SOS PC: using your hoover on your laptop!

Editorial. Emergency! Save our Notebooks! My own laptop, a Dell Studio 17, and the second family computer, an HP CQ70, had begun, over time, to heat up more and more. The fan noise was getting worse too and the computers were starting to crash with some applications.

I had to act, for fear that the damage would soon be permanent. We tried first of all with various notebook coolers. None of them really sorted the problem out. The most effective solution wasn't the one with three separate fans... but rather a thick paperback placed underneath the laptop. This was no good at all. I absolutely had to find another way to solve my problem.

I then remembered that we also test vacuum cleaners here at Digital Versus. I knew there was a good reason why we'd started testing them!!! Of course! And indeed the solution proved unexpectedly effective.
 

Ideally, you should take the computer apart and then patiently suck up all the dust balls that have accumulated on the inside. There were plenty in there!
 

This was easy to do with the Dell. Once you've turned it over and removed the screws, the different components can be removed easily and putting it back together presented no problems either.

On the HP we couldn't go as far. Removing the thirty or so screws and then the casing didn't help. Continuing to take it apart seemed too risky. We had to put the screws back in and make do with just vacuuming the air grills on the sides of the computer.

Marc, a friend, had to remove the keyboard from his machine to get access to the components underneath.

Above all, take your time. Don't just give it a once over. Take up to 5 minutes per machine and have a good look while you're doing it.

Little by little, the dust came out of both laptops. It was a slow process and we helped the dust balls out with a pin and a little rag.

One of our editors, Regis, suggests holding the fan with your finger while you're sucking up the dust, to stop it from turning faster than it has been designed to. In as far as you can, of course.
 

Incredible. This simple action radically changed how these two machines were behaving, especially the HP, against all expectations. After a couple of years, it had become unstable and noisy. Now it's as quiet as it was when it was bought. And it hasn't crashed once since the cleaning, even with demanding applications such as video editing, that it couldn't handle at all over the last few months.

The same goes for the Dell, even if the difference is less marked as it hadn't deteriorated to the same extent as the HP.

So boys and girls, get the hoover out! Or your air spray can if you want to take extra special care!