LiveDeviL's Lab.

Intro

It’s been a while since the last time i update this blog. As you can see from the last post before this, I use Sony VAIO VPCEA16FG notebook for work and gaming. It’s performing great for 15 months now. But then, recently, the left part of the keyboard felt rather hot than it was.

So I download HWMonitor (64bit version) and checked the CPU temperature of my notebook. The result is 48 – 51 Celsius at 5 minutes after I start it up, and leave it idle. And after I run MS Flight Simulator for around 10 minutes, it jumps to 85 – 88 Celsius, and the fan starts roaring that reminds me of an airplane getting ready to take off. It’s trying it’s best to cool down the hot temperature by spinning faster. But it failed. The CPU temperature is still around 85 – 88 Celsius.

After googling here and there, I found that many people have this problem too. This is caused by thick dusts on the fan. Blocking the airflow that supposed to release the heat. The cure is, of course, by cleaning up the dusts. So I gathered my guts to disassemble my VPCEA16FG by myself, and took some pictures I to make a little documentation. I hope this guide can help people with their overheating VAIO notebook.

Warning and Precaution

• By disassembling your VAIO, you will void the warranty (if any). If the warranty is still valid, do not continue. Instead, take your VAIO to your local Sony Certified Service Center and ask them to clean it for you. Don’t forget to bring along your warranty card.
• I do not and will not take any responsible for any damage caused by this guide.
• I made this guide merely to help other people having overheating and noisy fan on their VAIO notebook.
• I fix the overheating and noisy problem in my VAIO notebook, but I do not guarantee or promise you will get the same result as I do.
• If you’re not sure you can do this yourself, then don’t. Either take your VAIO to Sony Certified Service Center, or ask someone you know capable.
  
• Again… Do this at your own risk!

Required Tools

• Small Phillip head screwdriver that matched the screws size.
• Jumbo Hurricane Blower to blow the dust away. Do not use your mouth.
• Paint brush to brush the dust away.
  
• Credit / ATM Card to slide and crack open the notebook.
• Magnet to hold your removed screws, so you don’t lose any (optional).

The steps

• (Optional Step). Before we start cleaning up, you might want to download and run HWMonitor to check the idle temperature and the heavy load temperature of your VAIO. So that you can compare them later. Idle temperature is the temperature after about 5 minutes after you start your VAIO and leave it alone, and heavy load temperature is when you check temperature after opening heavy applications or games, and let them run a while.

1. Remove the charger cable, USB stick, mouse, and any attached cable / peripheral from your notebook.
2. Put your notebook on a soft and level surface (eg. on your bed), bottom side up.
3. Unlock and remove the battery.
   
4. Using the phillip head screwdriver, remove all the screws. Screw locations are marked on the following picture.
   
5. Remove the memory cover. Removing memory module is not necessary.
6. Make sure you remove the 2 screws marked below, then pull out the DVD drive carefully.
   
7. Remove the Hard Drive cover. Then, remove the 2 little screws (see picture below) that hold the Hard Drive bracket.
   
8. Carefully slide the Hard Drive to the left until it’s completely detached from the socket.
   
9. Hold the transparent plastic and pull the Hard Drive out to the right.
   
10. Make sure you removed all the screws in step no 4 above. Carefully hold your notebook with one hand so that you are looking at the battery slot, then carefully slide in a credit / ATM card to the corner part where the base of the notebook meets the upper part. Lift the card a little bit to split them. Do the same to the other corner if needed.
    
11. Do not open the base part just yet. Lie down your notebook like in step no 2 above. Then slowly lift the base part upward. Just like opening a suitcase. If you feel something is stuck, do not force it. Shake the base part a little bit and try again.
    
12. By this time, you can see the dusts at the marked spots.
    
13. But the main target is the fan. So let’s clean it up carefully with paint brush. Then blow the dust outward. Locate the Jumbo Hurricane Blower between the fan’s blades. Repeat step 13 until the fan’s blades are clean, and you can’t see any dust anymore when you blow them with the blower.
    
14. OK, the fan is clean now. But we are going to clean the other parts as well. Such as the base part that we removed just now. You can brush and blow them like we did to the fan, of use a dry cloth to wipe it clean.
    
    
    
15. Now that your VAIO is cleaned up, we can now reassembly it. It’s as simple as reversing the steps given above.
16. If you downloaded the HWMonitor above, you can now check the temperature of your VAIO. After starting it up, run HWMonitor and leave it idle for 5 minutes. Note the idle temperature. This is my VAIO’s idle temperature after cleaning up.
    
17. Now try to open heavy applications or games to make the CPU work hard. Converting video file or play high CPU and GPU demanding games is recommended. After 1 hour or so, note the temperature again. This is my notebook’s temperature after 2 hours playing MS Flight Simulator (the game still running).
    

Notes

• Because I live in a tropical country, my room temperature is around 28 – 30 Celsius.
• No Air Conditioner was used during the test.
• No notebook cooler was used during the test.
• I hope this guide can help you fixing the VAIO overheat and noisy fan problem.

A few months ago, I was a happy Sony VAIO VPCEA16FG user. It has everything I want and need. One feature that I like is Battery Care. What this Battery Care does is limiting the battery charge to a certain level to extend the battery lifetime, and in the end will slow down the battery degradation. It comes with 2 presets. 80% if you usually use the computer with battery power, and 50% if you usually use the computer with the AC adapter. So basically if you set it on 80%, then whenever the battery charged to 80%, it will say it’s full. Same thing with 50%, it will say the battery is full whenever the battery charged to 50%.

This Battery Care can be found inside VAIO Control Center application. And after tons of VAIO software updates, windows updates, install / uninstall a lot of software, one day I found out that my battery says it has 100% power. What the…? It was supposed to be limited at 50% since I mostly use it while on AC adapter. So I opened up VAIO Control Center, and *boom*. I got this ugly window saying VAIO Control Center has stopped working.

I Googled it and got no solution at all. And after days of headache, I fixed it by myself. This is how I did it.

1. Uninstall the Setting Utility Series.
   click start (orb) > computer > click Uninstall or change a program > find and click on Setting Utility Series > click Uninstall
2. Run the VAIO Care application > click Recovery & restore > click recovery > click Launch VAIO Recovery
3. Once the VAIO Recovery Center appears, click Reinstall Programs or Drivers > click start > (make sure you check on “Skip”) click next > click next > find Setting Utility Series from the available programs list, and check it > click next
4. Restart your VAIO when finished.

Once restarted, I can run the VAIO Control Center again to set the Battery Care feature on, and set it back to 50%. Now I’m happy once again… 

I hope these steps may help you dealing with the VAIO Control Center has stopped working problem.

Sony netbook VAIO W Series for $500? Hmm… A good price to offer in the middle of “netbook war” in the worldwide netbook market. This netbook has a clear view XBRITE-ECO^™ LCD Technology 10.1″ LED-backlit display, with 1366 x 768 resolution, while others still use 1024 x 600.

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