Operation "Sholay" well Done

So i have been having some issues with Basanti lately, thats my "close to heart" laptop. She has been running slow and hot lately, i realized the problem with her is all the dirt she has accumulated over the 2.5 yrs she has been with me. So i did some research and decided to open her up to clean her fans and the cooling system. Believe me it was one of the toughest decision i have ever made, i knew even the smallest mistake could mean i could never use Basanti again and I plan to stay with her as long as possible.

So with a heavy heart i decided to open her up and i shall show you guys some of the images i have taken of her.

Firstly here is my tool kit. I had a screw driver set, a can of compressed air, some cotton swabs and a liquid to clean the screen.

The first step was to remove the battery and then open the hinge as seen in the picture above. This was followed by removing the keyborad and then to take apart the LCD screen. Removing the screen was difficult and i had to extremely careful to remove the screws and the cables. So here is how Basanti looks without her keypad and her beautiful and high resolution screen.

I also had to remove her heart out which was her hard drive where all the data was stored. The most important piece of Basanti. I handled it extemely cautiously and took out the hard drive and the optical drive as well.

It was after this that the most difficult part began. I had to take out the palm rest which has abt 11 screws at the bottom and very tight connections at the top. Also I had to be extremely careful to not damage any of the processors. It took about an hour just to reach this far and Neha was already getting impatient, but alas the operation had already began and there was no turning back now.

So here is how she looks from the inside, very pretty aint she.

Next i located the fan and the cooling system and took the fan out. And what I saw was something no one should ever see in their lifetime. There was atleast 3-4 inches of dust between the fan and cooling system. The cause of my Basanti slowing down and aging well before her time. Here is what i am talking about

I removed all the dirt and the dust which by the way also took me a good 30 minutes. And Neha helped me to clean the fan as well. Here is how much dirt i collected.

After the operation was completed the next important thing to do was to put Basanti together again. If taking her apart was difficult this was going to be even more difficult. So i started putting her together piece by piece. First the fan, followed by the palm rest, then the screen which was most difficult, the keyboard followed and lastly the hinge which by the way put a good fight to slip in place.

Then i put the battery back in her and turned her on ;) and to my horror her display was all Green with blue lines all over her. I panicked and was scared for her life, but i kept my cool and opened her up again but just the screen and the keyboard. Put all the wires and connectors in place tightly and put in back. Only this time i did not put the hinge back on since i belived that this was the actual problem.

I prayed and i prayed hard as i turned her on again and Behold i see beautiful blue screen greeting me. I was so happy and elated at the successful operation. I put the hinge carefully back on and cleaned her screen to give a new younger look . Here take a look

3 hours after i stared working on her she was good as new. I make sure her hard drive was ok, took her for a spin and she worked beautifully and was so much quicker that she ever was. Now i am looking to get her a new accessory, an additional 1GB RAM module to upgrade her for even better performance. If you guys love your Basanti as much i suggest to make sure she is clean and not running too hot.