I don't have any pictures, but this is truely sad.
My laptop is just over a year old now. The original owners hardly used it, but I do. Well, I went ahead and took my entire notebook apart. I got down to the CPU heat spreader and the video card, and my god! The heatsinks were COVERED in dust, even after frequently spraying them off externally. I have to say there was atleast 1/2" of dust on them, even stuck inside the fins as there is nowhere else for it to go. The thermal paste that Dell puts on the CPU was HORRIBLE!!! I can't even say there was any on it when I took it off...
I put a nice new lair of AS5 on there, and it seems to be helping A LOT!!I wanted to put some thermal paste on the GPU, but there was a thermal pad on it and a HUGE gap, too large for paste. So I ended up leaving that on there. Same goes with the Northbridge... thermal pad and a huge gap!
Well, I got it all back together, and crap! It didn't want to start... I'm like, uhh..... Well, turns out a memory module didn't get seated properly. Took 'em both out, cleaned the contacts, and put them back in, VIOLA!
Wow, my system now starts with the fans either OFF or on a very LOW speed. I am amazed!
The CPU temperatue is only a whopping 48* C at idle. I'll probably run the burn-in process to get an even better result. I don't know what my GPU is running at currently as I need to find another piece of software to read the probe, but good god. I used to be running at 58*C at idle and ~68* under load. I was getting angry that this thing was getting so hot.
So, moral of the story, CLEAN THE GUTS OF YOUR LAPTOP!!!
I'll post better temperature numbers once the burn-in is done.
P.S. Here are my laptop specs:
- Pentium 4 2.8GHz (800MHz FSB)
- 2x 1GB PC3200 DDR RAM (Dual Channel)
- ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 - 64MB
- 60GB 5400RPM HDD
- 8x DVD Combo Drive
- 15.4" WXGA
- 6450 mAh Battery
when i use it once and a blue moon
; personally, I don't care if my machine sounds like a F-16 coming out of Mach 2, the fans will run at all times, lol. As a matter of fact, with the case fans I plan on putting in my system (Evercool 120mm, aluminum), it WILL sound like a jet coming out of Mach 2, lol. What can I say, I just don't leave my computer on all night, the lights bother me more than the noise 
