If your laptop’s overheating and it’s fan is producing more noise then usual then perhaps it’s time to clean it’s insides. Over the time dust tends to accumulate on the inside layer of the heatsink preventing the fan to fan out all the hot air from the inside of the laptop. And thus all the heat remains inside, fan never stops working trying to do it’s job. Excessive heat also slow down the processor causing the programs to run slowly or even freeze.
If this is the case all you need to do is clean the dust layer from the heatsink. And here is how you do it on HP 6715b laptop. Please take caution since all electrical parts are very sensitive and can be damaged with improper handling. Also, almost all laptop manufactures have service manuals available for download on their support site so if you want more information, please see HP’s support website.
Heatsink is located on the just below the power button of the laptop. To reach it, keyboard, switch cover and fan need to be removed. Firstly shutdown the laptop, disconnect it from power source and remove the battery.
Keyboard.
Turn laptop upside down and unscrew three screws (circled in RED on this picture). Two of them have a little keyboard icon next to them, and the middle screw is located below the center panel that hides memory module and WiFi Card. You must remove this panel by unscrewing another screw (YELLOW).
Now turn the laptop back and open it as much as possible. Locate four switches on the keyboard (RED on picture 2), pull them down and then just rise the whole keyboard towards yourself. The insides of the laptop are now revealed. Keyboard is attatched to laptop with a thin cable, but you can leave it alone as it won’t interfere. Left you can see the fan and just left from the fan is our goal.
Switch cover.
Switch cover is the part just above the keyboard with all utility buttons and power button on it. First disconnect the ZIF connector by pulling the brown part up, and removing the thin cable from the connector as shown on picture 3. Now comes the hard part. Find the four slots just below the switch cover (RED on picture 4). You have to insert a flat tool inside one of these slots as shown here and push the whole cover off by force. You can use the screwdriver for this as shown on picture, or some other tool that gives you leverage and strength. It may take some time and right force to pry it out.
Fan.
With switch cover out of the way, 2 screws holding the fan can be unscrewed (RED on this picture). Also, disconnect the fan from the board (YELLOW) and remove the whole fan out.
Clean!
This will reveal the heatsink and the dust layer on it (last picture). Take the dust off and clean it as much as possible.
After you are done, just do everything backwards. reattach the fan, put the switch cover back (just push it back in and reconnect the thin cable), put the keyboard in place and tighten the screws on the back of the laptop. If by some chance your switch cover buttons don’t work, open everything again and check that thin cable is really connected.
And this should make your laptop quieter, faster and cooler :).
This is a very very useful post here! I have the same laptop, and I was constantly going crazy with that noisy fan… until I found it was due to all the dust inside. Thanks to your explanations my laptop sounds like it’s breathing again…
Thank you VERY MUCH for this article.
Cheers,
Chris
I’m glad you found this useful. Those laptops get very dirty from the inside :). The problem is that almost each model has different way of opening it.
I have overheating and freezing problem with my HP 6715b laptop. I’ll try this method to clean the fan out of dust. Hope it will work 🙂
I have just cleaned may laptop according to these instructions. It’s running like hell again. Big credits to the author of this article!
Go Smola, go Smola GO, clean your laptop real good, yO!
Great post .. had some trouble opening up my laptop (same model) and with this article, done in 15min .. Thanks 🙂
Just a short note of thanks for the effort to write up and post clear instructions and helpful photos – they have made it quick and easy to quieten my laptop.
Thank you for this guide! It saved my 6715 from minimum 80 Celsius to about 50.
Oh thank you so much for this guide! My 6715b works like a charma after cleaning.
Cheers M8!
Thank you for the article! I just love how silently my 6715b runs after cleaning.
Thank you _so_ much. I just took my wife’s laptop down from 100 degrees Celsius to 54 degrees Celcius in about 10 minutes. You uses to be able to hear the fan anywhere in the first floor, now it is quiet like a _normal_ computer.
Laptop has stopped shutting down since following the steps in this article (also replaced thermal cpu/heatsink paste). Many thanks.
so many thank you!! ive got the same notebook. its like 5-6 yrs old. now after the cleaning its like new! its supper quiet now!! it was very easy to clean, took like 15 minutes. amazing, and very helpful article! im so happy now! 1000 thx!
Thanks so much – a really simple job explained in a way that I could understand and follow. Works like magic! Ta
Tnx, this worked for me.
CPU temp went from 90 degrees Celsius down to 40 degrees.
Thank you very much for this excellent article. The fan is only running every few minutes now instead of like-hell-around-the-clock.
Well written, easy to follow and worked a treat. This s/h hp is now running quiet and may put in a few more years yet. Thank you for the excellent post. Down from 80s to 50s.
Very useful advice. Thanks a lot.
Nice!
Just cleaned and unbelievable amout of crud from the vent. Up and running again.
Cheers
AC
Glad it was helpful 🙂