Dust in heatsink!

Yesterday I noticed my fan was switching off more frequently than it used to, and the fan sound was also louder. Since I recently had my keyboard replaced, I went back to the shop because I thought the problem was related. Anyway, it turned out not to, but there was a quite serious amount of dust 'attached' to the heat sink, at least several millimeters. They removed it, and things now are the way they used to.

But the problem, I only have my laptop for a little over 3 months now, and there was already a large amount of dust IN my laptop. Is there anyway I can filter it? I mostly use my laptop on hard surfaces, so my usage can't be the problem.

And everyone who thinks their laptop is running hotter and noisier than it used to, check out the dust on your heat sink, it's probably the problem .

 

Is there an easy way to do that? You got any photos perhaps?

 

You are dead on about increased heat and fan noise almost always are the result of debris buildup in the cooling system. You should clean it regularly whenever you notice the heat building up and the fan coming on more often.

It is easy to do, and if you look at the picture of the open HEL80 (scroll down until you see it) you will see where the CPU and heatsink are.

 

If you can used canned air to blast out the dust, that is probably the easiest.

 

Chaz wrote a nice cooling guide that outlines some techniques for keeping your notebook cool--one of them being cleaning out the dust in the cooling system.