overheating after cleaning the fan

[kaismark]

i have a dell inspirion laptop (it's 6 years old now) and so we decided that we have to clean the fan and we did..there was a sponge of dust anyways...and the fan started working again but here's the proplem: before we cleand the fan i could play games normally and the laptop wouldn't shut down..after i cleaned it the laptop shuts down after seconds and i can only open small games..the thing is the laptop shuts down even though it's cool...but the fan starts working really hard and it shuts down..and everything got worse the game even ran slower and stuff and now i can't open any game without it shutting down and it happend after we cleaned the fan..

 

[asoroka]

How did you clean the fan?

You probably broke the seal between the heatsink and the CPU.

Is it time for a new computer?

You need to take it apart, remove the heatsink. clean off all thermal paste residue and then reapply and re-attach the HS.

 

[stdragon]

^This

As previously stated, you most likely moved the heatsink while cleaning the fan. This caused a break in the bonding of the thermal paste. You will need to remove the HSF, clean the surface of both the CPU and HSF, then reapply new thermal paste.

If you're unsure of the process, there's plenty of Youtube videos on how to.