haka

Plot twist, the chemical smell that was hard to locate was coming from the CR2032 battery. Never seen a smelly battery before, you learn something new every day I guess. I didn't contact the vendor since it seemed like an easy fix. I reassembled everything and now the chemical smell is gone, but there are still fumes coming from the laptop, making it hard to use. Even after two days running some grid computing app. I took a long time fixing this so the parts are probalby dusty. Or I put too much arctic mx4 or arctic cleaner. I'll try to disassemble again and clean the motherboard and everything with 70% isopropanol. Running at 100% CPU and GPU the peak max temps were 80°C and 63°C, running about 5°C cooler most of the time.

I'll try to contact the online shop. Worse case scenario I try the procedure listed here Gassing Off - Motherboards that Smell? - Slashdot But most likely, I won't.

I disassembled everything properly and put the motherboard in a plastic bag. Apparently the motherboard is the source. It is outgassing constantly regardless of heat so I guess it is the PCB's resin. Maybe the motherboard wasn't cooked properly in order to rush the shipping. I'm pretty much fucked I guess.

I removed all the screws, but the bottom case is still solidly attached, any advice as to how detach it without damages ?

So I received some arctic cleaner and mx4 paste. I removed the heat spreader on the gpu ram and slightly bent it downward to make it touch the last chip. The smell doesn't come from the thermal pad or oem thermal paste. Apparently its the plastic case itself that is outgassing. And it does so all the time. One option is to disassemble everything and to put all the plastic parts in the sun for a few days. I don't believe my seller would really care about that problem and I live far away so I guess it's best to try to solve this myself. Does anyone know of a good guide to completely disassemble a W230SS or a related laptop ? Is there a service manual for clevo laptops ?

Thanks for your answer. Well I got mine in June, so far the keyboard failed, the wifi card is starting to act flaky, and there is a strong plastic smell and a small hickup with the sound output. I didn't bother to repaste so far because the temps are ok never reaching above 80°C on full charge. There is some throttling after a couple of hours but I suspect it has to do with that gpu ram heat spreader. Also on closer inspection I noticed some fingerprints on the bottom plate, possibly made of thermal paste, I cleaned it up but the smell is still here. I guess I'll need to remove the motherboard to check everything if the repaste does not work.

Hello, Since the beginning my W230SS gives off a nasty chemical smell. At first I assumed that it was the new electronics smell and that it would wear off after a while. After a few months it's still here, strong as ever and it is starting to become really annoying. The smell is always present but stronger when the laptop is hot. I suspect the thermal paste, since the smell is stronger around the gpu. I ordered some supply and will try to repaste. If it doesn't work I guess I'll disassemble everything and try to clean it with isopropyl alcohool. Anyone with a similar problem? Also I noticed a problem on the motherboard. The heat spreader on the gpu ram is slightly bent upward. So there is at least one chip of ram that do not get cooled. There is a thermal pad on the heat spreader, does anyone know the thickness of that pad according to specs ? I'd like to replace it. Any help welcome.

Hello, I have a small problem on my W230SS running Windows 8.1. I mostly use headphones. When the computer goes in sleep mode for a while the sound will come out of the speakers instead of the headphones after I resume using it. Unplugging and replugging the jack does not help. The sound card driver do not acknowledge the jack anymore. The only way to fix it is by restarting the computer. I bypassed the problem by using sound over hdmi to my second screen but that doesn't fly under linux. After some research I found the same problem on other VIA chipsets. Solved by the OEM with a driver update. The chipset is a VT1802S with driver version 6.0.11.0500 Anybody with the same problem?

Hi guys, I recently acquired a clevo w230ss and would like to improve it a bit. Mostly interrested in premamods but I will keep looking around.