How often do you need to clean out a laptop of dust?

I've owned my laptop for a little over a year now and have a cooling pad underneath it.

I think it is fair to assume the added fan (while cooling the machine) will push more dust particles up there.

Do you think I should take it to a dealer and have it cleaned out?
I live in a non-smoker home without any dogs or cats but the laptop is on my desk in my bedroom + carpeted floor.

There is no overheating.

 

Only when it's dusty and/or runs hot. If there's easy access to the fan and heatsink, I'd clean it myself.

I just cleaned out my dv4 and re-pasted it.(nightmare disassembly)

Before the cleaning the processor was idling around 50C, and after maybe 2 minutes of prime95 it hit 96C.

After, it idles around 28C-30C, and hits 80C after 10 minutes of prime95.

 

I take a can of compressed air to the heatsink and vents once every 4-5 weeks whenever I take it off my desk before I go out with it; no problems after 2+ years. If you stick with this you usually won't even have to crack it open unless you want to repaste the CPU/GPU.

You don't really need to bother with it that much unless you notice it starts running hotter than it did before though.

 

I'd just clean it when the average temps increase significantly. A friend of mine didn't clean it for 3 years.

 

As other members have said, only when you really need to clean it to reduce operating temperatures, or if you notice the fan consistently working harder than normal at the same processor load.

I haven't cleaned my T500's fans yet and it's been more than 2.5 years since I've started using it as a primary computer. Operating temperatures are a bit less than 5 degrees higher than before at the same load, I would say. Still idles at 33-34 C at an ambient of 20-22 C, though.

 

It is a good idea after a yr to clean it out. There's probably a nice amount of dust in there by now...even if you're not overheating.

When you say dealer...is this gonna cost you money? If so...don't bother.

If you don't want to open the computer up to clean it right, all you need is a can of compressed air and with the computer off, spray in short bursts into the exhaust vent (side of computer). Short bursts into each vent, moving slowly from left to right. Dust will come out.

 

I clean my Acer almost every weekend, if possible. But then again, I'm "babying" my laptop.

 

Once in 6 months (unless you stay at a production facility full of dust).


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