Cleaning out laptop fans

[ddrpolaris]

Question for anyone who has done this before:
How do you clean out a laptop, specifically the fan? Do you just open it up and use canned air? Is there anything special you need to do / be careful of?

Comments

[purple_dj]

The only real difficulty is that laptops tend to have a very large number of very small and differently sized screws. I literally had to remove 47 screws of about 7 different sizes to replace the keyboard on Laura's laptop a couple months ago, but that was admittedly the worst example I've ever seen.

I'd recommend getting a compartmentalized tray or a bunch of little tupperware containers to hold all the little screws in groups. Like: put all the screws that were holding the bottom panel on in one compartment, the ones holding the top panel in another, etc.

Other than that, take your time, don't expect the job to be quick, and don't hurry just to get things done. Some of the parts inside (especially cable attachments) will be delicate enough that you can break them by tugging on the cable too hard or prying the connector with a screwdriver in the wrong direction. When in doubt, it's safer if you can leave cables connected and not have to disconnect them. Since you're just trying to get to the fan, that'll probably work.

[purple_dj]

And compressed air is the right way to clean a fan. Just blow air through it from as many different directions as you can. You can't really hurt anything with that.