[deccan]

Originally posted by Loser:
There are other problems that can cause the heat-sinks to fail to dissipate heat. Smoking around a computer deposits gunk on everything inside, and this can eventually have a significant impact on the heat sink's ability to pass heat into the passing air. I've also seen ashy paraffin (from candles like) all over the inside of a computer with a heat issue.

But it is probably a fan.

And any hole-in-the-wall computer shop should be able to take care of just about any possible reason for your heat issue.

Thanks for all the advice. An additional symptom that I forgot to add: when it was new, the air coming out of the side exhaust vent was really hot, now it's barely tepid. The volume of air doesn't seem to have changed, but I realize that this is hard to say. This suggests to me that something is clogging the insides and diverting the airflow.

I must say that with the size of the air intakes on these things these days, you'd expect them to come with air filters on them.

Also, when you're talking about hole-in-the-wall computer shops, you're speaking the literal truth here, since I'm in the Solomon Islands. I mean, this is a country where Australia is currently planning Iraq-style armed intervention and regime change.