Cleaning my computer

[mycatis]

My fan has started coming on a lot and sounds(slightly) louder than it used to. Someone told me that it was probably dirty, when I looked I saw loads of dust and dirt round all the vents. Is there a safe way to open my computer to clean it? Thanks

[mycatis]

That's great ZebUK, so the side panel should just comeoff ok? Where is the health check thing?

[Sligachan14]

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/System_Analysis_Utilities/Lavalys_EVEREST_Home_Edition.html

Try this free proggie.

[qapmoc]

WARNING - If you are going to play around inside your pc don't just switch it off , make sure that you completely unplug the power cable, nearly all PC's these days go into ''standby'' mode when shutdown/switched off and there will still be power on the motherboard and some parts of the system. This will not hurt you if you touch it but you might cause some damage if you use a small paint brush with a metal end on it and it touches something vital.

[peanut]

always remember to push the power switch to ground out the system after unplugging it.