It's not just desktop computers that can benefit from a good clean, notebooks do too, and sometimes the effects can be even greater. Heat is even more dangerous for notebooks because all the components are closer together.

An overheating notebook will run its fan faster and more often and may slow down. Intel processors will slow down if they detect that they are overheating. The Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook used in the video is around 5 years old and is much noisier than it used to be.

A small word of warning, opening a notebook computer is more likely to invalidate the warranty than doing the same to a desktop computer. The process of actually removing panels to find the processor fan varies from notebook to notebook. In the case of this Dell notebook, the fan can be found underneath the keyboard. Other notebooks may have a panel on the underside that is used to access the fan. Either way, remove the power supply and the battery from the notebook before going any further.

This Dell has a panel between the keyboard and the monitor that must be removed first. There is a small indentation on one side into which a screwdriver can be introduced to lever the panel off. Underneath this are some screws holding the keyboard in place.

Remove these and then carefully turn the keyboard over, laying it keys down on the front of the notebook. Care should be taken because the keyboard is still connected to the computer with a thin ribbon cable. Now undo the screws on the panels beneath the keyboard to reveal the fan.

Undo the screws holding the fan in place and remove it to clean with some cotton wool ear buds. Again, be careful doing this as we don't want to disconnect the power cables; there is enough cable to move the fan around to clean it.

Finally, the heat sink fins need to be cleaned as well. When we removed the fan from this notebook, we discovered that these fins were completely covered with a layer of dust, no doubt the reason why the fan was working so hard. The best way to remove this dust is with some blasts from a compressed air canister.

With all the dust removed, replace the fan, panels and keyboard.