Very Loud Laptop Fan?

[The Equivocate]

I've been noticing a problem recently with my laptop's fan. It seems like out of nowhere it will whir up really loud and create a somewhat high pitched noise like the fan is running very very high, and then after a few seconds go back to the normal fan speed/sound. It's been happening more and more lately to the point that it sometimes wakes me and my roommates up in the middle of the night because it's so loud. I have a Toshiba Satellite with a Celeron M @ 1.46G.

The only thing I can think of is that my settings are set to really high performance, but this computer is so slow in the first place I need them up there to be able to even do anything.

 

[Barrucadu]

This happened to my old laptop - turned out that it was clogged up with dog hair. Could anything have got into the fan?

 

[The Equivocate]

Don't think that could really be possible, there's no animals in my frat house..

 

[Tippy]

Ok so theres no animals, this doesnt mean dirt/dust build up/fluff etc... didnt get in there. Is the fan free of anything...

 

[-LB-]

The fan is a MASSIVE dust magnet.

It will attract dust so much more than you think. Try cleaning it.