Is this "too warm"?

I think Latitudes might be the same. My E6500 has one screw in the middle that when removed gives access to the entire underside.

 

I have to remove a whole lot of stuff to get to the fan

Keyboard, palmrest, screen hinge cover, optical drive, and palm rest.

That's a whole lot of screws-4 for the keyboard alone.

 

Yep, the last generation of Latitudes (Dx20 and Dx30) is probably the most difficult to service. Even in the D600 and D610, you could access the processor just by removing the keyboard... in my D830, you had to remove the palmrest to do that. The E-Series is a pretty good step forward with regard to serviceability.

 

Nope. The only door on the bottom of my D630 is for the memory-Literally-it's only maybe a tad larger than a memory stick and is located in the middle of the laptop.

EDIT: Commander Wolf beat me to the punch!

 

I'm planning to take it apart over break, where' i'll have access to all the screwdrivers I need!

 

A couple of weeks ago, i took apart the D520, just because, and while i was there, i did give it a clean. It was not bad at all, just a piece a lint was in the fan..

This just at idle, it will be around 100-110, (leave laptop on, 24-7) Around fire fox, AIm, and word, it can go up to 145F, and i was really working the computer, and i did go up to 162F but still ran fine..

 

its not effective as there are 2 "finned" areas. If you unscrew and remove the fan you'll see what i mean. its far easier and more effective to just unscrew the fan on the m4400, and peel off the layer of dust lol. in fact i just cleaned mine today as i decided to swap the stock thermal paste for some Gelid Extreme. Temps are now lower by 5-10*c at idle. Havent tested under load yet. the dell stock thermal paste really sucks. i'd definitely recommend changing it for some better thermal paste if you're opening up the laptop to clean it.