Warning: Some Q-Tips were harmed in the making of this tutorial
I have an Antec laptop cooling pad that is listed here from Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834999850
I will admit that it it cheaply made of all plastic except for the very thin aluminum layer on the topside. My cooler has started making noise from a fan after having it nine months or so. I decided to look into the problem and see what was going on. There are several places online saying that this unit is throw away, or very cheap, or that you can not service it or replace the fans. That is not true, so here is a basic tutorial on how to take the Antec cooler apart and what it looks like inside.
The unit has ten screws though out the entire device. There are four that hold the case together, two on each fan for a total of four fan screws and finally two that hold the fan speed board in place. There are also four pray type plastic tabs, one on each side that hold the case together.
Here is what I used for this project. I used a can of air, a #1 tip Phillips screw driver and a small tip flat blade screw driver, glass cleaner, a microfiber cloth, and q-tips.
Lets get started. Turn the cooler over on its top and gently pry off the feet which are held on with glue. The flat blade screw driver works great for this. Now remove the four screws from the case body, there is one under each foot. With the flat blade screw driver gently pry the case apart to separate the plastic clips.
Once the case is separated you can start to clean the inside of it with glass cleaner sprayed on the microfiber towel. I used q-tips soaked in glass cleaner to get the tight areas around the fans and into the air channel. The fans are thin and the fan blades look like fins, similar to a swirl cage fan. I am not sure in a standard case fan will fit in here unless it is very thin. The connectors on the fans are two prong and small, like a motherboard fan connector.
The fans have play in them and are very weak as far as power, so any dust build up will make them not work well and will throw them off balance. My fans quieted down after cleaning. The fan speed switch works like a low and high speed setting switch so both fans run always.
The cooler goes back together very easily as well. The top cover only fits back one way and presses back together. You can then re-install the four case screws and press the feet back on. The feet only fit one way and are slotted. That is it. You have now serviced and repaired your Antec laptop cooler, which has been said to not be fixable.
12 comments:
Thanks for the instructions... I was able to take my pad apart and repair the loose power supply.
You are welcome. I am glad that I could help with this. Let me know if there is anything else I can help with. :)
thanks for the instruction but I have a question about lose power supply, the connect between my usb cord and cooling pad is a bit wobbly to the point where it has to be at a certain angle to be on, if not, it'll just turn off. Any ideas on how to fix this problem?
Hello Andrew, It has been my experience that in order to fix that you would have to de-solder the plug from the control board and solder in a new plug to the board. It is a loose connection it sounds like to me. The plug could be loose from the board and you might get away with re-soldering the plug to the board. I hope this helps.
I got mine for Xmas from my husband and found that recently I was having issues with it staying on. My son said he had to wiggle the H/L toggle to get it working one day(mind you he mentioned this AFTER I found it wasn't working) and I have found that it the whole power unit doesn't work at all no matter what I do right now without resoldering anything. I think mine is a from where the USB plug comes in to the unit..... any suggestions without having to go out and very quietly buying another one?
Thanks for posting this -- my power connector, too, is loose (only works when the cable is pushed or pulled one way or the other). I've been planning to take it apart to hopefully re-solder the the plug but wasn't sure how the case came apart.
lol you have the EXACT SAME laptop cooler as i do! and i found this post by searching of what describes my laptop cooler "laptop cooler VERY weak" and this is what i found, lol, i thought it was just me that had my laptop cooler broke,
I gave up, I"m going to buy another one but by a different maker this time with a better connection usb wise. Its ridiculous that they dont even sell an extra cord or anything for these when so many people have problems with them. Just shows that Antec isnt always the better way to go.
Thank you very much! The noise was getting really annoying, and now it is back down to normal!
thanks for the tutorial! My laptop kept getting really hot even when on the cooler so I looked this up. Turns out I had so much dust in the fans that it looked like a little rodent lived in there! Thanks again!
I just tore into mine, thanks for the tutorial. also i noticed something to make things a lot easier when cleaning. the spiral fan blades you talked about and pictured come off. if you just take your fingers and pull strait up on the wheel keeping even pressure it pops off. on the bottom is a magnet for the motor with a little metal nipple, spacer and then a bearing. this whole assembly can be washed in the sink no harm done just be gentle. I also applied vaseline to the nipple, reassembled and tested the fans. they were still loud so i went back in and found the bearing under the spacer. apply vaseline to this too. now the chill pad runs better than new and is a lot quieter(the reason i took it apart)
Thank You for you tutorial, Great job
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