HOW TO SOLVE MAJOR GENERIC OVERHEATING ISSUE!
~ Packard Bell EasyNote R1938 ~
The Packard Bell EasyNote R1938 is one of the most notorious laptop's created for overheating issues!
I have just purchased TWO, yes TWO of these laptops for £50 as they where described as if they where totally ruined, this is not the case as this is a common laptop brought to me for repairs.
Common Signs of overheating;
> The bottom of the case gets very hot
> The bottom of the case gets got too fast
> The laptop restarts/shuts off randomly without warning
> The laptop is performing terribly
> Computer boots but turns off almost instantly!
The reason for this over heating in almost all the cases I have seen including the two I bought to sell (one is sold already £120!! More than double what I paid!) is Packard Bell employed a bunch of half wits to assemble the EasyNote!
# Testing!
First we must run a few tests to see if overheating is what is causing your issues, now there is a super simple test we can do which will define if overheating is your problem! We need to give the laptop excessive cooling boot and run it for a while, if the laptop boots and stays on for a period of time without restart etc. then overheating is your problem :)
To supply my laptops with excessive cooling I got a large house fan that is rather powerful, lied it down and set the laptop on top of the fan while it was on full power and waited... And what do you know? Booted straight away and ran for a good hour absolutely fine before I shut it down to continue!
Now if you do not have a large fan of any description there is other things you can do! Such as use a cold plastic tray to set the laptop on and try, may not be as effective as the large fan but it will do.
# The Fix
We now want to fix the terrible problems Packard Bell made! Find a nice large space on a table, set down a towel (so you don't scratch the table or the laptops cosmetics) and place the laptop face down.
Now looking at the under belly of the R1938 you should see the locks to remove the battery, move them away from the batter and push the battery away from the laptop to release it.
Now that the battery is removed, lets get to work. You should be able to see 4 removable panels on this underside of the laptop. The largest with 3 screws holding it down at one end is the one we need to remove to get to the issue!
Once removed you are now staring at the cooling for your CPU. Carefully remove the 3 silver screws holding it down and slot it out of the laptop, you can disconnect it if you wish but I found no need to. first of all blow ALL the dust out of the fan, out of the heat sink and from around the surrounding area of the laptop. Now if Packard Bell has made the mistake they have made on the 12 Easy Notes I've done this too you will notice a sticker covering the bottom of the end the heatsink flaps and a sticker over a hole on the side of the fan, remove both of these. If you like you can also add a wee dob of Thermal Compound to the CPU and now put the Hs/f back onto of the CPU and gently tighten down evenly on each screw. (if you disconnected the Hs/f make sure you reconnect it to the board!).
Close the panel back up and screw it back down.
# The Result?
Fire the laptop up and if all has been a success it should whirl away fine, now the hs/f is RUBBISH on these laptops so although your cooling is now better its not perfect, try to make sure you always have this laptop on a table when in use and try not to use excessively.
I strongly recommend a USB Notepad cooler!
I hope you found this helpful! Please PM me if you need help!
*I do not take responsibility for any damage you may cause to the machine during this!*
*Note* I am going to make a video tutorial on how to solve this problem so if you do not understand what I am saying here please wait :)
