As you all know, I can’t help opening up my Sony laptops to check them out inside. So, I slowly open it taking the usual care.

Once open I decided to watch the fan for a bit while the system was on. It definitely has a small whine although it’s less noticeable once you’re opened up the system as this is probably due to better airflow. At any rate, I put a little bit of lubricant (machine oil and NOT WD40, don’t ever use WD40!) into the fan bearings and it immediately became a little less audible. You have to be very careful when doing this as you have to use it sparingly and know where to shoot it. The end result is that it helps a bit. There’s a metal plug that allows for getting deeper inside the fan. Once I figure out how to open it I’ll post pictures. That should allow for better oil penetration.

Next up was peeking at the Dothan Pentium M CPU. I took off the heatpipe heatsink and was shocked. There was very poor contact on the CPU to the heatsink.

So, I put a small dab of heatsink paste and smoothed it out and put the heatsink back. Now, after a very high load, the heatsink does not get as hot as it did before. I suspect the heatpipe is now drawing the heat much more efficiently and getting the fan to expel it faster. At any rate, the time it takes the fan to spin down is noticeably faster now after running a processor intensive task.

I’m going to experiment more and see what I can find out. I’m curious about the GPU next but will look at that in the next couple of days.  :wink:

hahha i was wondering when that itch would creep up on ya! 

Nice.  I haven’t opened my TR or any notebook.  I build desktops from scratch, but when it comes to my TR i am truefully a little scared I might screw things up.

Thats why I am holding up on the BT upgrade.  Maybe one of these days I’ll get a wild hair up my a$$ and open the thing up just to see whatz in there.

I really want to open up my Sony TR and do the BT upgrade.  As for the desktop building, I think a lot of us are like that…I love to build a good desktop, although mostly for me I end up trying to make a modest computer for work, and end up with a gaming focused leviathan.

taking apart the tr is easier than you think.  i almost sold the bluetooth chip because i was kinda worried about dismantling the tr.  It’s basically, remove 13 little screws, pop the keyboard (spring locked), and then pop in your bluetooth chip. 

it takes less than an hour to add the bluetooth chip. 

the only thing to worry about is removing the plastic around your keyboard.  you just pull from the corners where the plastic says “pcg-tr2X” and the power button and wala!

LOL, easy to say that, but when you have a 2,500 brick lying on your desk after a botched job…

~Nox :cry:

[quote author=“jso902”]taking apart the tr is easier than you think.  i almost sold the bluetooth chip because i was kinda worried about dismantling the tr.  It’s basically, remove 13 little screws, pop the keyboard (spring locked), and then pop in your bluetooth chip. 

it takes less than an hour to add the bluetooth chip. 

the only thing to worry about is removing the plastic around your keyboard.  you just pull from the corners where the plastic says “pcg-tr2X” and the power button and wala!

LOL, is there a thread that details this installation in a bit more detail, and where would I procure this “bluetooth chip.”  You also mentioned Sony TR2, would this work with a TR3, I thought it was mostly the same, but just wanted to check.
Some how I could imagine me saying “wala” and hit the power on button, only to see nothing….LOL.

yes.

Excellent, now all I need is a BT chip.  Where might I find such an item?  Ebay?  The Selling Forum?  Linc’s pile of spare parts?

or tifosiv122’s.. :ph34r:

Part numbers, instructions, all here. All ya gotta do is look.

Hey Gr00vy, when you put the contact material inside, did you only put it in the area that is boxed in below?  I may go ahead and do that because I notice my S runs really hot sometimes even for partially CPU intensive tasks.

You only put enough heat transfer paste as the surface of the CPU. It’s the small rectangular part. Also, the layer of paste should be very very thin. Too much paste is almost as bad.

Yea I know I had put to much on my desktop CPU ... but only put it on the rectangular inset that I had highlighted. right? I only ask because I haven’t opened it up yet and I would just like to have a better knowledge of what I’m doing before open it up.  Also, do you use an anti-static wrist thing?  Or just ground yourself by touching something?

Your image isn’t showing up. Tripod doesn’t like sharing images. If you don’t know what you’re doing then I’d recommend a wrist strip or touch metal to discharge yourself. My desk has metal legs which generally does the trick. YMMV.

I just asked two friends and they both see the image… I know what I’m doing in opening it up…I was just wondering what your opinion is on the best way to ground myself… I shocked my Dell from not taking much heed to the static thing… Just touch a piece of metal once or keep touching it?  I just haven;t really thought to buy a wrist thing even though they are so cheap….
YMMV???