compaq R3000 free, but no cooling?

[RedFury]

I just got this from my Step dad. Geeksquad says the motherboard is toast and so is the HDD, he's better off buying new than fixing. The HDD won't post and the BIOS test says it's bad, so I'm writing it off until I can run a HDD utility on it to verify that it's completely toast.

I can run Ubuntu Live CD no problem, but the battery started getting low and he still has the charger, so I'm unable to work on it for a bit unless my other laptop charger is compatible.

At any rate, they say it overheated. The cooling fan does not run, nor has it run in the short amount of time I've used the laptop ( only about 2-5 minutes maxiumum ). However, it has gotten far from hot in that period of time ( my other older laptop runs much hotter ).

I can't seem to find out if this has active or passive cooling for extending battery life, or ??? I pulled the cover off the bottom to inspect the fan. It turns freely by hand, so it's not locked up from gummed up lubricant in the bearing. However, I can't tell where it plugs into the motherboard as the heatsink on this thing is pretty complex in the area it spans. Not something I'm used to dealing with, so I don't know what to look for specificially.

IF, for some reason the motherboard is not supplying power to the cooling fan ( this is an AMD 1600+mobile powered lappy, btw ) I'm gonna have to figure out a way to get it running. If that comes to tapping into power to a usb hub and cool it that way I will, but I'd like to pick the laptop guru's out there's collective brainpower for any hints or tricks I should try before going to radical surgery.

[theedisoneffect]

Ohhh. One of those. *shudders*

Well, it may have overheated, but they have thermal protection built-in to keep it from damaging anything. Whether that mechanism actually works is another matter, though. But for now let's assume it does.

Are you absolutely sure the cooling fan doesn't run? It's designed not to turn on until the computer gets hot enough to need it.

If it boots with the Ubuntu live cd and seems ok, then the motherboard is prolly fine. I'd bet that the HD just went toasty and the glorified BestBuy drones simply wanted to sell a new computer. It's definitely not the first time I've seen a dead HD in one of those computers. It's not the second, third, or tenth time, either.

[DanU]

One of my previous laptops had a non-working fan. To test the fan, I removed it and plugged it into a 5V source and the fan ran fine. The problem was the fan speed controller on the motherboard went kaput. I reinstalled the fan and hard wired it directly to +5V rail on the motherboard. It works now, but there is no fan speed control.

[RedFury]

I assumed as much about the fan not turning on unless necessary. Interestingly, I just got ahold of his new laptop ( acer aspire 3680 ) and as soon as I turned it on it was blowing hot air...

I'll eventually pull the thing apart further and test the fan ( I converted an old power supply to a testing station ). IF it works, then I'll probably just hardwire it into the mobo somewhere.

[reddogmr57]

Well first off hopefully i'm not writing all this for nothing, I've noticed this post is about a year old, LOL I have an Intel P4 3.0GHz Dual Core, or Hyperthread whatever it is. I have taken off the cover for the fans and processor, cleaned dust off the fans and the heatsink. Put it back together, I noticed when i turn the power on both fans come on, but a short while later one stops and i don't think it ever kicks on again, I think it use to, but not anymore. Could that be a bad fan or bad controller or something on the motherboard? While i had the laptop apart it was nasty! There was oil all over the heatsink and the fan shields, looked like someone poured a little oil on the heatsink to help it stay cool. And just today i read the fans are oil lubricated? So then i thought well maybe the fans are getting worn out? So maybe it just needs replaced? It still spins freely, so i don't know? My R3000 has been overheating and shutting off pretty frequently lately.
I have software called SpeedFan installed, it shows Temps 2 thru 7 at 216F or 102C and Temp1 starts out at high 90's F around 35C and gets hotter up to about 129F i think about 56C is about when the laptop starts shutting down. The hard drive stays around 80 to 90'sF or 26C. I have some Arctic Silver 5 on the way, i'm going to put that on and see it that helps a little. Would it be possible for me to splice the fan wires together and make it to where both fans run constantly? Do you think that might help? Or should the other fan be running faster because it only comes on when the laptop gets too hot? Would a new heatsink help too? I blew my heatsink out with a shop air compressor so it should be fine as far as being not clogged, but i couldn't get it squeaky clean because of the oil and other debris that was in there. Well I don't know what else to say, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

...if anyone responds to this thread, please send me a pm so i can get an email notification, because i am new to this website and others trying to get help with this laptop...

[RedFury]

Problem ended up being a bad fan. I bought a new fan off ebay ( got the whole heatsink assembly, though I have no idea how to remove the old one, I just replaced the fan. The heatsink I got had 2 fans on it, my lappy only has one installed ( Barton 2800 processor might be the difference? ).

Anyway, I had tried hardwiring in a fan from something else, and it just didn't cool well enough...you just need the right fan in there for proper performance. After replacing that fan, and the hdd, this laptop runs like new again....my gain!

If your fans are slinging oil, then you've got a problem. They are not serviceable in the ways of lubrication. I'd say you need to replace those fans. They do wear out, and the first sign is oil, and hard starting/hard to stay running.