how to clean the fan

get a can of compressed air and liberally blow out the air vents.

will that be enough? my previous laptop was a Clevo with a desktop CPU and there was a huge difference between just blowing it out and opening it and cleaning everything (it was also not possible to clean the fan properly by just blowing, which seemed to result in the vent-blocking-dust-stuff-material (yes, i just got chastised for using an innocuous word) just being blown off the vents and into the computer).

thanks for responding.

the compressed air is the firsy choice.
if it fails to clean it properly then you'll have to open the laptop to do a manual ciean.

I had the same problem, I took apart my laptop and found highly compressed dust surrounding the fan. There is no way that blowing air would have gotten it out. Disassembly is very simple, I did it and I'm only 14... :-)

Message Edited by joel928 on 02-01-2006 04:32 PM

Well mine is 3 years old, ain't got no warranty no more. I don't think there is any way dell can tell if you've opened it...I didn't see any seals/stickers that I had to break...kinda ironic to post this in the dell forum.

yes, opening a computer is easy, but it also invalidates the warranty.

tis true - my warranty's almost up anyhow, and i plan on selling it within 6 months.

I'd say canned air or an air compressor set on a low setting. May reduce the noise SLIGHTLY but you will probably have to tear it apart and clean it out good for the best results. If cleaning doesn't help you can probably pick up a whole new fan for fairly cheap.

joel,

any tips on taking it apart? i unscrewed all the relevant screws on the bottom and one edge is loose but i don't want to force anything.

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@puthupa wrote:
joel,

any tips on taking it apart? i unscrewed all the relevant screws on the bottom and one edge is loose but i don't want to force anything.

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Click on Notebooks, then Inspiron, then User Guides and read the instructions in the manual.

thanks.

You have to take off the cover where the lcd screen attaches to the computer, then remove the keyboard.

Message Edited by joel928 on 03-24-2006 10:18 PM

blowing air made a slight difference, and the service manual doesn't make clear how to completely remove the bottom. i unscrewed all the bottom screws and ther were still some areas that were fastened. i didn't want to force it, so i [scr3w3d] everything back and let it be, but the fan noise is almost as bad as my old desktop now and i would really like to take it apart & give it a proper cleaning. i am planning on selling it in late summer or early fall, and would like to have a better experience with it for the next few months.

thanks to all who have been nice enough to reply.

thanks - i finally did it. cleaned some stuff from the heatsink, blew out what little dust there was and .... the fan still runs 24/7. the hard drive, which is brand brand new (5400 rpm vs the previous 7200 rpm) seems to run hotter too - at least i seem to notice it now. the bottom on that side can get very hot when the hd is heavily used. i don't know if i can do anything else, except wait a few months to a buy a new one. (the waiting would be for the Turion x2s, to see how they stack up to the Core Duos)