Hi! I've a Toshiba Satellite A40 and it keeps overheating even when I'm only running one program. The fan runs like crazy and it keeps shutting down.

From some of the articles I read, it has something to do with the location of the fan and how dust is trapped inside. Is this true? I tried using a can of "Compact Air", blowed air straight into it, but it does not work. Should I disassemble it (pay someone or do it myself?) to take the fan out and clear it?

Need help and advice! Thanks!

Are you still under warranty? If not you can save some money and do it yourself.:)

Unfortunately not. My warrant expired some time back. Is it complicated or simple enough for a average intelligent novice to do?

Anyone else had this problem and solved it?

Unfortunately I don't own an A40. But normally on the underside of the laptop, there should be various covers secured by screws or such.

Under each cover, you may find, the battery, mini-PCI expansion, expansion RAM slot, hard drive, etc. There should be one associated with the cooling system / CPU. It may be as simple as opening that particular cover and using some compressed air.