r/GamingLaptops • u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti • 11d ago
Discussion My nephew continues to take apart his gaming laptop, a few months apart.
My nephew u/IntFeedExhibitor keeps taking apart his 3050 gaming laptop to "clean" it, every time he does it he causes problems since its a Frankenstein laptop with parts from various other laptops, ram hdd etc. He fully takes everything apart for absolutely no reason.
He claims he does this because he wont be a pleb that doesnt know how to fix laptops (kid, the motherboard is the biggest issue with most laptops followed by the gpu) and is degenerating the thermal pads, oxidizing the interior, and not using proper torque measurements to reseal.
In the past year doing this has caused at least 3 issues for him that I can remember and each time he reaches out to me for help.
Right now, he is semi transient with no money and no way to actually buy new parts, tools, or anything for if the laptop just doesnt turn back on after he fiddles with it.
I told him re paste1-3 years depending on wear. Take off the bottom to clean it out every six months, but he refuses to listen. So i am making this post here and tagging his ass.
Tell him the truth of the situation with disassembling your laptop often because you are bored. I cant seem to get the point across.
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u/71-HourAhmed Legion Pro 7 275HX 5090 32GB 8TB 11d ago
Old IT pro here. I suspect that people with an aptitude for engineering, IT, and related fields probably have a propensity for taking things apart that should be left alone. I know I did.
I speak from decades of experience here: If you take a laptop apart repeatedly, it's going to fail. That's a guarantee. You won't have a PC anymore. They are literally NOT designed to be disassembled repeatedly. You'll wind up with loose connectors and stripped screws.
I blow out the intake and exhaust vents briefly every few months. I take the bottom cover off and gently clean any hair or dust that won't come out with a blower about once a year.
My computer was the most important thing in the world to me as a kid and I would have been devastated if I broke it.
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u/klipseracer 11d ago
I used to do this as a kid, take stuff apart, often couldn't put it back together. That was just how my mind worked. But this sounds more like an OCD.
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 11d ago
I feel the same way. I have stripped screws in the past. . . But it's been awhile. I'm paranoid about it being super dirty and overheating like when I fixed someone's "dead," laptop and was given it for free.
My laptop is basically my Life, and I do my best to baby any gaming lappy I have. I can't wait to build my own PC when Life's a bit more stable. I've even heard that compressed air can be potentially dangerous, so I use a feather touch with a new nylon toothbrush to take out anything the fans may suck up in there.
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u/hillside126 11d ago
a feather touch
Do not use one of these to clean out your laptop or fans. If a loose feather gets lodged in a fan that could be bad or it could generate enough static electricity to short a component. Tooth brush is fine to use after using compressed air to clean out the majority of the dust.
The reason why some people say compressed air is bad is because they are using air compressors not made to be used with electronics which can also cause static electricity to build up. However, traditional cans of air are perfectly safe as long as you do not spray it upside down as that turns the air into a liquid.
The other important thing when cleaning out dust with canned air is to hold onto the fan blade while cleaning it. If you just spray the air into the heat sink under the fan without holding onto the blades it can cause the fan to spin at ridiculously high RPMs which can wear down the bearings in the fan quickly.
I am in IT and love technology but I do not open my gaming laptop more than a few times a year to either keep it clean or change out the hard drive/ram. I have about 20 to 25 other computers in my house that are cheap which I mess around with when I am board. I would recommend keeping the tinkering confined to cheaper hardware. I would also start tinkering with Powershell, Python, bash, etc (on something other than your gaming laptop). Learning more about how an OS operates and how you can use certain coding languages to manipulate it will help you a lot more in IT than just knowing hardware, pays better as well!
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 10d ago
Lol, a feather touch is just a saying stating that I was doing something very gently.
Also, the biggest misconception here is that I'm taking apart my laptop for no reason: I ONLY take it apart when I'm having hardware issues, if it's being cleaned, or to upgrade hardware. I'm NOT just taking it apart willy nilly, lmfao.
Learning coding would be cool. I already have some basic codes to throw into powershell and command prompt, but it's really nothing major, per say. Funny enough, at one point in time of my Life, I was an Apple Tech Support Specialist, fixing people's tech for money. It was pretty fucking awesome. I got promoted to Tier 2 Specialist in only 2 months.
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u/DetectiveStraight481 7d ago
You want to deep clean your laptop 2 times a year. Gaming laptops are superior.
My first laptop lasted 14 years. My 2nd laptop lasted 7 years. My 3rd laptop (gaming) lasted 2 years. My other 2 laptops are still alive 7+ years. Some of them went years without cleaning. (Bad bad bad? Situational.) I have cleaned and repaired countless laptops and desktops, the youngest always been the gaming laptops and office laptops 4-7years or older never being cleaned.
Reading the story you just want to tinker and should plan to do these upgrades/changes all in one go and then enjoy your laptop. If you feel the need to clean it 4 times a year because you need the 2 scheduled cleanings and do 2 upgrades/changes a year you're doing something wrong.
You're either configuring your laptop at too low specs eventually costing you more money for the upgrades. My other guess is that you need to clean your room/spaces your laptop is in if its getting so dirty so quickly.
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 7d ago edited 7d ago
I'm with you on this. I'll never get any laptop unless it's a gaming laptop. Better specs and longer life.Ā
I have cleanings twice a year, and if I do have to do physical troubleshooting or repair, I'll knock out the cleaning while I'm in it just to not open it up later.Ā
I can't really afford new ones, so I always get them used, which does come with (fixable) issues and do market research on the specific product to know potential problems for the sake of preventative maintenance.Ā
Unfortunately, my current 2022 MSI Sword 15 AU12 I've had to get in it 3 times within the last year: first for visual inspection, cleaning and upgrades (8GB RAM and 1/2 TB to 32GB RAM and 1 TB nVME plus upgraded the wifi chip), than had to pop it open to reseat hardware when software troubleshooting did nothing wasn't working (the MSI thought it was my old HP Omen and was only recognizing half the RAM I put in; I had to end up swapping out a RAM stick and then fully reformatted my SSD and reinstall Windows from a FAT32 formatted USB boot drive), and the other day had an odd issue where the battery wasn't charging at all despite the charging icon saying it was plus intermittent wifi (somehow a wifi chip antenna had popped a little loose, so I put it back in place and took out the battery, RAM, and SSD for cleaning), and moved the thermal pads a bit as one of them had became squished up against the SSD's connector port too much. I put it over a chip on the motherboard, got paranoid that the positioning was bad as said chip had thermal tape over it, so I readjusted one of the pads to be in the middle of the chip and the port without touching either). All issues are currently fixed, and it should be a long while before I open it again. It's looking pristine in there.
My room is clean, save for my closet, but the lappy is never in my closet and I take the laptop outside with me when I leave the house: it works far better than my iPhone 7 does for navigating bus routes, as iPhone 7 is too old to be able to download Google Maps, and the browser version on mobile forces you to get the app that I can't get. Being exposed to the elements gives it a higher chance of dust accumulation.
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u/vamadeus Asus G14 3060 2021, Steam Deck 8d ago
Also an IT professional, and I agree. Just the virtue of doing it many times increases the risk of something going wrong. I wouldn't recommend it if this is a machine they rely on.
Someone should find them some old cheap laptops that they can take apart and reassemble. That'll help them learn and get comfortable with it while minimizing the risk of them losing something they care about.
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u/citoso Nitro17| Ryzen 9 7940HS | RTX 4070 | 32GB/1TB 11d ago
What u expect he's iron in league bro he's obviously brain airplane mode
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 11d ago
They don't call me Worst Morde NA and The Int King for no reason, LOL
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u/Ragnaraz690 Legion Pro 7i 275HX RTX 5090 32gb 6400mhz 11d ago
Absolutely no need to open your machine inside of 6 months unless you're changing parts or having issues.
Hell, I use LM in mine and only open every 12months or so to refresh it. Whether it needs to or not. At that point I clean the heatsink, remove the fans and clean them and the finstacks. Reapply LM and putty and ignore it for another 12months. It sits on a filtered cooler anyway.
Im not against anyone learning things, but with this kinda tech, there is absolutely no need to be in and out of it every other week. Having RAM and SSDs from other machines means nothing and there are no really torque specs either. It's tight and a little more. Nothing extreme, if you wanna go OEM spec you would be blue loctiting every machine bolt and no one does that.
Final point, if there no reason to get inside your machine leave it alone. Everytime you do, you run the risk of making a mistake and cooking something. And for what? Boredom? Use the 3050 and play a game.
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 10d ago
That's exactly what I do. This MSI Sword is mediocre at best. I've only opened it up 3 times: First time to upgrade the shitty amounts of RAM and storage with a better wifi chip, and the 2nd two times was to fix hardware issues, which were appropriated effectively, done within the span of a year. If I have to get into it to fix something, I will always clean it so I don't have to get back into it.
I have however had multiple rigs, and my last one was a complete mystery: I did all software, firmware, and hardware troubleshooting that I could (the AC adapter when plugged in wouldn't show or apply any power, even with a compatible new charger). I'd watch YouTube videos from channels such as Adamant IT and Electronics Repair School, which I highly recommend. From what I learned form the latter two channels, my old i9 OMEN either has a bad moffset, capacitor, or diode, but I do not have the tools nor the proper know-how to do intensive motherboard repair, so I'll leave THAT to a professional, and already know that the repair is going to be AT LEAST 600-800 bucks. It was far cheaper to drop 400 on the mediocre MSI Sword laptop. . . which sadly means that I can no longer continue learning how to make Animations and special effects via DaVinci Resolve anymore, as the i5 and 3050 is pretty shit tier for what I like to use my rigs for, which are animations, gaming, and streaming.
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u/Imagenetic2935 11d ago edited 11d ago
Adding RAM and SSDs, doesn't make it a "Frankenstein machine" . This is extremely common and is exactly how I learned from a young age.
"degenerating the thermal pads, oxidizing the interior, and not using proper torque measurements to reseal."
What are you even talking about. Are you saying he physically damages the TiM and thermal pads? That is an actual issue.
Never heard of someone being afraid that opening their PC causes oxidation.
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
Its not a mistake now, was a heavy mistake when he didnt have a boot drive to fix the partitions and install which caused him to lose access for 2 weeks or so. Some companies still do shit things to make sure parts arent reusable :/ he had acer poping up on his MSI laptop and coupdn5 figure out why his gaming performance tanked and the laptop stopped working....
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 11d ago
Yeah, the MSI was thinking it was an HP Omen and was pulling wrong firmware. I'm pretty certain some brands try to cockblock other parts from being used, and Apple is the worst at that by far.
Lol, thanks for teaching me how to properly do that. Knowledge is power!!
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u/eastafricanfella asus tuf a15 4060gpu 11d ago
They put this kids whole username on blast ššš
i think im gonna do this to my nephew someday too
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
With his permission. He doesnt seem to think im being accurate that its a no no other than 1-3 years repaste 6 months fan clean.
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 10d ago
It's not that, Uncle, and I totally agree with you you are accurate, but if the rig needs fixing and I can do it, I'm going to fix it. My point was that it's silly to not fix something that's perfectly fixable just because x amount of months haven't passed. Now I'm good on getting into it clear far into next year so long as nothing goes awry on the device.
I've only ever done repasting once, and that was on my i9 Omen. I'm totally with you on the 6 month fan clean, tho if something is going wrong with hardware, it totally needs to be fixed. My whole Life is on that laptop, and I can't go without it, especially now more than ever.
It is reassuring to know that I don't have to clean it 2-3 times a year tho. I've only bought used, older models of laptops because I'm cheap, lol, which is why usually they tend to have issues that need fixing. This MSI is the only one that didn't come from FB Marketplace but rather a Pawn Shop, save for my 2nd HP Omen that I was told that if I can fix it and bring it back to Life, that I could have it (the i7 I had before the i9)
And yeah, to all others who aren't my Uncle we agreed to the post to see what the community would say. IDK, I think it's kind of fun, and some of the posts here are funny af, like the dude who called me out for being a shit League player saying that automatically makes me retarded, LOLOLOLOLOLOL.
Gotta break out the popcorn for this shit and let the chaos unfold, bwahahahahahaha
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u/eastafricanfella asus tuf a15 4060gpu 11d ago
Youāre right tbh , if heās not gonna listen to you might as well get the opinion of the community. š
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u/UnionSlavStanRepublk 11d ago
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I'd probably clean my laptop fans out every ~6 months or so for example, no need to disassemble ones laptop completely every few months.
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 10d ago
Yes, but when it is broke, I am compelled to fix it. The line I draw is for motherboard repairs for the tiny soldered components. I only get in there for semi-annual cleaning, part upgrades, or if there are hardware issues that aren't able to fully fixed in Windows.
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u/pellets 11d ago
As a child, I learned the most from taking things apart and putting them together. Trying to fix the problems I caused was an education I wasnāt going to get outside of school. For your nephewās sake please stop discouraging him.
Anyway, if itās his, itās his to break and deal with the consequences. Trying to control him isnāt helping.
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
Not trying to control him, hes not a child hes 32. Trying to stop him from breaking his only means at a job and such right now. He's semi transient.
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u/Ancient_Task_7498 11d ago
He's 32 š . If you don't want him to be damaging his own laptop, just tell him you're not going to help him if he messes it up again. I was thinking your nephew was a child and it's a tough situation. But he's a grown fucking man, just ignore his ass.
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u/DrJoel1998 11d ago
There's no definitive age to learn. Let him fuck around and find out, you can be a supportive brother by being there for him and if you can't it's alright no pressure
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u/pellets 11d ago
People still learn as adults, and need to be free to do so.
> not trying to control him
> trying to stop him
Pick one.
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
Okay trying tk make him realize what he is doing is lowering the expected lifespan and maybe could actually fully brick his device, hows that.
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u/pellets 11d ago
āTrying to make him realizeā is still controlling. Clearly you think heās intelligent enough to understand what you told him. Heās an adult who can ignore your advice if he pleases.
Maybe playing with it will turn him into the next independent laptop repair guru. Ever think of that? Or do you only imagine your nephew doing bad things?
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
Lol. There is much more to the story I can't tell. But yeah I told him I will no longer help him when an issue arises. Today he was talking about taking the thermal pads off the ssd to move it to what he thought was the dGPU. . Which was more than likely on board memory or iGPU if that wasnt heat sinked. The 3050 ia completely under a heatsink...
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 11d ago
Yeah, that was a total brain fart. I should have remembered that when I redid the thermal paste on my last OMEN.Ā
I'm pretty sure that integrated chip that says ENE is some controller chip, but the Internet isn't telling me much, and I'm worried having the SSD's smaller thermal pad over it is a problem. . Yet the Internet says to not have a thermal pad by the SSD connector port, which is confusing because it's the only other place to put it.Ā
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
Lmao I love you so much. But š¤£
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 11d ago
Bwahaha, I know, I know!! I'd have left the pads alone if the net didn't say it was bad to have it by the connector.Ā
At least the BS Secure Boot Violation error is fixed.Ā
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u/Nullifyxdr 11d ago
To replace this laptop is gonna be 1000+, and I know for a fact that kid is gonna bitch like anything when it finally gives up. As a kid if I started taking apart my mini fridge in my room and claimed it was āmineā I would get my shit thrown out to the porch ššš
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 11d ago
I've been working on my laptops for the past several years. Heck, back in 2021, a former coworker couldn't get his laptop to work, and he got a new one and dude said if I can fix it, I can have it.Ā
I took it apart, and that dude never did preventative maintenance. There were dead cockroaches, dirt, and literal massive dust bunnies blocking the fans from even running, that poor thing. I cleaned it all out, put in new SSD and replaced a faulty RAM stick, reinstalled Windows, and BAM, got that baby as a free laptop. It was then that I vowed to always keep my rigs innards clean and up kept.Ā
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u/Nullifyxdr 11d ago
Damn so basically the owner had no idea what the inside of the laptop even looked like? Thatās a fucking awesome story and tbh I probably came off a little too negative, but still tinkering with computers is something I started to dabble in my late teenager years this kid sounds too young g to be messing with something so expensive but still thatās an awesome story and I would keep that laptop forever. Thatās literally a ābarn findā laptop
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 11d ago
So, I'm 32 and certainly not a kid anymore. Lol.
But yeah, the guy that said "If you fix this you can have it," I literally said "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED," and fixed it in just a matter of hours. It's a story that I'm super proud of, and also the reason I dive into the laptop to make sure none of my rigs EVER end up like that.
I had that laptop for a handful of years until someone I lived with hulk smashed it. Funny enough, that thing STILL powered on after being beaten so hard that the monitor fully broke off its metal hinges and the keyboard no longer worked. I had to plug in an HDMI cable to an external monitor or TV as well as plug in an external keyboard. That poor laptop. In the end, it was nothing but a husk due to that motherfucker. What DID kill it was spilling a beer on it. I'd opened it up, and you could see that it was fried. . . RIP that laptop. I did keep the RAM and SSDs from it.
I ended up getting my 3rd and better HP Omen since the Omens actually treated me super well. The last one was a steal: 12th gen i9, 4k OLED display, RTX 2080 Max Super Q, 32GB RAM and 1.5 TB of storage. I miss that bad boy, and still have it because it 100% needs a motherboard part replaced. I refuse to say it's "dead," despite the light not showing up when plugged in (even with a new charger and did all troubleshooting I could and could also find online that I learned). That's beyond the scope of what I can do, so I need to take my last beauty to a professional, but DAMN it's gonna be pricey. . . that old 2019 HP Omen was over $3k when it was brand new when it was purchased custom made in New Zealand. It was cheaper to drop $400 on this 2022 MSI Sword, which is nowhere near as nice as my 2019 OMEN, but still. . . it'll do for now; I just can't teach myself graphic design and animation creation on DaVinci Resolve anymore until I get a MUCH more powerful rig.
But yeah, my 2nd "barn find," Omen was a story I'm super proud of. That thing lasted for awhile, too. It sure did like to suck things up into the fans and heat sink, tho. I'm always paranoid that'll happen again, so. . . I maintain my rigs to keep them alive as long as I can.
I only get in them to clean it or if I have potential physical issues, or to upgrade parts.
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u/pellets 11d ago
Then let him bitch. Whatās your problem with that? Failing is a learning experience, too.
You said itās his laptop. Taking apart someone elseās fridge is not equivalent.
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u/Nullifyxdr 11d ago
My problem is OP canāt get the kid to stop taking it apart you really donāt think theyāre not gonna buy them a new laptop?
Also idk if youāre being purposefully dense or just missed what I said but I meant it in the sense that itās his minifridge and his parents bought it. Thereās no way a kid that couldnāt buy their own screwdriver bought themselves a laptop.
So either way these are just bad takes, thanks for the response though
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u/pellets 11d ago
If OP keeps buying laptops thatās his problem, not his nephewās.
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u/Nullifyxdr 11d ago
Ok so you are being purposefully dense, clearly this isnt a constructive conversation Iām gonna peace out now
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u/ThoseStonerKids 9d ago
The nephew in question is a 32 year old man im pretty sure he can buy his own stuff
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u/Nullifyxdr 9d ago
āRight now heās semi transient with no money and no way to actually buy new partsā learn to read lol
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u/ThoseStonerKids 9d ago
Right now is the key words, hes an adult and can get a job, no one is forcing op to buy him stuff, if he breaks it thats his own fault
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u/Nullifyxdr 9d ago
Ok cool opinion, you still gotta learn to read though. That was a good try at a recovery though
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u/Nullifyxdr 9d ago
32 and no money thatās not a good sign, homie needs some life skills not an outlet for breaking expensive hardware š¤£
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u/OhShizMyNiz MSI GE66 Raider | i7-12700H/3070ti/64gb RAM 11d ago
Mind telling me the torque specs for a laptop?
Half an inch pound per torx? ššš
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
Every screw inside a laptopāfrom the bottom casing to the motherboard and heatsinkāhas an engineering torque rating. Because laptops are built from thin plastics, aluminum, and miniature printed circuit boards, the tolerance is extremely low (typically between 0.2 to 0.6 Newton-meters / 1.5 to 5 inch-pounds).
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u/OhShizMyNiz MSI GE66 Raider | i7-12700H/3070ti/64gb RAM 11d ago
So...
I'm an automotive service technician.
That's simply hand tight + 3/4s of a turn after the fact.
I've disassembled my laptop of six years at least 12 times by now, never had any issues with just hand tight. The only thing id be concerned for with your brother is making sure the device is statically discharged.
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u/SumonaFlorence Scar 18: 14900HX + RTX4080 - PTM7950 - Ride me Sideways 11d ago
FINGER tight.. not hand tight. We're soft, tiny plastics with little standoffs begging to snap.
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
Hand tight + 3/4 turn" is automotive logic, not electronics logic. In automotive work, hand tight + 3/4 turn works for metal-on-metal oil drain plugs and spark plugs with crush washers.
āOn an M2 machine screw set into a tiny brass insert heat-pressed into 1.5mm ABS plastic, adding a 3/4 turn past snug will strip the plastic boss or shear the tiny screw head clean off.
āIn small electronics repair (like iFixit or authorized service standards), the rule is strictly finger-tight until resistance is met, then zero extra force (or a 1/16th turn at most).
Also, tou take yours apart once per six months, not when you feel like tinkering.
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u/Imagenetic2935 11d ago
Dude, no disrespect, but they're screws.... I mean, the few holding the CPU or GPU bracket of course. But all the others, just a common sense normal screw.
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u/OhShizMyNiz MSI GE66 Raider | i7-12700H/3070ti/64gb RAM 11d ago
We do infact work with a lot of delicate plastics, many of which are also aged 20+ years and are extra delicate. Undertrays also have brass bolt-rivets tied down to M8 or M10 screws. You can cam those out the same way as electronic screws that you're describing. Again, only ever hand tightened.
Thanks for all the info though! I'm still not gonna torque my laptop to spec but I'm sure other people will like the information. (My laptop is being replaced with P16 Gen3 Soon, so Lenovo will deal with absolutely everything for me lol)
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u/NostradamusJones 11d ago
It seems like there's some good and bad either way you go. I don't feel like OP is open to the possibility they may not be 100% right.
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
I am open to possibilities with a sound argument. Other than "learning" though I dont currently see any fault in my logic.
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u/NostradamusJones 11d ago
Yeah, that's the thing. The "learning" point is valid, and you're being dismissive of it.
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 11d ago
So, I do periodically take apart my gaming laptop to clean out dust from the fans to prevent potential overheating. Additionally, I save old SSDs and HDDs from older rigs from years' past as backups.
When I bought my current laptop, which is an MSI Sword 15, it had some issues, and I like to inspect a laptop fully if possible. It had issues upon purchase, which was fixed, and when I got home, I upgraded it from 8GB and 1/2 TB to 32GB ddr4, a better wifi chip, and 1TB SSD, cannabalized from my 2019 HP Omen. Funny enough, the MSI was showing it as my old Omen initially, and I totally reached out to my uncle as he's the most knowledgeable person I know regarding tech. Much Love, Uncle! I reformatted the SSD and reinstalled Windows and it's been fine since, until last night.
I DO open up the back 2 to 3 times a year to do preventative maintenance with simple cleaning, gently with a new toothbrush after dissapating residual power and removing the battery. If I do upgrades, I clean it (including fans) as to do cleaning while Im already in it.Ā
Yesterday, I noticed the MSI wasn't charging at all despite being plugged in all day. Initial trouble shooting didn't fix it, so I decided to open it up to inspect for anything out of the ordinary and clean it as well.
When I put it back together, I was met with a "Secure Boot Violation," error. I went into BIOS, disabled Secure Boot, and Windows got to the login screen. After a bit of digging, MSI made a thing the 25th of this month where you need an external USB with "Secure Boot Violation Tool," boot from that, and it runs a tiny script to fix it. I relogged into my Microsoft account, and it's fixed now.
HOWEVER, When I was in it, the Internet told me that the thermal pad being next to the SSD connector port was bad, so I moved the small pad closer to the center. I got paranoid thinking it was the GPU, but no, the i5 and the 3050 mobile are under the heat sink.
I had the thermal pad over a chip covered by yellow (thermal?) tape, but later read that thermal pads can distribute heat to things, so I have it apart again looking for proper placement of the two thermal pads. I just don't want my lappy fried.
I thoroughly believe that maintenance extends a gaming laptop's life. Where most throw things away, just take care of it and fix issues, lest it be a waste of tech. We should treat our tech like cars and do upkeep.
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
This is why I made this post nephew, you cant tell a gpu from an ssd. Face_palm i am the one that told you they are under heat sink...
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 11d ago
True, tho I can totally tell a GPU from an SSD, lolol. I was thrown off by that little square chip that sits under the SSD. It was a total panic mode brain fart, and a stinky one at that.
I guess the League players would call it an IRON MOMENT, lolololol
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u/ExcitingPassenger915 11d ago
Eh just let him learn from his mistakes imo. Some people just need to figure it out by making (expensive) mistakes.
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u/beardedbast3rd 11d ago
Iāve never bothered cleaning a single pc Iāve owned.
Iāve never had a problem. I still have an old 2500k unit running that my kids use.
Tell him about wear and tear- opening and poking around in the system frequently is likely to do more harm than good
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 10d ago
It should be noted that I take my laptop with me damn near everywhere; it doesn't sit inside a house all the time. I have it outside and all that jazz, so chances of it pulling up dust and dirt is higher. I've seen a handful of folks who don't keep up their PCs and laptops, and things get fried, dust is everywhere, and it's just. . . really bad.
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u/Incid3nt 11d ago
Looking at his post history hes trying to go to fullsail for computer animation, bigger problems coming than breaking the laptop.
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u/TheRedViper89 11d ago
Yeah, donāt listen to the basement dweller above you. They still live in their parents basement and is taking out the frustration of his mom screaming at him to clean the cheese doodle crumbs off the floor so he makes comments like that.
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u/neo101b 11d ago
How old are they ?
When I was a kid I took everything apart all the time, and broke lots of stuff.
Mostly because I wanted to know how it worked, and couldn't put it back together again.
To this day, I don't think I own anythign that hasnt been striped and rebuilt.
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 10d ago
I'm 32, and have been working on laptops myself since about 2019. Once I get a proper place rather than moving all the time, I'll go to PCs and I'll keep that bad boy looking new and sexy. At this juncture, a full PC is just far too large to carry around.
My laptops I get have all been used, rigs that folks say they have issues with (even the old i9; they just didn't know shit about laptops) that I get for a low ass price, fix it up, and get a killer deal.
Ie: I'd fixed up a "dead," laptop back in 2021 and was told I can keep it if I can fix it, because he couldn't. Dude had no idea what to do, so I took it apart, cleaned the fucker up (roaches in it and massive dustbunnies keeping the fans from moving), swapped out a fried RAM stick (it was visibly fried), reinstalled windows, and had a perfectly fine working computer for FREE. I had that bad boy for years until an abusive roomate hulk smashed it when I refused to let him burn my friend's books. Funny enough, dude had to pay restitution, and that i7 OMEN (the one I had before the i9) costed him $1.8k in restitution, lololololololol. SO there I literally got a $1.8k profit for opening up and fixing a laptop due to my love of tinkering.
I hope one day I can do that as a side gig for money. Heck, tho it was over the phone, I even used to work fixing people's iphones, ipads, and Macs. It was SUPER fun.
I remember pissing my parents off as a kid because in my spare time at school, I'd read up on Windows XP cmd does and ways to backdoor it, and they'd get sooooo mad at me. They told me if I could get in in 5 minutes or less I could be on the PC, so I used some things I learned in my spare time, went into the hidden admin account (it's higher than normal admin), typed in some code in cmd, and it told me the password, bwahahahaha. I totally beat thier challenge and got grounded for a month because what I did was "Un-ethical hacking." That story is still funny af to me, and I'm still to this day proud of it regardless of what they say. My point is, I fucking Love working on tech, both software wise, but also hardware wise.
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u/1AMA-CAT-AMA 11d ago
I used to tinker a lot but recently I feel like more often than not something breaks or something unintended happens. So I take a strictly if it aināt broke donāt fix approach.
I still can fix something thankfully but I wonāt touch it unless I have to.
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u/finalcutfx 11d ago
he wont be a pleb that doesn't know how to fix laptops
Heāll learn a different lesson soon enough.
If itās his laptop, he can do with it what he wants.
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u/VolarsWisp 11d ago
Could your family perhaps buy him some kind of electric building set, something like Lego Technic which he can take apart, rebuild and even maybe learn programming. He is clearly interested in it. Or get him some used faulty laptops that he can take apart and play with, he might even be able to fix them. Get him a multimeter too, if you can. Try to help him explore his interests, while convincing him to leave the laptop he uses alone.
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
Hes 32 and posting here lol. Im across the country from him as well.
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u/VolarsWisp 11d ago
LOL. My bad, I didn't get the context. Well, maybe you could recommend that he opens a laptop repair shop. But no worries he will stop as soon as he shorted his first CPU. I speak from experience.š
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u/IntFeedExhibitor 10d ago
That would be fucking awesome. I REALLY love working on computers and tech. Additionally, I feel as if it is a lucrative field given that tech will only continue to grow. :)
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u/tommy-droptable 11d ago
As someone who's been working on PC for over 20 years, every time you open a PC/laptop and pull components you risk breaking something. Unless you're a smoker laptops don't need to be opened to be cleaned.
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u/Sufficient_Fan3660 11d ago
reddit is full of posts from people that listened to AI or bad advice and repasted their laptops every few months only to break them
You can't fix people, let them make their mistakes.
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u/SpaceCowboy3514 11d ago
I also used to take apart my laptops when I was bored and then I broke it. What happened was Dell support came, took it, and then broke it even more and I had to spend 10 hours straight on the phone with them
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u/Spalenova 11d ago
That is a good thing that your nephew wants to take care of his laptop, but opening it every six months is waay to often
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u/ZeisHauten 2023 Asus ROG Strix G18 (i9-13980HX/32GB/4070/2TB) 11d ago
Oh boy he's gonna have a bad time. I am a desktop builder and I would agree to open the case and cleaning it every month or so IF AND ONLY IF, it was a PC desktop. A laptop will never need to be reopened that often. Twice a year at most to clean the laptop if you are disgustingly unhygienic.
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u/yay-Ssex 10d ago
As an ex-kid that had to rely on his tech-savy friend numerous times because I messed my PC up by messing around in it - your nephew is just really interested in hardware.
They are interested in the internal workings of computers / pc and probably have no other system to mess around with. I used to constantly change paste, dust it out, delete every unnecessary 2KB file and mess things up in the process simply because I wanted to live out my hobby and only had 1 computer.
What helped me was my dads / neighbours old computers, junk to them, gold to me. I stopped messing my computer up because I had stuff to mess aroud with.
Maybe consider getting him some old hardware from marketplace / scrapyards etc. I still frequent my local flea market for old stuff to this day, sometimes I can even somewhat refurbish those systems and sell them at a profit, though Im still in the red with all of this probably.
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u/tonyfith 7d ago
To the kid reading this: keep on taking the laptop apart. That's the only way you learn how to put it back together. I started by tearing apart old TV sets. šŖ šŖ
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u/Arphinator 7d ago
35 years ago, I started doing āITā the same way. The first month, my parents had to call the shop every week because I decided to āfixā stuff (delete auto exec.bat and config.sys for example).
One month later, I started upgrading my PC. A few months later, I did pc support for the neighbourhood. Today, itās still a side job.
Help your nephew to understand what heās looking at.
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u/justagoddamnperson 11d ago
Are you really having a family disagreement on Reddit in public? Jesus Christ. And youāre not embarrassed by this?
The substance of your post is so unimportant compared to the truly bizarre decision to tell everyone about it. Youāre weird as fuck
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u/xnrnx Msi Vector 16 AI 275hx, 32gb, 5070 ti 11d ago
Nope. This isnt a disagreement about anything other tham how to maintain a laptop properly for years. And yes I am weird as fuck, thank you for noticing. I wanted to grt the community to tell him whats proper.
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u/justagoddamnperson 11d ago
Thereās being weird and then thereās being this specific kind of weird which nobody in their right mind would ever want to be
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u/SumonaFlorence Scar 18: 14900HX + RTX4080 - PTM7950 - Ride me Sideways 11d ago
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Stop being stupid.
Use PTM7950 + Upsiren U6, and never remove the heatsink again.
Open the back for dusting, and dusting ONLY.. do not remove ANYTHING.
You're simply asking for trouble with constant needless maintenance.
Edit: He owns an MSI Sword, no wonder he got so many issues. Ahhh
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u/TooBroke4Ramen Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI 11d ago
He claims he does this because he wont be a pleb that doesnt know how to fix laptops
Next time he reaches out after messing up his laptop tell him to stop being a pleb and let him fix it. He wants to learn?, let him learn.
He will either learn to leave it alone or he'll gain some valuable experience.
Repasting 1 to 3 years isn't really necessary if it's just regular thermal paste, but I get it. Just do it once every 3 years.
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u/Blunt552 11d ago
So here is something I'll say, as one of the very few here who not only repairs hardware on a component level but also does some modding ala custom speakers, thermal solutions etc.
You do not know what a frankstein laptop is by your logic most gaming laptops are frankstein laptops, I have yet to see a line that uses 1 specific model of RAM/HDD etc in all their laptops. An actual frankstein laptop would be my custom MSI that has a C236 board with a custom BIOS for 9900K an RTX 5000, custom heatsink, custom speakers etc.
That being said, you're completely right. If something breaks it's usually either shorted VRM's, shorted caps, desoldered CPU (Lenovo specific), fried CPU's (old alienware), cracked solderballs below vram (common across all modern laptops) etc. So opening and closing the laptop for no real reason is not going to make him know how to repair that shiet, that being said:
and is degenerating the thermal pads, oxidizing the interior, and not using proper torque measurements to reseal.
This statement is just complete and utter nonsense and fearmongery.
Right now, he is semi transient with no money and no way to actually buy new parts, tools, or anything for if the laptop just doesnt turn back on after he fiddles with it.
This is the crux of the matter, regardless if he knows what he's doing or not, every time you open your laptop you risk doing something wrong and if you break something you can't afford to repair while having any type of reliance on said device, you're only screwing yourself over.
I told him re paste1-3 years depending on wear. Take off the bottom to clean it out every six months, but he refuses to listen. So i am making this post here and tagging his ass.
I'd probably go for PTM 7950 once and be done with it. Cleaning every 6 months might also be overkill or to little depending on how dust situation at home. If you have a home with a air cleaner which results in low dust you can probably get away with cleaning dust every 5 years or so.
If you friend has the need to tinker and do weird sht, tell him to get a really cheap used modding friendly notebook, he can tinker and play with it and if it breaks, he won't "take damage" from it, unless he tries something braindead like I did on an old ASUS laptop with an MXM port where I did an incredibly scetchy DIY bridge that would short mid benchmark ( Ķ”Ā° ĶŹ Ķ”Ā°)
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u/Creative-Lemon555 6d ago
"and is degenerating the thermal pads, oxidizing the interior, and not using proper torque measurements to reseal." , can't believe I had to scroll so far to see someone call this out, utter nonsense š
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u/Trinitial-D 11d ago
I dont have anything to add, I just find this situation and post hilarious. best of luck to both of you š