Laptop Heat

how to clean a laptop heat sink?

my laptop over heat and i was told to clean out the heat sink, i have a hp 530 and how do i do it? i tried blowing it out myself but i am supposed to use an air compressor but i dont have one and i really cant afford to pay it to be done ! all answers are appreciated.

Public Comments

1. A can of compressed air shouldn't be too expensive (usually used for dusting)
2. use a vacuum cleaner
3. Forget the air compressor (!?!), you can get a compressed air container for a few dollars. It does a very good job at cleaning components. Otherwise, a vacuum cleaner can be useful. Here is a website describing how to clean pretty much every component you might want to clean. http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000780.htm#02
4. Buy a can of compressed air at the hardware store, best buy, or office supply store. They run about $5-10. However, the dubious claim that cleaning out your laptop will help is suspect. Who told you to do that? It's more likely something else. What made you determine that it's actually overheating? Random shutdowns on laptops are typically more related to being on an old battery, or a faulty motherboard. The only instances where I think blowing it out would help is if it only shuts down after gaming for a bit, or using a computer intensive program like Photoshop/Illustrator and are working with a large file. If it's shutting down while you're surfing the web or using word documents, it's likely you have other issues that might require expensive repairs. I'd say there's about a 5% chance blowing it out might help in the latter cases. And that's typically only around smokers, a very dusty environment, or its just old and hasn't been cleaned ever (or a fan may be failing).