Being a geek, you'd think I'd baby my technology. You know...daily blowing out my keyboard with compressed air. Diligently wiping off my screen with those special wipes that you can get just for monitors. Backing up my hard drive daily.
But I don't.
In fact, I have a confession to make. I've had my laptop for 2 years now, and I've never once cleaned it! The thought really didn't cross my mind until my fan started running nearly nonstop. It made enough noise to be annoying, and the bottom of the computer got so hot, that I couldn't even hold it on my lap without fear of bodily injury.
So, I finally decided to clean out my laptop last night. Bec, Audrey and I were in Atlanta visiting my folks, and it was almost midnight. I figured there was no better time to give it a try.
Disassembly
Getting the computer apart was easy. I just started taking out screws until the piece of the case that covered my heatsink was loose. Then I removed the plastic piece to expose the fans and the top of the heatsink. I used a vacuum with a crevasse tool to vacuum it out.
Cleaning
A LOT of crud came out of my computer almost immediately. Our house is average when it comes to dust. But we do have a dog as well, and there was an inordinate amount of dog fur inside my computer! Yuck!
After I got all the crud I could see, I almost stopped. But then I thought better of it and decided to remove the fans completely to see if I could find any more. Boy, was I surprised! It was jam packed with dust and dog fur behind the heat sinks. I'm amazed that the poor fans could even get any air through them at all! No wonder they were going full blast all the time! And no wonder my computer was still overheating!
I vacuumed off the heatsinks using a brush attachment. Then Rebecca and I cleaned all the dust off the fan blades with some cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol. We had it looking good as new!
Reassembly
I was going to go even further, but it was really getting late, and most of the crud happens because of the fans. So, I put it back together (successfully, though there were some at the table that weren't sure that I could. HA!).
Results
I am amazed at how much better my computer runs now. It doesn't get hot at all on the bottom any more. Tonight we watched an episode of Monk that we downloaded off iTunes, and it barely got warm. Before the cleaning, something that processor-intensive would've threatened to shut down my computer uncontrollably (which also happened a time or two).
So, the moral is, CLEAN YOUR LAPTOP!! In case you're not sure how, here are some good articles to get you started: