the heating problem

 

Unless you have advice to dispense, please follow the forum rules and post your own thread regarding your issue.

Otherwise, follow this one for advice...

:cool

 

Paul1974 - I can tell you that I eventually took it to a repair shop that had the experience of taking apart many laptops including Acer models like this, and for £40 they cleaned it out and re-applied thermal compound.

I passed the laptop onto a friend in the end (and have a different model now), but I can tell you that after the clean up it's still working OK to this day. I suspect it was mainly dust and thermal compound probably needed re-applying. They told me there was a lot of dust in there. There is only so much you can do without taking it apart, but you may not need a new heatsink - check that it's clean first.

I chickened out on doing it myself. I took it all apart and got to the point where I had the chassis apart but couldn't figure out how to start removing the mainboard.. at the time it was my only laptop so rather than risk screwing it up myself, had a pro do it.

 

P.s. It turned out to be nothing to do with the battery as was previously suggested. I think due to the nature of laptops many of them will go this way and get clogged with dust - especially the budget ones as perhaps the airflow has not been so well thought out.

I now have an Acer Aspire 5552 laptop and have to say I do prefer it - the airflow does seem to be much better, yet it's also a lot quieter.

 

The overheating problem has nothing whatsoever (barring special cases where you have a defective battery) to do with the battery.

The cause is the absence of a realised vent on the underside of the laptop. If you doubt this, take the laptop apart and examine the design. There is a vent *impression* on the underside of the case, but it appears to have been blocked by a manufacturing oversight. The would-be vent is directly underneath the laptop fan, situated in such a way that if the vent was in *fact* a vent, it would allow the ingress of cool air from the underside of the laptop, to be passed over the heatsink and the hot air to be vented out the back of the laptop.

Minus the opening of the bottom vent, the fan's only purpose appears to be to recirculate warm air around the interior of the laptop case.

I have one of these - I'm using it right now, post a relatively tidy modification of the vent (by my brothers) that opened up the vent slats.

Before the vent was opened, the laptop was running at 550MHz and around 78C. After the vent was opened, I could run at 2200MHz, just under 70C. At idle, the laptop sits around the 42C mark.

Additionally, since the mod, I've been able to change the configuration on a number of the games I play, to achieve much higher graphics settings. This strongly supports my contention that the laptop was designed to have the vent open, and that a manufacturing/design oversight neglected to realise the vent in the finished product. The fan does indeed now draw cool air from the bottom of the case, and the relatively dust-free condition of the laptop interior *before* the mod, also supports this idea.

 

He's right. I've looked at the 5536 since (though it doesn't belong to me any more), and the cool air intake on the bottom of the machine is present, but it's blocked up like they simply forgot to punch holes in the plastic chassis on the finished design! It's simply a design fault causing this problem. I know that the machine will run OK even with this design fault if you don't push it a lot though, because mine was OK, and continued to be OK once it had been stripped down and all of the crap had been cleaned out of it.

 

Hi

I used a vacum cleaner to suction out the heat from the PC and temperature dropped to 40 degrees. Then I sat the laptop on a pack of ice and it also maintained a low temperature. After trying these and many other things I drilled holes in the bottom of the case as suggested earlier in this thread and the laptop is now working perfectly.

It is the fan that was overheating from constantly running at 100 percent in order to keep the processor cool. Now the fan runs at variable speeds depending on requirements and everything is working perfectly.

OHSC9x3

 

Many thanks to this old thread's contributors for 'saving' my 5536 with the faux cooling port. Drilled some holes (being VERY careful to set the depth to barely punch thru the plastic) and it's immediately running cooler. I'm going to take it to a pc shop & have them open the vent slats up completely.

Again, thanks for pointing out what should have been obvious at the factory... and when we were looking at the faux cooling port.

 

Glad this thread was able to help people in the end!

 

Found some on the Acer forums that also had this issue.

http://community.acer.com/t5/Notebooks-Netbooks/Fan-Holes-Blocked/m-p/64187/highlight/false#M13901



Also, for anyone who needs a disassembly tutorial for a 5536 here ya go:

http://dablog.silkenhut.com/acer-as...de-repair-video/comment-page-2/#comment-47312


Thanks again!

 

Just another follow up for anyone else with this issue on these laptops.

After exchanging a few messages with someone who had a teardown tutorial on youtube, Acer's designers apparently intended for the fan to draw cool air in through the keyboard - the keyboard has openings to draw air in... Unfortunately the keyboard also makes a great dust filter which clogs up & then fan can't adequately cool laptop.

If you open up the embossed fan port on the bottom you also need to install a small screen covering to catch dust & remember to use a soft brush to clean it often.