Taking apart the Sony Vaio VGN-FZ290 for cleaning

A few weeks ago my laptop began to overheat to the point that I couldn't even rest it on my legs. I could still hear the fan working, but the air coming out of the side vent was pitiful. My laptop is in decent condition, so the logical assumption is that the vent and/or fan is clogged with dust and just needs a quick cleaning. I'm always a bit nervous about taking apart laptops, so I evaluated my options:

1. Use an air-can on the vent and hope the dust scattering further into the computer doesn't wreck anything.
2. Invoke my warranty and have someone come over to "repair" it. The upside here is that if it's not just dust, they can fix it.
3. (Probably) void my warranty by opening it up myself and cleaning it out. This is much more interesting, and doesn't require me to coordinate with a repair person or ship it somewhere for a week.
   

Naturally, I chose option #3. I figured that if I messed something up, I could always drop it in the pool and invoke my "Accidental Warranty."

Getting down to the fan requires disassembling most of the laptop. Taking off the back cover and components was easy. It just consisted of removing a couple dozen screws.

When it came time to unclip the keyboard, I opted to search for useful directions. Breaking a plastic clip is a high possibility for someone as clumsy as me. Luckily, these directions (with pictures!) were easy to find:

Take apart a VGN-FZ220

Armed with the confidence of someone else's experience, I continued on. After thirty-five screws, tweezers, and a can of air, my laptop laid in pieces and I had a brand new pile of dust.




Problem fixed!