X61s broken lamp incident

A glass lamp dropped from a shelf onto the table where my laptop (Thinkpad X61s) was. Tiny little pieces of broken glass all over the surface. I cleaned it all up - but my worry is that little glass shards - many of them as small as a grain of salt - might have got into the laptop, especially the fan vent opening that was facing the shelf where the lamp stood before it fell. Should I be worried ? I am not into the habit of taking apart my laptops, and even if I was, I don't think it would be possible to get out any grain-sized glass shards from the maze of circuits, etc. (The grain-sized bits of glass are so small they have a tendency to stick to surfaces, thereby complicating the issue.) My guess is that a few (5 ? 10 ?) grains got into the vent opening - if any got in at all. My fear is that when I use the laptop and it gets hot inside something bad might happen. Glass melts at a high enough temperature that I probably don't have to worry about it melting inside my laptop, but I wonder if it might nevertheless have other adverse effects. Someone please put my mind at ease - or tell me why I should be worried. The uncertainty is killing me.

 

Personally, I wouldn't worry one bit. Other particles have free passage into the went all the time, and it should be designed to handle that. Also, the fan might push small particles out with the airstream.

 

if you are worried about shards of glass getting into the fan motor, then take off the keyboard and use a can of compressed air or a vaccum cleaner and clean out the inside, especially the area around the fan.

Your laptop don't get hot enough to melt the glass, nor does glass conduct electricity. Personally i wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

I agree with what has been said already. I would use a vacuum cleaner to gently vacuum the keyboard and surrounding areas. As Lead org mentioned you can remove the keyboard (very easily done by removing 4 screws) which will give you access to parts of the mainboard. I would then gently vacuum again, without touching any components.

 

Keyboard removal Service Videos
(I assume it is identical with the x60)