I never knew a laptop could get so dusty.

The past few nights my laptop fan had been running a lot more than usual, and it was also running at the faster speeds meaning that the system was getting way hotter than it should.  I took a look at the bottom side vent holes on Friday night and saw some dust build-up, but nothing horrible.  I decided I would take canned air to it on Saturday before I turned it on.

… yikes.

I was right, it was dust, but the amount of dust was staggering.  I blew on to the actual fan and dust came shooting out of the side vent holes.  I blew out the side vent, and dust came out the fan.  It took several rounds before no dust was coming out, and then I opened my laptop lid and discovered dust had shot up through the keyboard onto the screen.

Again … yikes.

So, just because a laptop fan doesn’t look bad from the outside doesn’t mean it isn’t dusty where it counts on the inside.  Always make sure the computer is off before you do this so the fan is not running at all as it will move with the compressed air hitting it and you don’t want to fight the motor.  After I did this last night, my laptop ran smoothly all night and I didn’t hear the fan kick into high even once, so it was definitely all of the dust that had built up inside of it.

Keeping your computer physically clean is monumentally important for the longevity of your system.  Don’t neglect it, and if you hear it doing something unusual, investigate it!