I pretty much dissected my laptop last night. In order to get to the fan, I had to take the heat sink off and get through lots of screws.
Warning to anyone who wants to dissect a laptop: don’t, if only for the frustration of figuring out which of the 15000 screws go in what holes.
I couldn’t get the fan working. I couldn’t get the left button of my touchpad working, either. I DID, however, manage to fix my keyboard. I can live with that. I just can’t leave my laptop on for very long or it will blow up because there’s no fan. Well, maybe not blow up, but you get the idea.
The only other problem is that my AC adaptor stopped working; it wouldn’t charge the battery or even supply power to the thing. I think it was a bad connection, because I tried my dad’s and it worked. I ordered a new one from Dell for $35. The good news, though, is that I have a laptop again. I’m not sure if I want to get a wireless card for it, though, or if I’m even going to be using it at all much anymore.