fan problems (maybe)

im in the process of making my laptop (inspiron 600m) run cooler. i undervolted the cpu and messed around with the fan timing so they turn on sooner. it never really occurred to me that maybe the fan itself was clogged up a little until i read someone's post about finding a quarter inch of dust caked on and around the fan. is there any easy way to open up an inspiron 600m? im not a complete retard with hardware and whatnot as i've done some basic xbox mods. also, if i have it open i might as well consider some other upgrades possibly some RAM. Any other upgrades i should consider?

 

Its very likely and possible that your fan is clogged up with dust.
My room is quite dusty so I clean my desktop computer every month and laptop every 2 or 3 months.

You should be able to clean your laptop by yourself.
I'm not to familiar with the inspiron 600m but to get to the cpu there is either a access cover on the bottom of the laptop or under the cpu is under the keyboard.
Once you take out the cpu cooler can blow all the dust out and off of it. It would be a good idea to replace the thermal compound that is between the CPU itself and the heatsink(cpu cooler).

Good Luck

 

i took the keyboard off and checked the fan. surprisingly, there was little dust after 3 years of use or so. i also got the RAM installed correctly (i think). is there any program to measure the RAM in a computer? i want to double check that my laptop recognizes/uses the new RAM

 

Yes, you can download cpu-z in order to see that the memory is working properly, and that it is recognized.
It is good that your cpu fan is clean. Make sure to blow the dust out of the heatsink fins, cause lots of dust accumulates in there.
You can either used compressed air cans, a q-tip or an air compressor. All ways work.

K-TRON