OILING THE FAN...WITH WHAT OIL??

In my previous post I explained how to access the fan to clean it and

oil it.

http://openvaioseriez.blogspot.com/2009/09/cooling-systemcleaning-fan.html

Since I have received several requests for more information about this topic and in particular what oil should be used, I decided to quote Daniel Rutter Blog

What you oil it with isn't too critical. Pretty much any light oil w

ill do. Plain old 3-IN-ONE or sewing machine oil from the supermarket is fine. Note that the usual red-label 3-IN-ONE that I use has a vegetable oil base, and may gum things up if used over and over. This isn't likely to be a big problem with fan bearings (it's usually only an issue in automotive and other high temperature applications), but if you're concerned then you should get the blue-label mineral based version.

Spray-can oils with an applicator tube can be handy for oiling fans in awkward spots, if you can avoid spraying oil all over the place.

Do not, however, use WD-40 or similar products. WD-40 is has great

penetration, displaces water well, and loosens rust - but it's a lousy lubricant. It's mainly kerosene, and the oil that's left when the kerosene evaporates may be more than adequate for stopping a gate-hinge from squeaking, but won't last long in a fan bearing.

http://www.dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm

Remember that you can access the fan from the top or from the back.

From the top it is on your left:

COOLING SYSTEM:CLEANING THE FAN

Hi.

Some people asked me how to remove and clean the fan. Some people have noticed that it makes a lot of noise and it needs cleaning and oiling.

Actually, I did not remove the fan, my vaio fan was also making a lot of noise. What I did was to carefully vacuum clean the fan and everything else around (except for the microprocessor and the side of the cooling system that makes contact with it)

you can see that you can reach the fan (up-right-side) and you can clean it and oil it (carefully not too much) without taking it away.I did it and it is much better now.

If you need to remove the fan and replace it, this will probably require fruther work, since it looks like the whole case needs to be removed. I haven't done this but I think it can be done.

If any body has done it please send some tips and photos.

good luck

ATTENTION!!!! be very careful not to touch (and not remove) the white paste which is meant to create optima thermal coupling between the CPU and the cooler. So DO NOT REMOVE THE WHITE PASTE. ALSO, do not touch the CPU unless you are planning to change it by another one compatible, it is very easy to dammage it only with your fingers, and remove the white paste with your fingers...do not do it.

ACCESS TO HARD DRIVE & DVD DRIVE - PART FOUR (4)

So now our laptop looks like this. And we want to access to the Hard Drive and DVD Drive. 

In order to remove the touchpad part we need to release the white bus conneciton on the left part, see below how carfully you need to unlock the connections by pulling out the brown piece about a milimiter towards your right.

Once this is done, you can softly pull the bus cable connection with the blue strip attached. Ishould come out without any effort, else means you have not unlocked it correctly.

Voilà....you should now be able to remove the touchpad piece. 

Your computer now looks like this: Hard drive on the left, and DVD drive on the right

A closer look to the Hard Drive Unit.

OPENING THE MAIN BODY - PART THREE(3): KEYBOARD

Now we attack to the keyboard part.

In order to unlock it, we need to push-up toward the screet the TWO small fixing points. These are just right up the F2 and Insert keys (note I have a spanish keyboard QWERTY) See pictures below. you can use small scissors for this, and do not force it. Pushing and moving shouls always bea done nice and smoothly, otherwise something is wrong.

Good, now we can pull up the keyboard slowly and gently as in the pics below:

Carefully turn the kwyboard 180 degrees with care not to pull the green bus-cable (see below)

now we need to de-attach (or untie) the green bus-cable in order to completely release the keyboard. This is a delicate operation, be careful because you can easily damage the green bus-calbe or the connections.

Unlock the connector by pushing down the side locks. (carfully) This moves 1-2 mm down, no more. Repeat operation in both sides (see below)

The cable now is free to go in-out the connector.

There you go!!!

your keyboard is free. You can clean everyting with a vacuum cleaner.

OPENING THE MAIN BODY - PART TWO (2): COOLING SYSTEM

So what you see below is to show you how to remove the cooling system once you opened the previous lids (explained in part 1) and removed remaining small screws. Very important, in any of the following pictures I did not used a screwdriver, I just used my hands, slow and smoothly....no forcing. And even more important, do read this complete post before doing it yourself.





lift the cooling channel by pushing up the left side and holding down the right side, turning it 40 degrees approx.

At this stage you can remove the complete piece, the cooler.
It looks like this after cleaning (with a vacuum cleaner or a soft cloth)
ATTENTION!!!! be very careful not to touch (and not remove) the white paste which is meant to create optima thermal coupling between the CPU and the cooler. So DO NOT REMOVE THE WHITE PASTE. ALSO, do not touch the CPU unless you are planning to change it by another one compatible, it is very easy to dammage it only with your fingers, and remove the white paste with your fingers...do not do it.

OPENING THE MAIN BODY - PART ONE (1)

First thing to do, is to open the main body of your laptop sony vaio serie z (VGN-SZXX)
The one I am using I bought it in 2006, and still works perfectly. However I wanted to clean the cooling system, as it was doing a lot of noise, and I wanted to access the hard drive and maybe change it.

.-This is the unit I will be using: VGN-SZXX (All Serie Z look the same)

1.- The first thing I will do is to remove the battery and unplug the AC adapter.

2. - Remove 10 screws from the back: here marked with red

As you can see below, after removing the lids for the 2 RAM memmory slots and cooling system, this is what you see:


...to be continued in part 2

DISCLAIMER

WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE OF ANY DAMMAGE ON YOUR EQUIPMENT NOR ANY MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE INFORMATION OF THIS BLOG THAT COULD LEAD YOU TO BREAK OR DAMMAGE YOUR LAPTOP. SO BE AWARE THAT WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING FOLLOWING THE INDICATIONS IN THIS BLOG IS AT YOUR OWN RISK ONLY. BY READING THIS BLOG YOU AKNOWLEDGE THIS.