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76
Thought this might be of general hep/use. Let me know where it may need correcting/improving please.

First off: Install Speedfan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php.
Use it to study your laptop and make a note of the current typical CPU and GPU temps in normal operation and under different load types  - e.g. (say), when playing games, or browsing the web or building a spreadsheet.
This will provide you with a starting-point as a basis for comparison - a factual AS-IS picture.

Causes of overheating:
  • As a long-time laptop user, I have learned that the single most common cause of overheating and fan noise in my laptops tends to be that the heat exchanger becomes clogged. The heat exchanger looks like a small radiator matrix (grill), usually located on the left or right side of the laptop, but sometimes on the rear side.

  • A small fan sucks the unfiltered cold air (usually from the base) into the laptop, and pushes it as exhaust hot air through the matrix of the heat exchanger.

  • The heat exchanger gets heat transferred to it via thermal conduction along a solid copper bar that picks up the heat and carries it away from the CPU (and GPU if fitted). The bar is screwed/clamped to the CPU/GPU, with a heat-conducting thermal grease smeared between the faces of the components before they are assembled. The grease can break down over some years and its conductive efficiency reduced as a result, leading to overheating and automatic thermal cut-out.

  • Over time, the heat exchanger matrix tends to become blocked with the accumulated dust and fluff that unavoidably accumulates (sucked/blown in by the fan). In addition, the blades of the fan can become loaded with accumulations of particles of dust, such that the fan aerodynamics can change and its weight can be increased appreciably and thus its operational and aerodynamic efficiency is impaired. These things can lead to overheating, fast/noisy fans and automatic thermal cut-out.

To see what you may need to clean:
NB: If you don't like the idea of using a vacuum cleaner to suck back through the fan, then go to the thorough clean section, below.
  • Step 1: Have on standby:
     - a horsehair paintbrush.
     - a variable-speed vacuum cleaner.
     - a bright LED torch.
     - a few plastic bag ties (with the wire center).

  • Step 2: Turn the laptop off and remove the battery.

  • Step 3: Shine a torch into the fan's cold air-intake (assuming there is one). Observe whether the intake is blocked with fluff/dust and the condition of the fanblades - if the latter are black, then they are probably not too dirty, but if a grey colour then they are probably loaded with dust/dirt. Wipe/dust off the intake surface with the paintbrush. Don't clean it otherwise, just make a mental note of the visible status.

  • Step 4: Next, whilst In a darkened room, shine a torch into the fan intake whilst looking through the heat exchanger matrix on the side of the laptop. The light should be visible The matrix should appear to consist of clear, rectangular little tubes, but they will be unable to let light through to varying degrees if they are blocked at all. Make a mental note of the status.

  • Step 5: Press the round end of the vacuum cleaner pipe against/over the air intake vent, sealing the edges with your fingers so that most of the suck is through the fan intake. Then SUCK: Turn on the vacuum cleaner and hold it in that position for around 2-5 seconds (experiment). The airflow will be sucked backwards through the fan (which you will hear whizzing backwards) and the air intake, along with most of the crud blocking the heat exchanger matrix. After switching off the vacuum cleaner, on inspection, you may need to slowly ease out larger chunks of fluff with a fine screwdriver, from the air intake vent. Repeat the suck until the air intake seems clear.

    Then repeat Step 4. Check - If the matrix seems clear/unblocked and if the fanblades are relatively black and shiny and the air intake is clear, then you probably don't need to do anything further.
    If the fanblades seem clean enough (black and shiny), but the heat exchanger matrix still seems a bit blocked, then you can clear the matrix further by using one of those plastic bag ties with a wire centre. Poke it through each hole in the matrix from the outside, then, when you have done that  thoroughly to them all, reverse-suck as before to clean the dislodged crud out.
    Inspect per Step 4 again.

    Step 6: Restart the laptop and check performance compared with the  AS-IS Speedfan performance metrics. If there's no change, then you probably need to do a more thorough clean, as below.
___________________________

DIY steps to do a thorough clean: (i.e., laptop is still overheating, cutting out, or has a noisy fan.)
  • If possible, download a manufacturer's service manual for that laptop. Read up on removal of the necessary parts to get access to those I have mentioned.

  • Prepare a clean work surface with a white cotton or microfibre towel to cover it.

  • Have on standby:
        - a good strong magnet (to hold metal screws on disassembly).
        - a horsehair paintbrush.
        - isopropyl alcohol.
        - a variable-speed vacuum cleaner.
        - cotton ear-buds (to clean in confined spaces - also use with isopropyl alcohol).
        - toilet paper (for cleaning surfaces - also use with isopropyl alcohol).
        - a bright LED torch.
        - heat-conductive thermal grease (if required).

  • Disassemble the laptop CAREFULLY as necessary to get the access required to clean its innards. Place the screws on the magnet so as not to lose them. Keep the magnet in a small tray or bowl to catch any screws or metallic bits that may fall off or are non-magnetic. You may find some screw anchors have already broken (or break on reassembly - so take care!) due to over-tightening or (typically) the plastic having become brittle (their design being unfit for long life).

  • Clean dust/dirt off the motherboard and other parts as you proceed inwards, using the paintbrush and vacuum cleaner on low suction. Using CO2 pressure cans to blow the dust off is arguably a waste of time as it tends to redistribute a lot of the dust (along with your money).

  • Clean the heat exchanger in situ. You may need to use a small flat-bladed screwdriver to scrape off accumulated fluff/dust/dirt or corrosion. Use a torch shone through it to check whether all the holes in the heat exchanger are cleared and clean.
    Carefully remove and disassemble the delicate fan, and separate the fan blade unit. The fan operates upside down and when operational hangs in the air utilising a magnetic field as a bearing (frictionless bearing). In operation, the upside-down rotating fanblade unit over time can become gradually more weighed-down with accumulated deposits of airborne grease and dust onto the fanblades. It can cease to be in its optimum aerodynamic blade profile or position, so becomes less efficient and can become noisy. The noise may be due to friction between surfaces where there should be no contact (or friction) in the optimal case.

  • Carefully clean the fanblade and housing using the paintbrush/earbuds/isopropyl alcohol, as necessary. After cleaning the fan and its housing, clean the bearing "faces" and smear them lightly with a fine coat or drop of CRC - or similar lubricant that can be used with electronics. Don't drown it with CRC as the excess oil will be thrown out along the fanblades when in operation, attracting and adhering to dust particles that pass through.

  • Heat-conductive thermal grease: You probably only really need to tackle the task of cleaning off and replacing the heatsink thermal grease if the CPU/GPU has been overheating and shutting down the system. I read somewhere that the grease has a 10-year life expectancy. I have tended to replace it only when I have opened up a laptop for the usual full cleaning (as above) and as a just-in-case measure on older laptops. Speedfan metrics will generally be a good guide as to whether this overheating is a problem. Those greases seem quite expensive, but maybe you get what you pay for. I'm not sure.

  • Reassembly: This is the reverse of disassembly, so, if you don't have a service manual, then make notes as you disassemble the thing.

77
Living Room / Re: Arizona sunsets
« on: December 08, 2019, 08:27 PM »
@Arizona Hot: Thanks. Another fine piece of ephemeral beauty.

78
@holt:
Sometimes on Youtube I can't find any date for when the video was made. Is there actually none posted, or how or where do I find it?
Do you mean when the video was actually made, or simply when that particular YouTube item (file) was posted onto YouTube?
I don't think the actual "made" date would necessarily be known/given and would not form part of the file metadata if you downloaded it.
Otherwise, the date that video file was posted onto YouTube usually/always(?) seems to be given. You could also presumably see the same metadata on the channel of the person who posted that video, where all their videos will be listed.
I usually make a note in CHS (Clipboard Help & Spell) of the video title, the YouTube source link and the date it was posted when I download a YouTube video.

79
@joes_garage: Cross-posted here in case you might not have seen this - it was a response made where you had been asking a similar/same question in another thread:
@joes_garage:
How about Launching Windows Apps (Edge, etc)? Will it be in V3 or will it make it to FARR before that? Mouser, you said like 6 months ago that this feature was coming in soon. :-)
____________________________
I thought it was possible to launch Win10 Apps with FARR already, no?
Apps normally seem to have to be be loaded by the Windows Explorer Shell, which I find to be a pain.
Take MS Edge, for example.
Open the FARR window, Type/paste this string:
      run shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge
 - into the FARR search box, and then press Enter.
MS Edge will load.

Open the FARR window again, and repeat the type/paste of the string:
      run shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge
The first search result will be the same string that you just entered previously.
Select this result and Right-Click it, choosing Add to Group Alias, then select New Alias Keyword/Group..
You can then add this as a new alias. (You can call it whatever you want, but I used $Edge)
You will see that FARR will have interpreted and recorded the string slightly differently, as:
      shellexec shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge

20_710x571_23FD7004.png
Spoiler
(Source: C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins\Clipboard Help+Spell\Database\Files\2017\10\20_710x571_23FD7004.png


Right-Clicking the same result will now show the newly-added alias in the menu:

20_763x495_AC976BC6.png
Spoiler
Source: C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins\Clipboard Help+Spell\Database\Files\2017\10\20_763x495_AC976BC6.png


(Was this the sort of thing you were looking for?)

80
@4wd: Yes, the Ozzies were arguably ahead of the game. In the NZ IRD project, the designers/planners had looked to other examples of innovation in the tax system in different countries, and one good example had been Australia's. (The decision had already been taken to use XML as the Common Reporting Standard.)
The background to the project would have included these objectives and benefits:
The Standard Business Reporting (SBR) Programme would eventually transform the manually intensive AS-IS government-mandated processes for collecting data from businesses, to enable a more automated TO-BE process.
In considering the SBR Programme, the New Zealand government would be in line with international developments – for example, where Australia, the Netherlands and the UK are well advanced in the development and implementation of SBR.
This would be a whole-of-government programme using technology to reduce reporting burdens for business by eliminating unnecessary or duplicated reporting to separate government agencies – typically IR, ACC, Statistics.
SBR would provide options for increased automation of business reporting, including greater pre-population of forms.
The broad areas of benefit that would be provided by SBR are:
•   Reducing the number of different agencies to which businesses have to report directly the same or similar information.
•   Reducing the number of data elements that businesses report to government, through standardising and harmonising data definitions and eliminating duplication.
•   Reducing the cost of intermediaries to business, currently necessitated by the need to operate a more manual and duplicative process.
•   Improving cost-efficiency of the SBR process, through increased automation.
...etc.
I could be wrong, of course, but in the Intuit case in the US, those types of "no-brainer" objectives/benefits for the nation's taxpayers would seem to have been nowhere in sight. If it was not benefitting the taxpayers, then one has to wonder to whose $benefit that ultimately might have been...  :tellme:

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