cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Asus G51Vx shuts down without warning - overheating?

Retired
Not applicable
Guys, I'm sorry to barge in like this, but I really need help in regards to the state my Asus G51Vx in. I posted the exact same thread at the Asus forum in NoteBookReview. Any kind of reply would be greatly appreciated!

So I've had this lad since late 2009 and last July, it just shut down on me for no reason while I was doing some work. ( Admittedly, perhaps my frequent gaming did it in. ) It would last about 5-10 minutes before it abruptly shut down. I opened up the back plate, did some cleaning on the fan (really minor stuff - didn't know what I was doing) and it would last til about 30 minutes before it would shut down abruptly again.

I had it sent to a service centre and they sent it back to me because they wanted to reformat the hard disk, because they said they tested the laptop with their hard disk and there was no problem at all. I wanted to salvage my data first, but to my amazement, the laptop really did recover although the tech guys did nothing to it. It would last as long as I let it.

But, yesterday the problem showed up again when I hooked it up to the TV via HDMI. It's been going on ever since, shutting down 15 minutes in.

I'm going to go ahead and deduce that the fan is clogged up with dust. I opened it again, took a look at it, can't really say that it's stuffed up though. But when it shuts down, I can feel that the surrounding area of the fan becomes hot.

I want to attempt to clean this thing myself - just waiting for compressed air to arrive. How would you guys suggest I go about doing it? Should I remove the fan first? Also, which direction should I spray the air to? Attached some pictures.





Should I do it through the vent/opening and towards the system?


Just above the fan downwards?

I googled around for hours, checked the sticky but there doesn't seem to be any definitive guide on how to clean a laptop fan (one guy was spraying the air on top of the fan and the other towards the fan). Any help would really be appreciated. Thank you guys!

p/s: If any of you would so much as to care to draw arrows - I will be indebted to you for life! 😉
17,688 Views
4 REPLIES 4

xeromist
Moderator
It really doesn't matter. I've sprayed all directions on and into fans and heat sinks. The goal is really just to break up any collected dust so that it doesn't insulate and trap heat. Let me point out that dust caked on a fan does not cause problems in and of itself. It's dust caked on heat sinks that is the killer. I clean fans anyway because that dust might pick up and move to the heat sink but dust just sitting on the blades won't increase system temperatures.

The other problem you could be having is that the heat is not conducting into the heat sink properly. This can occur if your thermal paste has changed composition or the heat sink is not mating flush against the CPU or GPU. Given the relative youth of the machine I wouldn't think the paste has gone bad but it couldn't hurt to replace it and verify that the heat sink is mating snugly.
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

Retired
Not applicable
xeromist wrote:
It really doesn't matter. I've sprayed all directions on and into fans and heat sinks. The goal is really just to break up any collected dust so that it doesn't insulate and trap heat. Let me point out that dust caked on a fan does not cause problems in and of itself. It's dust caked on heat sinks that is the killer. I clean fans anyway because that dust might pick up and move to the heat sink but dust just sitting on the blades won't increase system temperatures.

The other problem you could be having is that the heat is not conducting into the heat sink properly. This can occur if your thermal paste has changed composition or the heat sink is not mating flush against the CPU or GPU. Given the relative youth of the machine I wouldn't think the paste has gone bad but it couldn't hurt to replace it and verify that the heat sink is mating snugly.


Thank you so much for replying. I understand perfectly what you said, and would check the insides again tomorrow morning. By the way, I installed a temperature monitoring software and this is what I got (a second before the laptop completely shut down) when I played a hi-def movie:



Based on the pic and the GPU being the only thing that heats up, I assume I should just apply a new thermal pasting on the GPU? And of course cleaning the fan and heat sink along the way (because I need to remove them anyway)? Do you have a recommended brand of thermal paste (I would like to buy one off eBay) because I am so unfamiliar with this territory.

I am sorry for your trouble and for that I thank you so much.

xeromist
Moderator
I wouldn't say that all thermal pastes are equal, but there isn't a vast difference between them. Usually the difference is a few degrees between the cheap factory stuff and premium after market. I usually go with something from Arctic Silver. AS5 or Ceramique are classic favorites. The important thing to note is that you only want a thin layer. The paste is intended to bridge the gaps between the chip & heat sink but laying it on thick will actually reduce thermal performance. Also, having a ton will make it squeeze out onto the board and into places you don't want it. I have a stack of used plastic gift cards that I like to use as spreaders.

It's up to you but if you're already going to have the thing open and you have a better after market paste I would repaste the CPU too. The important thing is to clean all the old gunk off. I usually wipe everything off with a tissue and then swab it with alcohol.
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

Retired
Not applicable
if you blow into the fan blades it will spin really fast and you should see dust come out of the exhaust port. if you blow into the exhaust port you should see dust come up the fan blades. if you have the skillset, i would take off the fan assembly and blow at the heatsinks directly to ensure you can visually see that all of the fins are clear. i would also turn the system on with the cover off to check your temps. make sure the fan is spinning and not dead. the GPU TJ is above specs which is causing it to shut down. be sure to update to the latest bios and nvidia GPU drivers incase there are any new fan profiles.

if all else fails you may want to consider reapplying thermalpaste onto the GPU. its the heatsink on the bottom right. do NOT tear the thermal pads on the memory chips, only apply thermal paste onto the GPU core. be sure to take off any crust thats left over.