u/Authoritaye

I'm trying to find what games I have that I haven't played yet. I'm going through the list of installed games but many games that I know are installed show up as NOT. Is there anything I can do to fix this besides go to each game and manually adjust it?

GK3, Septerra, Nox, BG2, all installed, all working, but they're listed as not installed.

Background:
After a recent spate of dead laptop posts, I decided I better take swift action. I'm glad I did. I haven't done any serious service to this machine since it was purchased in 2021. I got lucky. I don't think you need to do this every year, but as soon as you notice your cpu/gpu temps creeping higher and definitely when you see some red numbers in hwinfo.

While I was going through this process I took some photos and I'm sharing it here in case it will be helpful.

I'm not very good with videos. For those who prefer video there's a good one here, except for one part that I STRONGLY disagree with. It's the step where he disconnects the MH4 coaxial cables from the wireless card. I think it's far faster, and safer, to just unscrew the card, remove it from its slot, and leave it dangling from the pigtails. That's because these pigtails are VERY easy to break, just a little too much force, or from the wrong angle, and they'll never go on again. They're microscopically small, impossible to fix, and while they're cheap to replace that's a pain in the butt. Just remove the wireless card and take care not to scratch it.

1. Supplies

You might not need all these things but you'll need some of them

1. Thermal paste. I got Arctic MX-6, which is supposed to be good. It's certainly expensive. I don't know how much difference the brand of paste you get makes. Probably only a couple of degrees at most. The good part is you don't need much and a tube can probably last several computers or years.
2. Thermal pads
3. Thermal putty
4. A good pair of sharp tweezers
5. Screwdriver small and long enough to unscrew laptop screws.
6. Compressed air
7. A clean lint-free cloth or shop towels
8. Old toothbrush (or new, but don't brush your teeth with it afterwards)
9. Clean, washable surface
10. AN515 series laptop or similar.

#1 Remove laptop base
Turn the laptop over. Make sure it's powered off, and unplugged from everything. Unscrew 11 screws from the base as pictured.

I used a #2.0 screwdriver bit, whatever that means. You could use just about anything though. I've used kitchen knives before.

You'll probably want to unscrew one screw at at time, tip over the laptop so the screw falls out, and then repeat that. I don't recommend loosening all the screws and then tipping the laptop over so that all the screws fall out at once. Be sure to put the screws in a safe place and don't tip them over, and if you do tip them over make sure they won't get lost or eaten by a child, pet, etc.

The black cube is a magnet. I find that if you dump out screws with a magnet in your hand they tend to stick to the magnet and not fall on the floor as much.

#2 Crack open the case and separate it from the chassis along every edge

Just about anything can be a shimmy. This is a piece of LEGO.

To pop open one corner of the case you'll probably want to use something plastic, to avoid adding unnecessary scratches, and to avoid cutting something inside accidentally. Anything with a wedge shape, with a narrow edge will work. The corners near the hinge are ideal for this as they are already sticking out a bit. Once the first fastener 'pops' you just pull up along the edge and pop the next one going all the way around the perimeter of the case. If you're strong, be careful. Acer laptops are beautiful but fragile, like a flower, or Anthony Davis.

The laptop base, fully removed. Note the square-shaped pieces of ancient thermal strips. We'll be replacing those.

Take your clean lint-free cloth and wipe out any dust and hair from the interior. Take this outside and blast every vent hole with your compressed air.

#3 The Interior

It's never a bad idea to take a photo of the motherboard pre-op just in case you need a reminder about where something goes.

#4 Disconnect the important bits

https://preview.redd.it/22i5tk853x0h1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a029f292d1c159b16bd3abbd73047e01ba882eb

1. This gross and dirty bit of gaffers tape is holding the battery connector in place. You can remove this and if you don't have a replacement, re-stick it somewhere you can re-use it later. Proabably on the battery. I will be discarding this and replacing with a strip of electrician's tape.

Directly underneath the number 1, under the tape, is the battery connector. We disconnect this to avoid shorting anything out and to avoid getting shocked. Safety first. I just used my fingernails, and pushed the clip back towards the battery and it slides out, but possibly with a little difficulty. The spacing is very tight.

2. The connector for the LCD screen. This is held down with gaffer's tape which will need to be unpeeled first. You don't have to remove it entirely, just the edge holding the connector to the case. I used tweezers to pull one edge of this away and then my fingers to pull up the rest. Once the tape is off the connector, I pushed it up towards the fan with my fingernails, and it slides out.

Gaffer's tape peeled back and you can see the battery connector.

3. This is another power connector, for the fans. It was too narrow for me to push with my fingers so I used my tweezers to coax it towards the fan and out.

This is what it looks like when the battery connector is disconnected.

This is what it looks like when the LCD connector is disconnected.

The first screw to remove the fan is right by the fan power connector. Unscrew that and the other one is on the top right of the fan. There are only two screws to secure each fan.

Disgusting

#5 Trigger Warning! GRAPHIC HORROR and GROSSNESS
I lifted up one side of the fan after removing the gaffer's tape from the heat sink, and there was some dead animal under there! No, that's just a few years of cat hair. Cats are the natural enemies of computers.

https://preview.redd.it/m1v7qfda9x0h1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=774c6675a999875189eedd1313b29cf57504aede

4. Fan screw removed
5. Fan screw removed
   Take this fan outside and blast it from all angles with compressed air. Be sure to aim air away from you to avoid inhaling disgusting cat hair and years of accumulated dust. Dust, btw, is basically your dead skin cells, mostly. Ghastly, I know.

Power connector removed and now this fan is ready to be taken outside and cleaned

MORE GRAPHIC HORROR! WHAT IS THIS, HALLOWEEN??

I hope you weren't eating lunch

This really shows you why it's necessary to do this more than twice a decade. There was hardly any airflow able to get through the vents to reach the heatsinks and cool the laptop components. It was not only insulated by the thick coat of hair that keeps my long-haired tuxedo cat warm in the harsh winter, but also, it was just clogged up. There was no visible evidence of any of this when you looked inside the vents from the outside of the assembled laptop.

https://preview.redd.it/cmj2pxpibx0h1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49eb50000fab896f1561ceabe3844989eb45bb27

6. Remove this screw and the wireless card will rise up at a 45 degree angle, gently remove toward the right (forgot to add the arrow). The pigtails (white and black coaxial cables) are still attached AND THAT'S OK! That's a good thing. Getting those @$#@!s back on can take hours even if you're careful and if you're not careful they are tragically easy to break. It's not worth the hassle.

7. Remove this fan screw

8. Remove this fan screw
   Remove the gaffer's tape (one side only if possible) and remove the fan. Clean outside as per the other one.

OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Removing the heat sink assembly

#6 Removing the heat sink assembly

I'm tired of adding numbers to photos but that's ok. These screw holes are actually already numbered if you look closely. That's a handy guide to show you what order they should be loosened when removing or tightened when putting back on. The reason you do it out of sequence is to balance the pressure the screws are exerting. This should ensure that you get a level and consistent gap and prevent catastrophic damage to the CPU or GPU.

The conductive assembly fully removed.

Take this outside, and blast every possible angle with compressed air. Take your old (or new, sacrificial) toothbrush and brush away every trace of hair and gunk.

The exposed GPU, CPU and various VRM MOSFETS, Power stages, PCH chipsets

With the heatsink removed we can see the ancient thermal putty (pink) and thermal paste (grey) that needs to be cleaned off with isopropyl alcohol, and a plastic card.

Briefly:

1. GPU surrounded by VRAM
2. CPU near the RAM, they both require thermal paste
3. Note the old dried up thermal pad that broke off. It was doing nothing in that condition, maybe even insulating.
4. Thermal putty coating. All needs to be softened up with alcohol and scraped off with something like a credit card.
5. WTH is this?? I just told you not to do this. DON'T DISCONNECT THE COAX WIFI PIGTAILS!! You're going to spend an hour or two trying to get this bast@rds back on. Just don't do this. I warned you.

NEXT:
In part 2 - out with the old, in with the new, and the results.

Does anyone know of a really good (thorough) guide, text or video, on how to disassemble a Nitro V15/16 to un-clog the radiator ducts, remove the gpu/cpu, then re-apply the thermal pads and/or paste, and put it all back together? That should be one of the pinned links in this sub.

The last few times I've had to report a card lost or found, I've been served by polite, capable, but very obviously southern American (Georgia/Louisiana/Alabama/Florida/) women. Can anyone shed any light on this?

I suppose it's possible that some people with American accents live here and are working in a local call centre, but what are the odds that I get them every time.