Cleaning the vents - How to properly do it?

Just have a quick question. When people say to clean the vent by using compressed air, they say to blow the it directly into the vents.

Now, I must be just too worried about that but the last time I blew compressed air into an old gaming laptop of mine, that nearly killed my laptop when I blew compressed into it. I just want to make sure that I do it properly this time that I need to have the air can a few inches away from the vent and spray directly into it?

Please help.

 

Personally, what I would do is disassemble the laptop and take the individual fans out and blow compressed air into them, making sure the blades aren't able to turn.

Blowing directly into the fan grate at the back of the notebook could potentially move the dust into other compartments of the notebook (under keyboard, etc) as it also draws air from those areas, so there must be openings in there.

Make sure the stop the fans from turning when you blow compressed air into them - if they are allowed to rotate freely, you risk damaging the bearings in the fans, and you could potentially break them.

 

Would dissaembling it void my warranty? I remember doing some reading on it but not entirely sure about that. I'm in the military and me being without a laptop here in Iraq would mean boredom for all eternity till I get back state side in 2011.

 

Only if you go in hard and fast and damage her in the process.

Also, taking off the sticker over the CPU will void it, but that won't necessary.