global Laptop and motherboard repair tutorial | Page 45

Separate the fan lid from the fan base to clean. Most fans will be magnetic not ball bearing, and
you will be able to pull the fan blade off of the fan base to clean it. Run the toothbrush in between the
fan blades from the top side and bottom sides of the fan. It is a good idea to also use a paper towel or
similar (I will spray glass cleaner on it, then fold it a bunch of times to make it thicker, then run the
wet towel in between the fan blades) to better clean it, also cleaning the base of the fan housing.
Reassemble the fan and reattach it to the heat-sink. Reapply any thermal paste to the heat-sink’s
cooling pads if needed.
If you plan on adding thermal paste to the heat-sink, First, It absolutely must be Silver Thermal
Paste, not Ceramic (silver in color, not white or pink in color). Also, you absolutely must remove any
remaining ―oldǁ thermal paste from both the HeatSink and the Chip or CPU it is covering. To
remove old paste, use denatured alcohol on a paper towel, rub away. If the old paste is real thick and
crusty, use a guitar pick or flat plastic card or tool to gently scrape away the paste. Important here not
to gouge the heat-sink thermal plate if you are scraping the paste away… that is why you would use
plastic to remove it, or just a paper towel.
More Pictures of Fan/Heat-Sink Cleaning