since we are speaking of heat & fans, I need a knowledge check:
Dell manufacturing hates people who'd like to unscrew their pc and clean the fans, right? because it's already been the third or fourth time that I wanted to clean the fans from my laptop, but all I got when I proceeded to unscrew the lower bottom was the motherboard, the video cards, the memory cards, the ram, but not the damn fans, which seem to be in a little world of their own that I can't seem to reach without the use of a saw.
So, i bought some pressurized air to clean them, but the problem remains that I'd rather like to know HOW one should go unscrewing the *little world* the fans are in? (the laptop is an Inspiron 1724)
And now I actually now I've been cleaning the outer fans, (the ones which bring outside the hot air) and not the inner ones. (Now i'll have to use the air thingie again!)
Just wanted to stick my nose in on this one? Are you sure it's a Inspiron 1724 and not a 1764? I can find a 1721 and a 1764 on the Dell website.
Also, while it has been stated that laptops are not designed to be user-servicable, Dell is one of the nicer companies when it comes to publicly available info.
Dell Inspiron 1764 Manuals which includes a service manual and instructions for complete teardown.
I wouldn't recommend it though, unless you really have to. You'll also want a lot of patience and a delicate touch, laptops are some of the worst things to disassemble, irregardless of the OEM manufacturer.
In most cases, they're not built by Dell or HP or Acer, they're built by another company, and the only difference is the badge labeling. The company that handles the actual manufacture is called an
ODM.
I did onsite warranty repair work for a few years for the various OEMs. There's nothing worse than accidentally breaking one of those ridiculously tiny cables that goes to something important on accident or snapping the connector on the motherboard off.
Ultimately though, a desktop is so much easier to maintain and clean. Unless it's an Ultra Small Form Factor, those tiny "desktops" are often worse than the laptops.