Is my heat sync moved?

I have a Compaq Presario 2701t Laptop. I bought it about 2 years ago and It has a Intel Pentium IIIm processor at 1GHZ. First of all, I've dropped it two or three times. It seems that after the first time, it overheats all the time and the fans ARE ALWAYS RUNNING. Usually when the fans are on high speed I put the computer in standby and wait for it to cool down. But I seriously can't have IE looking at a flash application for more than 1 minute before it overheats.

I just blew compressed air threw the vents and tons of dust came out. This definitly helped it alot, but not completely. How can I tell if my heat sync is doing what it should or if my fan moved? Should I open up my laptop?

You should open it up and look only if:

1. You are confident you can put it back together. (Try taking a picture after you take each piece off to refer to later)

2. Your warranty has expired, or you never had one.

If you have a warranty, I would check it out first.

And if you are confident you can even open it up *lol. I've had some laptops I've had to stare out a couple hours before I could figure out exactly how to get them completely open.

The first time is always the hardest ,if you want to tackle it at all .
you need nice tools ,not big honking stuff for those size screws
and they are all coded with letters and depth of screws.
you may or may not need all this .
T8 Torx driver
Phillips driver - I used a #0 (very small head)
Flat bladed screwdriver - (again a small one)
5 mm nutdriver or socket

http://tuxmobil.org/disassembly_laptop.html

http://www.benchtest.com/images/18-1.jpg
http://www.benchtest.com/images/18-3.jpg
http://www.benchtest.com/images/18-4.jpg

That site above has detailed instructions on disassemble.
I have not looked at the site but what i do no is !
make a little diagram on paper yourself of what screws you removed,
and from what lettered holes you removed them from.
and the big one is (don't let it sit ,do it ,hopefully find the problem
and re-assemble it ,start and finish in one swope.lol


http://www.idparts.com/compaq_pix.html

If you look at the above link and click on the thumbnails,you get an
idea of what you have to do ..In your case tho you may have
something that is blocking the the fans cooling from inside the laptop,
could of jared it down and is now blocking the airflow .I would do a little
troubleshooting .

If you flip it over you have an access door for more ram removal or install
remove that and check it (I would also with that door off ) flip it back over ,power it up ,and let it run with that ram access door off (just be carefull ) and see if it still overheats (cause if it doesn't) that means it getting enough air with the door off ,,and something is blocking inside.


http://www.laptopsolutions.plc.uk/
These links are only to help you see whats out there as far as maybe parts.

Plus there's other things that you can do like bios ,and once we had one that went back to normal just by reinstalling the OS
It can be caused by a software glitch from the drop ! But you dropped
it 2x and I kind of think you have an obstruction .

See you may not have to disassembly it completly either .
I have taken alot of them apart over the years ,and fixed them
on the side ,I never did it for a living .

Toshiba T-1000 ,first one I ever fixed (1988)
i'll check back .

id say take it in to someone who knows how to diagnos your hardware problem. Try getting a Tech to help you from the company your bought it from, it might cost you some cash but you deside if its worth it.