More adventures in computing. So I bought this old Samsung laptop a few years ago to install Linux on. Worked out pretty well, but I don't use it much because it tends to run hot and the fan drones on and on. Well one of my chromebooks is acting up, so I thought I'd see if I could get the Samsung sorted.
I had some left over thermal paste from getting the Dell ready, so I figured I'd use it on the laptop to see if that'd help the overheating issue. Man, you gotta damn near dismantle the whole thing to get at the CPU! Forty eleven screws and umpteen clips later, I finally get to the fan and heat sink. Thermal paste? What thermal paste? There was none! Guess after all these years it just disintegrated.
So I got it cleaned up, thermal paste applied and back together. Worked a charm. I was using it for about a half hour before the fan even came on and then only on low speed for maybe half a minute. Crazy thing though, this laptop always had an issue with the track pad. Cursor jumping around and so forth. Well I don't know what I did, other than tighten a few loose screws here and there, but somehow the track pad works fine now. Yay! 😃
