Seeking advice: noisy laptop fan

[jwinslow]

Good luck with cracking the case of a laptop. Most won't come apart easily. :(

Most have screws on the back... it can be a bit tedious, but doesn't require any 'cracking' in my experience

And be sure to wear a static discharge bracelet. It's easy to do more harm than good, so take your time.

very true.

 

[scott91575]

Good luck with cracking the case of a laptop. Most won't come apart easily. :(
And be sure to wear a static discharge bracelet. It's easy to do more harm than good, so take your time.

Honestly, he is not doing anything major here. The processor will remain grounded along with the motherboard. When inserting the rest simply remain grounded (put one hand on something metal touching the ground). There is nothing that really needs two hands (RAM, hardrive, and CDROM are pieces of cake). Pretty simple stuff....once you put them in place no static worries. The only thing that requires two hands is the fan installation, and no need to stay grounded there. Everything important at that point is already grounded.

 

[Taosman]

Probably the worse part is getting the bugger open without cracking the case too badly! :tongue2:
But, do be careful about being "grounded"!
And do not leave anything to roll around in side your machine! (lost screws or other).

 

[jlb1705]

My machine has emerged from its back-alley surgery successfully! I guess it's a good thing that grounding wasn't all that important, since I didn't bother with a bracelet and opened the thing up before any of you guys posted that advice. :tongue2:

Anyway, the eBay fan is working great. It's moving air and is whisper quiet. It was a real bitch to get in there (I couldn't get the case completely disassembled), but I got it enough to poke and prod and pull everything I needed to to get the job done. I also had to shake the thing like mad a couple times to get out a couple screws I dropped. :tongue2: That scared the shit out of me for a while.

Anyway, thanks for all the helpful (and not so helpful) advice. Reps for everyone who chimed in!

 

[OSUsushichic]

Most have screws on the back... it can be a bit tedious, but doesn't require any 'cracking' in my experience

Same here. Lots of screws but not hard. If I can do it anyone can. :p

Glad to hear all is well, jlb!

 

[Taosman]

Here's a cool (pun intended) utility for monitoring Dell cpu temps....
i8kfangui.exe - i8kfangui - Process Information

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

Can't believe with all the geek gurus on this site.. no one said "just spray some WD40 on the key board and let it seep into the machine"... sheez

 

[Best Buckeye]

Can't believe with all the geek gurus on this site.. no one said "just spray some WD40 on the key board and let it seep into the machine"... sheez

We were leaving that for you. No one else wanted to .

 

[Taosman]

Now the fan has died on my ancient(10 year old) Dell C600.
Good thing a new Toshiba laptop is coming tomorrow!
Got a great deal on an AMD processor Tosh A215 with a 200G hard drive.($640 after multiple rebates)
This is not a state of the art Tosh but it's light years faster. And my Dell from Hell had a 20G hard drive! But, it was free! (don't ask)
I will replace the Dell fan and then I have my own inter-web access. :pirate2:
And maybe a music server to boot!