How to clean the cooling fan and apply new thermal grease on Acer Aspire 5315 CPU
This guide explains how to clean the cooling module and apply new thermal grease on CPU in Aser Aspire 3515 series laptop, but most likely this guide will also work for some other Aser Aspire models. In this model you first have to remove the CPU fan and then remove the cooler ( heatsink ).
Remove cooling fan.
1. Remove four screws marked on the picture below.
2. Remove three screws securing the fan and disconnect fan cable from motherboard.
3. Remove the fan.
As you can see the heatsink is clogged with dust, which stops the air flow passing through it. For cleaning I suggest using compressed air.
Applying new thermal grease on CPU.
1.To apply new grease you have to remove four screws securing heatsink to the chassis.
2. Now carefully lift up the heatsink.
As you probably know thermal grease (or thermal compound ) helps for the better conducting of heat between the CPU and heatsink. In this laptop the heatsink covers both the CPU and video chips. The video uses thermal pad to conduct heat to the heatsink and that’s why you will find thermal grease only on the CPU. If it looks dry, you’ll have to replace it with new grease, but in this case you first have to clean the rests of thermal compound that remain on the CPU and heatsink. I would suggest using soft cloth dampened with alcohol or acetone.
Now when both surfaces – of processor and cooler are clean you can apply a thin layer of new thermal grease on the CPU chip (black part).
It has to be thick enough ( but not too thin ) to ensure that the heatsink and CPU are in good contact. Next, carefully install the heatsink over the processor and tighten four screws.
