Hold the heat sink with one hand and the fan with your other hand, and lift the heat sink and fan assembly out of the computer. The fan is attached to the heat sink only with a strip of black felt tape, so be sure to remove both parts as a unit.

If you need to mount the heat sink back into the laptop, we have a thermal paste guide that makes replacing the thermal compound easy.

While the fan is removed, hinge the heat sink's fin section upward (leaving it taped to the fan, if possible) so you can look for and remove dust inside the fan's exhaust port, where it can collect and block airflow.