Vaio PCG FR315M heating. Please help!

[bbdimitriu]

Hi all,
My laptop is already 3 years old now, but I'm still quite happy with it, except for one thing: lately it has been heating quite a lot.
I tried to clean the fans without opening it with compressed air spray a couple of time and it improved things. But lately this doesn't seem to help.
When I look on the back of it, the fan that can be seen there doesn't seem to ever move. There is another fan that you can't normally see but I can hear that it works. The fact that the one that is visible on the back doesn't move worries me a lot.
I've installed Mobile Meter and at the moment it indicates the following: Temperature: 65 C and HDD0: 44 C.
This seems a bit high to me.
I thought about opening up the whole thing in order to perform a full clean, but I can't figure out how to open it.
Can somebody please tell me how this can be done?

Many thanks,

Bogdan

[Blencogo]

Hi bogdan and welcome to Club Vaio.

Your temperatures are a bit high for an average Vaio - but not too bad. I'm afraid I don't know the optimum temperatures of the FR-Series. Unfortunately, even a small amount of dust on the fan itself can reduce its efficiency quite a lot.

All I can find is this exploded diagram of a FRV-Series Vaio which is very similar to yours. You can see that there are two fans.

Perhaps someone else can find a more detailed guide to taking it apart.

[rich912]

Hi bbdimitriu and welcome to the forum.

As your notebook uses a desktop processor this is a rather high temperature.

Have a look at this link for a guide to disassembly (click on English at the top of the page) – thanks go to a fellow Club Vaio member for producing this guide.

[bbdimitriu]

Hello guys,
First I want to thank you both for such quick and helpful answers.

The link to that site about disassembling is exactly what I'm looking for.

I'm still quite uncertain about one thing though - that second fan that can be seen at the bottom of the laptop - is that actually supposed to be spinning? Or is it used by external cooling systems?

And another issue: what do you reckon - is it worth oiling the spindle of the fan(s) with some light oil to make it run smoother? I presume that for that I'd need to take off the sticker on top of the fan.

Many thanks!

Bogdan

[rich912]

Hi bbdimitriu,

Unless defective, fans will only spin as required.

I would first try cleaning the fans and cooling vents before proceeding with any lubricant. You may find that this is all that is necessary.