Do You Clean the Fan in Your Laptop?

[minskey]

The fan on my laptop seems to be on a lot of the time and the air is quite warm, warmer than usual. With my old laptop I would open the back and remove the dust, at one point it was like a felt wad!

This is a posher HP Pavillion and the thought of opening the back scares me Don't know why as I'm sure just because its nice and shiny on the outside, not like my old little drab grey beastie. The gummages inside will be the same...........


Shall I

[broadway]

I hoover the inside (desktop PC) every fews months or when it starts making a noise!

[Jardiniere]

What?? Is this right or are you having a lend?
My laptop has been very busy in a very smoky environment for the last few weeks (trouble with the wood burner) and is probably full of s*** , like me, but open it and clean it?
Eh?

[BarleySugar]

I've got an HP Pavilion too, and I thought it was running a bit warm. I didn't open it up, but I did run the vacuum cleaner over the vents which removed a bit of fluff and dust. I always opened my desktop, but getting into a laptop isn't so easy. DD was having trouble with her Toshiba overheating too, enough that it was cutting out. The same treatment seems to have cured it, although her vents were larger, so she had better dust removal I think.

[piskieinboots]

I've got more than enough dusting to do thank you - if it needs doing it is delegated to Snowdrop

[RedThorn]

You'd be better off cleaning if you can, they changed the solder a few years ago from leaded to lead free solder which is no where as good and does not handle the heat well and breaks down and gives bad joints which leads to no laptop. Thank the EU regs for this one! grr

[Glutton4...]

I had one of those cooler fan thinggies under my MacBook, which helped not only keep the dust out, but keep it cool. Now, I have a gel pad, which absorbs the heat. Not sure I'm brave enough to undo it!

[Jeanied]

I gave mine a squirt with the compressed air can using the spout - and I had to take a fine crochet hook out the dust bunny that was in there

[julesapple]

Don't know about the fan....but I need to get fruit crumble off my screen. I just saw Zaz's avatar and burst out laughing, quite forgetting my mouthful of pud.

(I used to clean the fan on my old Toshiba Satellite because it would suck in so much cat fur that the fur would become a stick of felt. But I've never cleaned the fan on this one - a Dell Vostro.)

[Alison]

Until I read this post it had never occurred to me that it was something that you could / should do

[Glutton4...]

I regularly used to clean the fan in my old Desktop - it would get filthy! Amazing how dirty they can get.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Word of caution, folks, on using the vac around your pc/laptop - our computer buffs have always made me swear not to take the vac anywhere near as the static electricity can cause a spark an knacker your computer.

I've just had a google to see if they've been having me on all these years, and apparently not. This from Computer Hope's free computer help

"You can use a vacuum to suck up dirt, dust, or hair around the computer on the outside case. However, do not use a vacuum for the inside of your computer as it generates a lot of static electricity that can damage the internal components of your computer. If you need to use a vacuum to clean the inside of your computer, use a portable battery powered vacuum designed to do this job or try using compressed air."

[zazen999]

I actually own a portable battery operated vacuum designed to do the job. I haven't done it in about 8 years though.

[taff]

I've always used a vacuum cleaner to hoover the dust out of the fan and the heatsink, not had a problem yet. The dyson was brill for doing it, brushes and compressed air just waft it all around.

[Alison]

I don't even know what the heatsink is!