Lately, I had been feeling my laptop somewhat sluggish, particularly relating to video. I was starting to believe maybe it was time for a clean format and repaving it, but then I realized that most of the time the fans were on and fairly noisy and realized it might be something completely different: Dust.

Indeed, after turning off the machine and carefully cleaning all the air holes and fan meshes, it started working just fine again! I also blew it all and it's unbelievable the amount of dust these things will collect.