Tired of losing performance when your laptop overheats?

Say no more! Many times the fan in the laptop is unable to remove enough heat because the grills on the maintenance cover are too small, or non-existent.

In this instructables I am going to show you how to add two additional grills so your laptop stays cool and fast. One grill is for the fan intake and another is for the CPU heatsink so the heat can quickly escape through it. I will also show you how to clean your fan and heatsink. It is actually a regular maintenance for any laptop.

Tools needed:

- Electric Drill
- Hole-saw drill bits (25-40mm or 1-1.5 inches)
- Aluminium screen-door grill
- Heavy duty double-sided tape (foam)
- Philips-head screwdriver
- Lubricant such as white lithium grease or engine oil
- Cloth or tissue paper
- Electric leaf blower or compressed air can
- Unused cardboard box or styrofoam for drilling

Step 1: Dismantle Your Laptop Maintenance Cover

Depending on your laptop model, yours may or may not have a maintenance cover.

Maintenance cover allows you to access your laptop HSF (Heatsink & Fan). What we're going to do is to create a hole in this maintenance cover so we allow the laptop to get more fresh air and remove excess heat generated from the heatsink of the CPU.

If your laptop has a dedicated video card like nVidia or AMD, then you can also point out both the CPU and GPU heatsinks. You will need to create one hole for each heatsink. Mark spot on the maintenance cover so you know where to drill the holes.

Step 2: Clean Your Fan

Removing Fan from laptop

First up, we have to remove the laptop's main fan. There are usually few philips screws around the fan. Also remove the fan's cable carefully. Once removed we can proceed to clean the fan itself

Cleaning the fan's blades and magnet

After you have cleaned the fan's blade, you have to also clean the fan's magnet. If your fan's blades are very dusty, chances are the magnet inside fan have accumulated dusts that will slow the fan down.

Use the philips-head screwdriver to open the fan top cover (silver color). Remove the blade slowly and you can see the magnet. Clean it thoroughly and prepare your lubricant.

Lubricating the fan

Spray some lubricant onto your floor, and use a small clean stick to apply the grease onto the fan's shaft. Do not apply too much grease! Insert the fan's blade back and spin it to see if it moves easily without noise.

Step 3: Clean Your Heatsink

Now that we have the fan clean and greased, it's time to clean the heatsink using compressed-air can or electric leaf blower.

Blow the heatsink from both front and rear until no more dust disperses into the air.

A clean heatsink should look like the pictures above.

Of course don't forget to install the fan back after cleaning before we proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Drill That Maintenace Cover!

Install the hole-saw drill bit into your electric drill. Prepare your unused cardboard box or styrofoam.

After placing the maintenance cover above an unused box, hold it and carefully drill into the spot you have marked earlier.

Trim the sharp edges and clean your drill-bit before continuing with the second hole.

Step 5: Install Grill and Maintenance Cover Back

Cut some aluminium rust-free screendoor grill for the holes you have drilled. Using heavyduty double-sided tape you can paste the grill onto the maintenance cover.

Install the maintenance cover back, but do not attempt to screw it back just yet. Turn on your laptop and check if the fan has spun and does not interfere with the grills you just created. Normally most laptop's main fan would spin for a few seconds on startup.

If everything works fine, screw the cover back and ensure there is nothing left unattached.

Do not forget to clean or blow your fan and heatsink regularly, now that you know how to do it!

Enjoy your cooler and more powerful laptop!