Cleaning the fans in an Alienware laptop?

Hello everyone. I just had a question about basic upkeep for an Alienware laptop. I have a M17X R4 that I love dearly, and I want to keep it running for many years if possible. I know that many of my older laptops run hot or even overheat years after they were purchased, presumably because of dust buildup in the fans. I'd like to avoid that with my new Alienware, if possible.

So, how does one go about cleaning the fans? How often should I do it? Is it a job for a novice computer person to do? Easy enough? Do I need any special tools or equipment? Any tips or advice about this would be very helpful, thanks!

 

Congrats on owning your R4! Yes these computers are powerful and must be cleaned regularly. I suggest every 6-8 months. Especially if you want to avoid build-up of 'caked' dust on the fan itself. If you plan on overclocking your computer or benchmarking it I suggest checking the components, connections and fans for dust every 3-4 months since they are running more rapidly.

For cleaning I recommend taking a Qtip and some alcohol and swabbing each blade. Just remember to let it dry completely before re-screwing it back into place. Also for contacts and connections a can of non-solvent compressed air works very well. Just don't blow dust in to your computer!

Hope this helps!

 

Hi there, yes it's a good idea to clean them out, I do mine around every 3 months (but the cat contributes to that frequency!).

Very easy, two screws under the battery to slid off the bottom panel, 3 screws on each fan. If you get a can of compressed air there's no need to go any further. First time I noticed mine needed doing was that the CPU fan would start to kick in when opening folders in icon view. Blew out the dust bunnies and back to normal .

You only need a good fitting cross head screwdriver - those sets for glasses usually have one that fits well in them.

 

A small kit of Stanley precision screw drivers and a compressor with moisture trap is great for cleaning the laptop. Blow air at nooks and crannies from about 15cm away and it takes all of the crap out from keyboard and ports around the laptop. With fans, I remove them to bare fan and then blow air from ~10cms while holding the fan in my finger to stop it from spinning. Makes them new and shiny in few seconds. I also do the same with fan grills and vents, just be careful not blast foam bits underneath the base plate (like in m17xr4), they will get ripped off.

 

Here are our tips to clean it.

LINK

 

Link is broken. Please advise? Thank you!

 

Sorry about that, here is another one that lists the steps to clean them.

LINK

 

Nice 1 brah