Oh God … what have I done??

My computer has been running a little hot of late and the CPU fan has been constantly running. So after a little research in to the possible causes, I decided to clean the CPU fan. Now, how do you do this? Well, you need to pull your laptop apart!!!!

I have a Dell Inspiron 5150, so I went off to the Dell website and located the Service Manual and then proceeded to shut the laptop and pull it apart. Pulling it apart isn’t too hard to do, a little fiddly with some of the screws if you have big fingers but not too hard. After pulling out the memory, CD Drive, hard drive, keyboard, removing the display and then removing the top cover (referred to as palm rest) I was able to see the cpu fan.

I gingerly loosened the screws as directed too ( it has the numbers 1 – 4 so you don’t get lost) and then tried to pull it out. It was a tight fit so I had to pull pretty hard to get it out but eventually it did. I then pulled the fan out of the unit and cleaned out the dust. There were decent size clumps in there let me tell you. So I cleaned all that up and thought I was doing a great job.

Placing the CPU unit back on to the board was a little difficult to do in that it was hard to push it back in so it sat firmly as it had done when I pulled it out. I was able to screw the screws in though so this is what I did. Ensuring that all the wires for the fan and the touchpad and the monitor were all back in place I put it all together again. Great I thought all done now to turn the little darling on and get back to work …

Oooooppppppsssss … mmmm why isn’t the monitor coming on … indeed why isn’t the harddrive being read … oh dear what the @#$@ have I done??? Maybe I haven’t plugged the monitor in properly. So I pull it all apart again and check the monitor … check the cpu fan – it was running when I started it but check it anyway, keyboard is plugged in … try it again … nothing. Oh dear!! After going over everything again and fiddling with the CPU unit to see if it was seated correctly several times with no luck, I decided to go to the local pc shop and get their assistance.

They were helpful in that they checked if the monitor was the issue or if the memory was damaged but they never pulled the laptop apart. So no real joy here as I walked out the door other than the thought of spending $$ to get a new laptop. The new laptop was a good thing … the spending the $$ on the other hand wasn’t such a good thing.

When I get back home, I thought well, it appears to be broken anyway so I may as well pull it all apart and look at it again .. and again .. and again. After pulling it all apart and then staring at the motherboard and the place the CPU sits, I noticed a little screw with two padlock symbols either side of it. I turned it … oh that little block move! I placed the CPU unit back in the laptop, and it fitted much easier this time. Interesting. I turned the screw with the little lock around to the lock position and low and behold the CPU was difficult to pull out. Ah ha he said … So putting the necessary bits back together without doing all the screws, I turned the laptop on and held my breath …

Eureka … we have a screen and writing on it … it is working .

So put it all back together and make sure it is working and it does so this is great. I am so relieved. I couldn’t believe that it could have been such a little thing. Evidently, the CPU was not seated on the motherboard properly because I hadn’t unlocked the screw holding it in. This screw is hidden down the side almost under the CPU unit and it is not mentioned in the service manual. So, be aware that if you are pulling the CPU out of your Dell – or any other computer – and it is difficult to come out, look for the little locking screw and make sure you lock it when you put it all back together again.

I have downloaded the Dell Inspiron 1100, 5100 5150 Service Manual and made a little edition to the document. Now this is not the official document of course but it is all sourced from the Dell site unaltered except for my little note about the lock screw.

South Africa – Elephant Plains Game Lodge, Sabie Sands Reserve

We left Graskop today and headed north back to God’s Window for a look here. The security guy was still about but no need to pay today so in we went and looked around to see the view. The view was great, although a little breeze at times but as usual the sun was out and it was all good.

We then called in at Mac Mac Falls and the Potholes – no nothing to do with disrepair of the road – these were rock formations that had been carved out by the water running along the creek / river and over the falls. the movement of the water had created little swirls in the rocks. Very nice to look at.

From here we basically hit the road all the way up to Sabie Sands and the Elephant Plains Lodge. The roads weren’t too bad and I think that while we didn’t get lost exactly, it did take a little longer than it perhaps should have. Having said that it may have had something to do with the last 25kms of road and the fact we were in a little Toyota Yaris that didn’t really handle the bumps in the gravel / dirt / sand road too well. There was also the massive speed humps on the tar road in the 80km zone too!

Estee hadn’t driven on gravel roads too much so that was an interesting feeling for her, especially when the sand arrived and it made the car move a round a little more than what she was used to. But she did well and got us to the lodge.

When we arrived, we looked at the accommodation and Estee was over the moon. Better than what she was expecting I think. The room – a rondavel – had a thatched roof and brick walls. and then the bathroom was really big. Huge. With a spa type bath and a big shower. Lots of room in the whole place.

Once unpacked we got lunch and that was great before we left to go out and see what wildlife we could shoot (with our camera). It was brilliant, we got to see all sorts of animals big and small.

Over the next three days we managed to see all sorts of things. There were Leopards, Impala, Hyena, Lions and of course Elephants as we were staying at Elephants Plains after all! And when we weren’t out hunting the animals were laying back keeping out of the heat or eating – what more could you want?

Estee took advantage of the health spa by getting a massage and she throughly enjoyed it. She came out of the place walking like a zombie before falling to sleep straight away. So that was Estee out of it until lunch time.

More pictures of Elephant Plains Lodge and South Africa.

South Africa – Graskop

We drove to Graskop today on the way to Elephant Plains Game Lodge. It wasn’t an extremely long drive but it was about 250kms or so on some of the straightest roads. But then there were some that were a bit windy and up and down too.

The most amazing thing was the size of some of the potholes and not the potholes that we were going to see tomorrow! you could loose a car down some of them and if not the car the front suspension.

Along the road we stopped at a place called Millie’s. It was just a little place that you could stop and refuel the car and yourself. It was a nice place. A little lake / dam by the side of the road with some carp in it. It should have had trout too but I didn’t see any swim past. We had some lunch there being of trout that should have been from the lake / dam and it wasn’t too bad at all. Nicely smoked.

After that, back on the road to Graskop where we staying for the night. The drive beyond here got a little more interesting with more bends in the road and some long climbs and descents. Would be the place to practice your hill climbing on the push bike let me tell you. On one hill we got behind a truck that was going down the hill. It’s brakes were smoking and I mean that literally. we got past it but it would surprise me at all if his brakes failed or that caught on fire they were that bad.

Arrived in Graskop mid afternnon so we had a quick afternoon nibble at Harry’s Pancakes and then went for a drive to “God’s Window”. When we got there the security guy said that the area was closed BUT if we gave him some money he would let us in and look after our car while we looked around. We decided against this as it was just promoting what South Africa is trying to get rid of. So we went on a little further and just took some pictures of the scenery from the side of the road then headed back to Graskop.

We had dinner at a restaurant across for the hotel we stayed at. It specialized in Mozambican cuisine. It was a nice dinner too. we had a seafood platter between us and that was nice with some very nice flavours.

More Pictures of Graskop and South Africa