fan on Compaq Presario 3000 - model 3045US

Someone is willing to send me his old Compaq Presario 3000 - model 3045US
laptop but there are some reasons why he isn't using it anymore. I won't
go into all of them. The most important at the moment is that it has a
seized fan which causes it to shut down when it gets hot. He has tried
to get into the unit without success. He is pretty knowledgeable and
has also searched for relevant documentation, but he writes: "I found
several documents that were close, but not exact. Some were useless
because they did not describe how to take it apart, others because
they did not match close enough."

If you know how to open up this laptop and replace the fan, please let
me know. Thanks.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

Allan Adler <> writes:

> Someone is willing to send me his old Compaq Presario 3000 - model 3045US
> laptop but there are some reasons why he isn't using it anymore. I won't
> go into all of them. The most important at the moment is that it has a
> seized fan which causes it to shut down when it gets hot. He has tried
> to get into the unit without success. He is pretty knowledgeable and
> has also searched for relevant documentation, but he writes: "I found
> several documents that were close, but not exact. Some were useless
> because they did not describe how to take it apart, others because
> they did not match close enough."

I went to a PC repair shop and asked how to open it. They told me to take
out all the screws and all the drives and the battery, etc., and what to
remove above the keyboard with a screwdriver before removing the keyboard.
I carefully labeled all the screws and their locations with matching numbers
and after removing a few realized that I only really had to remove 3, clearly
marked on the back with 2 arrows and 1 keyboard icon. Instructions for removing
the fan were under the keyboard. I removed the fan, found some padding inside
it which seemed to have come lose and gotten chewed up and removed it. Then
I put the fan back, the keyboard, the screws, etc., and tried to turn it on.
For some reason, it doesn't start. The battery light is permanently lit
and so is the light indicating power is present. I don't know how to tell
whether I destroyed it. There is also something rattling around inside. I'll
remove it and try again.

Maybe I'll just have to throw it out, but I might as well see what I can
learn from it while I have it. It is better than any of the other computers
in my possession.

Taking it back to the PC repair place isn't an option for various reasons,
and anyway, they are probably expecting me to return to them with an expensive
job instead of the roughly $40 job that replacing the fan originally
represented.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

Previously Allan Adler <> wrote:
> Allan Adler <> writes:

>> Someone is willing to send me his old Compaq Presario 3000 - model 3045US
>> laptop but there are some reasons why he isn't using it anymore. I won't
>> go into all of them. The most important at the moment is that it has a
>> seized fan which causes it to shut down when it gets hot. He has tried
>> to get into the unit without success. He is pretty knowledgeable and
>> has also searched for relevant documentation, but he writes: "I found
>> several documents that were close, but not exact. Some were useless
>> because they did not describe how to take it apart, others because
>> they did not match close enough."

> I went to a PC repair shop and asked how to open it. They told me to take
> out all the screws and all the drives and the battery, etc., and what to
> remove above the keyboard with a screwdriver before removing the keyboard.
> I carefully labeled all the screws and their locations with matching numbers
> and after removing a few realized that I only really had to remove 3, clearly
> marked on the back with 2 arrows and 1 keyboard icon. Instructions for removing
> the fan were under the keyboard. I removed the fan, found some padding inside
> it which seemed to have come lose and gotten chewed up and removed it. Then
> I put the fan back, the keyboard, the screws, etc., and tried to turn it on.
> For some reason, it doesn't start. The battery light is permanently lit
> and so is the light indicating power is present. I don't know how to tell
> whether I destroyed it. There is also something rattling around inside. I'll
> remove it and try again.

> Maybe I'll just have to throw it out, but I might as well see what I can
> learn from it while I have it. It is better than any of the other computers
> in my possession.

Does not hurt to try. You may have disloged some connector, BTW.
Just check all that you can see when dissassembling and reassembling.
Apart from that I cannot really see how opening a laptop should
destroy it.

Arno

Allan Adler <> writes:

> Allan Adler <> writes:
>
> > Someone is willing to send me his old Compaq Presario 3000 - model 3045US
> > laptop but there are some reasons why he isn't using it anymore. I won't
> > go into all of them. The most important at the moment is that it has a
> > seized fan which causes it to shut down when it gets hot. He has tried
> > to get into the unit without success.
>
> I went to a PC repair shop and asked how to open it. They told me to take
> out all the screws and all the drives and the battery, etc., and what to
> remove above the keyboard with a screwdriver before removing the keyboard.
> I carefully labeled all the screws and their locations with matching numbers
> and after removing a few realized that I only really had to remove 3, clearly
>marked on the back with 2 arrows and 1 keyboard icon.Instructions for removing
> the fan were under the keyboard. I removed the fan, found some padding inside
> it which seemed to have come lose and gotten chewed up and removed it. Then
> I put the fan back, the keyboard, the screws, etc., and tried to turn it on.
> For some reason, it doesn't start. The battery light is permanently lit
> and so is the light indicating power is present. I don't know how to tell
> whether I destroyed it. There is also something rattling around inside. I'll
> remove it and try again.

I haven't touched the machine since posting this. I showed it to a
knowledgeable friend, including how I opened it. With the laptop open,
at his suggestion, I turned on the machine and, to my surprise, it turned
on just fine and booted Ubuntu Linux. That raised the question of why it
didn't work when it wasn't opened up. It turns out that the piece that
holds the on/off switch was strained in such a way that the on/off switch
didn't make contact with the on/off button on the motherboard. So when one
presses the on/off switch, one is really pressing air and of course the
machine doesn't respond. If one presses down on the piece before pushing
the on/off button, it starts up just fine.

So, now I just have to figure out why the piece isn't putting the on/off
button in contact with the button on the motherboard. That's probably
not so difficult.

My friend said that, for someone claims not to know much about hardware,
it was pretty good to have figured out how to get the laptop open without
breaking it, to remove the fan, take it apart and clean it, and to put it
all back to gether. That certainly is encouraging. But, in my opinion, the
Midas touch is knowing that sometimes all you have to do is open up the
machine, maybe reseat a few things, and it will work.

I should also mention that, now that I cleaned the fan, it works. It doesn't
run all the time, just as needed. I'll have to test it more thoroughly to
determine whether it prevents the laptop from overheating and shutting down.
Also, I have to figure out how to repair the PCMCIA stuff.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.