In a real mess: Lion/Snow Leopard

Darker Times said:

Yes I should have said that I used a vacuum to clean the vents.

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Hey...maybe all your iMac actually needed was that vacuuming you did! The suction on a full-sized home vacuum cleaner can be pretty strong...and the "fuzz" inside of a computer is pretty light. So that vacuuming may have taken care of the bulk of it.

Darker Times said:

Last night I had a 1.5 hr facetime conversation with a friend with no problems at all. This is a first, as all previous conversations have resulted in kernel panics, graphics problems and numerous restarts. The iMac got quite warm during this period, but not hot. Seems like the rear vent was to blame, if only in part.

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Sounds like a pretty successful test...given your previous experiences. Regarding the iMac still getting warm. Yeah...still gonna happen...pretty normal when asking the computer to do high demand tasks like...video and/or gaming.

Personally I would still open it up to see if any dirt/fuzz remains. But I can understand not wanting to open it up (now that things seem to be better)...and you have your reservations about opening it up.

- Nick