Dell XPS M1530 how to increase performance

[ShardTheOwl]

Well I have been looking for ways to increase the performance in my Dell XPS M1530 with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHZ and an Nvidia GeForce 8600MGT. I know I could overclock, but would I have to get a better fan? It already has some overheating issues.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Not much you can do for laptops.
If you have 1 gig of ram upgrading to 2gig will help some on games and multitasking.
Have you cleaned the heat sinks vents lately?
Blow compressed air into the heat sink outlets and remove the dust, hair, lint buildup and it should cure your overheating problems.
This will blow it back into the fan and you may have to use hemostats, toothpicks etc. to get the compressed clumps out.

 

[dingo07]

I've got the same machine - purchased in 2007 - other than the memory upgrade as mentioned, all you can do is add an SSD... Which greatly increases performance but really shows the video bottleneck if pushed

Have you removed the video/CPU heatpipe and fan, and replaced the TIM? That will help with the temps - and don't blow compressed air without disconnecting the fan power

 

[ShardTheOwl]

It has 4GB of ram. I have not cleaned the air vents ONCE so I should be suprised when I see the dust bunny collection in there, haha. Could I just shut it off and wait for the fan to turn off, or do I have to disconnect the power?

 

[Unolocogringo]

Turn it off and remove the battery.
If you are using a compressor instead of a can of air, you need to make sure to NOT over spin the fan.
I use a plastic toothpick in the fan to keep it from spinning.

 

[ShardTheOwl]

I'm using a can of air. Should I remove the panel or should I just blow it in the vents and fan? I don't have an air duster right now, would a vacuum be safe to blow in the vents and fan? I don't want to have it suck up anything. The vacuum would be on a lowering setting. It overheats after 30 minutes of playing Half Life 2.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Do not use a vacuum. too much of a static discharge chance. Unless you keep the end of the hose grounded. The vacuum may or may not produce enough velocity on a low setting. You need fast moving air to dislodge the build up of dust etc.
Blow into the exhaust vents, this will blow the dust bunnies into the fan area so you can remove them.
Blowing into the fan will clean the fan but not remove the build up on the exhaust fins of the heat sink.

If you are comfortable removing the bottom panel to get to the fan for better cleaning then go right ahead.

 

[hang-the-9]

You won't get much more than a 10% speed boost, if that, even if you overclock it (if possible with that laptop), you won't see any difference in performance outside of a benchmark. You'll just be shortening the life of the laptop with more heat.