Cleaning Laptop

[Hammad 151]

Recently, my laptop fan noise increased. SOmeone told me its because of dust and i should clean it using a blower or a vacuum cleaner. I am not sure about it. Should i just take it to repair center or clean it myself..?

Suggestions?

[Simon H 860]

I had this issue several years ago. I have a Dell Inspirion laptop, which are notorious for overheating (wish I had know before I bought the stupid thing).

I researched the issue and learned how to open up the laptop to take out the cooling component and clean out the dust. There was a lot of dust that collects around the heat sink and blocks the air flow (which probably is what happened to your laptop).

It may seem intimating to open up a laptop, especially for the first time. A few things tips I'd suggest before opening up your laptop.

• Always ground yourself. The more often, the better. Static electricity may damage your laptop hardware and circuits. Grounding yourself discharges the static electricity from yourself, so you don't end up discharging it into your laptop.
• Research your laptop. Know where the components are located, so you don't end up taking out the wrong parts, or worse.

 

If your not confident, that's the best decision. I'm sure you will get quite a few people saying its easy to clean a laptop but if you damage it they wont be paying the repair bill.

Once its clean try to keep the area around it as clean /dust free as possible to slow down further build-up. Turning it off or putting it to sleep when not in use will also help because when its off the fan cant drag dust inside.

[Simon H 860]

Is the fan noise louder than before because it is running faster or is it louder as low speeds.

If it’s louder because its running faster, It could be dust, it could be some new software or malware that is placing a high demand on the CPU which in turn requires more cooling. I would check task manager to see what processes you have running.

Are you using it on a firm flat surface with the vents clear and not on your knees with the vents blocked. The best place to use a laptop is on a desk that is regularly cleaned. This cuts down on the amount of dust that gets sucked into the machine.

Either way, you would be safe to use a blower or vacuum to clear dust from around the vents. This might cure the noise problem however this is ineffective at removing dust from inside the laptop which can build up like thick grey fur covering the heat sink and other components.

The only way to completely remove this is to open the laptop but I wouldn’t recommend this unless you know what you are doing

[jshepp 112]

I had this issue several years ago. I have a Dell Inspirion laptop, which are notorious for overheating (wish I had know before I bought the stupid thing).

I researched the issue and learned how to open up the laptop to take out the cooling component and clean out the dust. There was a lot of dust that collects around the heat sink and blocks the air flow (which probably is what happened to your laptop).

It may seem intimating to open up a laptop, especially for the first time. A few things tips I'd suggest before opening up your laptop.

• Always ground yourself. The more often, the better. Static electricity may damage your laptop hardware and circuits. Grounding yourself discharges the static electricity from yourself, so you don't end up discharging it into your laptop.
• Research your laptop. Know where the components are located, so you don't end up taking out the wrong parts, or worse.

[Hammad 151]

Is the fan noise louder than before because it is running faster or is it louder as low speeds.

If it’s louder because its running faster, It could be dust, it could be some new software or malware that is placing a high demand on the CPU which in turn requires more cooling. I would check task manager to see what processes you have running.

 

Are you using it on a firm flat surface with the vents clear and not on your knees with the vents blocked. The best place to use a laptop is on a desk that is regularly cleaned. This cuts down on the amount of dust that gets sucked into the machine.

Either way, you would be safe to use a blower or vacuum to clear dust from around the vents. This might cure the noise problem however this is ineffective at removing dust from inside the laptop which can build up like thick grey fur covering the heat sink and other components.

The only way to completely remove this is to open the laptop but I wouldn’t recommend this unless you know what you are doing

 

I checked task manager but there was no unusual process running. I gues i have to take it to the repair center for service

[Simon H 860]

Is the fan noise louder than before because it is running faster or is it louder as low speeds.

If it’s louder because its running faster, It could be dust, it could be some new software or malware that is placing a high demand on the CPU which in turn requires more cooling. I would check task manager to see what processes you have running.

 

Are you using it on a firm flat surface with the vents clear and not on your knees with the vents blocked. The best place to use a laptop is on a desk that is regularly cleaned. This cuts down on the amount of dust that gets sucked into the machine.

Either way, you would be safe to use a blower or vacuum to clear dust from around the vents. This might cure the noise problem however this is ineffective at removing dust from inside the laptop which can build up like thick grey fur covering the heat sink and other components.

The only way to completely remove this is to open the laptop but I wouldn’t recommend this unless you know what you are doing

 

Turn it off and have a good look at all the vents, can you see anything obstructing them. It won’t harm anything to run a vacuum over the vents but if this doesn’t solve it then it may need service.

You can download speccy from http://www.piriform.com/speccy it doesn’t need installing, you can even run it from an SD card.

You can use it to monitor the temperatures of the CPU, motherboard, Graphics card etc. This would show up components that are getting hotter than they should which could help in your decision about taking it for service.

[Hammad 151]

I had this issue several years ago. I have a Dell Inspirion laptop, which are notorious for overheating (wish I had know before I bought the stupid thing).

I researched the issue and learned how to open up the laptop to take out the cooling component and clean out the dust. There was a lot of dust that collects around the heat sink and blocks the air flow (which probably is what happened to your laptop).

It may seem intimating to open up a laptop, especially for the first time. A few things tips I'd suggest before opening up your laptop.

• Always ground yourself. The more often, the better. Static electricity may damage your laptop hardware and circuits. Grounding yourself discharges the static electricity from yourself, so you don't end up discharging it into your laptop.
• Research your laptop. Know where the components are located, so you don't end up taking out the wrong parts, or worse.

 

i d rather take it to someome rather then opening it myself

[jshepp 112]

I had this issue several years ago. I have a Dell Inspirion laptop, which are notorious for overheating (wish I had know before I bought the stupid thing).

I researched the issue and learned how to open up the laptop to take out the cooling component and clean out the dust. There was a lot of dust that collects around the heat sink and blocks the air flow (which probably is what happened to your laptop).

It may seem intimating to open up a laptop, especially for the first time. A few things tips I'd suggest before opening up your laptop.

• Always ground yourself. The more often, the better. Static electricity may damage your laptop hardware and circuits. Grounding yourself discharges the static electricity from yourself, so you don't end up discharging it into your laptop.
• Research your laptop. Know where the components are located, so you don't end up taking out the wrong parts, or worse.

 

Simon makes a point:

The only reason why I was able to sucker enough confidence to do it myself was because there was already a lot of information on how to open up my laptop since the issue was common among Inspirion customers.

[Hammad 151]

I had this issue several years ago. I have a Dell Inspirion laptop, which are notorious for overheating (wish I had know before I bought the stupid thing).

I researched the issue and learned how to open up the laptop to take out the cooling component and clean out the dust. There was a lot of dust that collects around the heat sink and blocks the air flow (which probably is what happened to your laptop).

It may seem intimating to open up a laptop, especially for the first time. A few things tips I'd suggest before opening up your laptop.

• Always ground yourself. The more often, the better. Static electricity may damage your laptop hardware and circuits. Grounding yourself discharges the static electricity from yourself, so you don't end up discharging it into your laptop.
• Research your laptop. Know where the components are located, so you don't end up taking out the wrong parts, or worse.

 

jshepp, i think you cn get information about any laptop. So thats not the point here. Anyway, i contacted the repair center and they said it will take an hour or maybe less and will not cost much. So why take risk . THanks Simon and jshepp

[julieandrews 0]

use system cleaner to cleanup your PC