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How to open an eMachines laptop M series

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Does anyone know how to open an eMachines M5313 laptop, without breaking it?

I’ve had mine for two years now, so it is out of warranty, and it is starting to heat up so much that when I play a game, it shuts down after a few (3 to 10) minutes of play. It doesn’t shut down for normal activities, such as websurfing or downloading stuff, but games, except for cards and “Ports of Call” are a killer.

I believe this is caused by a 2 year accumulation of dust, hair and other fine particles clogging the fan. Laptops are more sensitive to this accumulation than desktops and much harder to open without breaking something critical.

So far, I’ve gone as far as taking off all the screws on the bottom of the case, but after that I am stopped by what seems to be a retainer of some sort, and I have no idea on how to get it to let go, and I can’t pry the halves of the case far enough to see how to get at it.

After the case is open it shouldn’t be too hard to take out the fan and clean that, but any pointers in that area too would be appreciated as it looks to be a fully enclosed piece as I saw on a repair shop’s web site. they only showed the fan assembly coming off its resting place, not how they opened the case.

Can anyone please help? If youo can pictures would also be a great help, but not a necessity. Clarity of process is though, as this will be the first time I open a laptop. I have claened a number of desktops, so I do know to be careful.

Thanks in advance.

Bart

Topic

for $25 you can

In reply to How to open an eMachines laptop M series

purchase a fan set. It is like a dock, it fits under the unit and blasts cool air from several fans to keep the unit cooler.

Split the case

In reply to How to open an eMachines laptop M series

Check that there are no screws in the battery compartment, and behind the cover over the memory boards. There are usually a couple screws holding the keyboard in place, remove those and the keyboard and there will be a couple of screws under that, holding the case halves together. Good Luck

Keyboard Tied Down

In reply to Split the case

I tried to look for the screws but I can’t find any more.

I can lift the sides of the laptop keyboard.
It seems the keyboard is tied down with a screw in the middle. I pried the keys out but didn’t find any hidden screws.

Instructions for opening

In reply to How to open an eMachines laptop M series

I found a forum that explains how to open this, it includes pictures.
http://www.dexplor.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=171

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