http://planetsave.com

http://planetsave.com/








http://www.autotap.com/








http://www.tfaw.com/








http://www.beyondthepod.com/








http://www.timbotees.com/








http://www.voltaicsystems.com/








http://www.bargainbasementbatteries.com/








http://www.geniuseshop.com/








http://www.thenerds.net/








http://www.jensonusa.com/

 A friend of mine has a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop that Dell refused to support because he did not have his recovery disk. By the time he did get his recovery disk, his warranty had expired. The problem with the laptop was that it shut completely off after he had used it for about 10 minutes. Its hard to get any work done in 10 minutes so he barely used it. He wanted to throw the laptop out and buy another one, but I said I would take a look at it.

http://www.modernbike.com/








http://www.makebeer.net/








http://www.neurostechnology.com/








http://www.snorgtees.com/








http://www.hackerstickers.com/








http://www.intelliflix.com/








http://www.gogreensolar.com/








http://wearscience.com/








http://www.mwave.com/








http://www.laptopsforless.com/
I read up on the 5100 and found a forum on Dell's website devoted to these problems on this model. The people on the forum whose laptops were still under warranty were having everything replaced by Dell, but it wasn't fixing the problem. People were getting new CPU's and motherboards, when the real problem was the design of the laptop. This model came with a regular Pentium 4 chip, not a mobile chip, and because of this it built up heat much more quickly. This was made much worse by the fact that the CPU fan clogs with dust because the intake has no filter and is located on the bottom of the computer.
I ran a couple of the system tests that are built into the BIOS, and found that the system fan and the thermister (temperature gauge) were both operating normally. So I tried out the laptop by playing a DVD. After about 10 minutes it shut off. This is probably because the CPU is heating up too much and the motherboard shuts itself down to protect itself. I figured out that if the back of the laptop was propped up about an inch it would not shut down despite my best efforts. Since this is not supposed to be necessary, I opened up the laptop to see what was causing the overheating.
With most laptops there is a little plate above the keyboard that you can pop out. Under here are the screws that hold down the keyboard. If the screws are not there, they may be located on the bottom of the laptop.
Unscrew these and lift up the keyboard very gently. There is a wire loom that connects the keyboard to the motherboard. It doesn't have a lot of slack and sometimes they are very delicate.
You must remove this cable because there will not be enough slack to get the keyboard out of the way.
Look at the other connections around the area. If they seem to be in the way, you have to find a way to gently remove them. On this model this cable did not need to be removed.
You can tell from the shape of this hole that the fan is under here. I removed this plate to get to the heatsink.
The heatsink is held in place by 4 screws that will only screw in so far, but there are springs attached to keep exact pressure on them without danger of over tightening. This may not be the case on other PC's.
Once I took out the CPU cooler, I removed the fan to take a look at the heatsink fins inside. The fins were covered in a thick layer of dust. I took a cotton swab and some tweezers and finally removed all of the dust.
I ended up replacing the heatsink with another one I found on the internet that had fewer fins. Fewer fins means that it has more space between them, and while there is less metal to dissipate the heat, there are also fewer obstructions to collect dust.
 
 
The new heatsink only cost $40 so I made him pick up a laptop stand made by Targus that was another $20. The stand just holds the laptop up off the desk so it gets better ventilation and won't pick up as much dust. I used to think these were just a gimmick but they do seem to work.You could also try sticking some larger adhesive-backed rubber feet on the back edge of the laptop.
http://www.bargainbasementbatteries.com/
Home | Guides | Reviews | Downloads | Forum | Links | Banners | Contact
©2002-2010 ModHotSpot.com. All Rights Reserved. No images on these pages may be used without prior written consent.
All information is intended for entertainment purposes only. ModHotSpot.com accepts no responsibility for any damage done
to any device as a result of trying to replicate these projects.