My favorite laptop computer, the one that has travelled with me for four years, finally bit the dust this week.

It was running fine when I turned it off, but the next morning when I pressed the power button, nothing happened.

It simply wouldn't power up. No lights, no whirring drives. Just cold silence.

I'm hoping the cause is a failed external power adapter. I've ordered a new one from eBay, and we'll soon see if it will solve the problem.

But, I'm thinking it may be more than just the power supply.

That's because while examining the laptop, I noticed the air intake vents on the bottom of the laptop were completely clogged with dust.

I had been diligent about cleaning the dust bunnies from the visible vents on the side of the unit, but never even looked to see if there were air intake vents on the bottom.

With the air intake vents clogged up, and me running the laptop 18 hours a day, it is quite likely the laptop overheated, and something inside failed.

If there is anything to be learned from this it is this - it can be worth your while to locate and clean all the air vents on your computer.

And back up important data and files regularly.

Because you never know when your computer will give up the ghost.