Opening up my laptop

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I was thinking about opening up my laptop in order to clean the fans.

Is this a good idea :?:

I'm worried about damaging it as laptops are more compact than desktops obviously, so have to be extra careful.

The sound of the fan is not too healthy, and I'm worried that it's getting clogged up with dust and may fail.

 

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Along with all the stuff you got when you bought the laptop should be a set of instructions on how to open it up. With a desktop, you can be a bit careless and get away with it most of the time but I'd leave no margin for error if you are talking about completely disassembling the thing to get at the fans. It usually involves opening it up about as far as you can go without actually removing the motherboard. If you don't find the paperwork on how to do this, the manufacturer's site should have something. Make sure you are wearing an anti-static strap and have a clean workbench area to do this on. Put the cat outside and put the "Do not disturb" sign on the door. Let us know how you get on.

 

Yeah, just rip it open. They arent much harder to work on than desktops. Just remember where every thing goes an do what Trip says. I usually have a wee container (camera film tub) to keep screws, there are a lot of them. If you lose any...ahem..I have a few spare..

My 2pence worth.

Angus

 

Be very careful Flex, they are tricky things to open and you don't get to see all the parts holding it together. Don't force it open, if it doesn't open relatively easily then there is another screw/catch somewhere.

Alternatively you could just hold the vacuum cleaner nozzle to the fan's grill and do a little cleaning there. Just remember the anti static strap.