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Seeking advice: noisy laptop fan

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jlb1705

jlb1705

hipster doofus
Bookie
My laptop is about three years old, and just a couple nights ago the fan on it started making much more noise than it used to. It's kind of a louder whirring noise (as opposed to a whining or grinding noise). I'm thinking it might be appropriate for me to remove the cover from the bottom of my laptop and clean it out. Also, based on the things I've read poking around the interwebs, I might want to look into lubricating the fan. I know there are people here who know way more about this kind of stuff than I do, so I just wanted to see if there were any words of wisdom or recommendations before I end up doing something stupid an irreversible. Any help?
 
jlb1705;1133568; said:
My laptop is about three years old, and just a couple nights ago the fan on it started making much more noise than it used to. It's kind of a louder whirring noise (as opposed to a whining or grinding noise). I'm thinking it might be appropriate for me to remove the cover from the bottom of my laptop and clean it out. Also, based on the things I've read poking around the interwebs, I might want to look into lubricating the fan. I know there are people here who know way more about this kind of stuff than I do, so I just wanted to see if there were any words of wisdom or recommendations before I end up doing something stupid an irreversible. Any help?
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Rut roh. That's what mine started to do a few months before it fried. The noise slowly turned into a grinding noise, and then poof!

Has it been getting hot?
 
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How to clean the cooling fan on a wide variety of laptop or notebook computers (which one is your's anyway jlb?) is shown here at Repair4Laptop.

One common theme - close quarters - making it a job for nifty fingers. The tutorials show simple clean out / lube / or replacement.

MicroCenter or NewEgg should have replacement fans for most widely available models.

The earlier linked site also has cooling upgrades that can be applied in some instances.

Good luck and keep your cool :)
 
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I found my computer model (HP zv5000) on the site you linked, and followed the instuctons to clean it out. I did take out a lot of junk. As I run my computer again, the fan is running less, but the noise is still there. I did not lubricate the fan, as the tutorial did not give an instructions. I don't think I'd have the appropriate stuff, anyway.
 
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I have just found out that the fan operates at the normal noise level if the computer is turned upside down. Otherwise, it is still loud. I don't know if that would help nail down the nature of the problem...
 
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jlb1705;1133639; said:
I have just found out that the fan operates at the normal noise level if the computer is turned upside down. Otherwise, it is still loud. I don't know if that would help nail down the nature of the problem...
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See post #2
The problem is that the fan is wearing out and will seize up and stop. If that happens and it is the CPU fan it will overheat and burn up the CPU. that is what happened to Sushi's computer.
The fans cost a lot less than a new CPU
 
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Well, I've done some looking around for the replacement part. My laptop only has the one fan on the processor. I have an HP zv5000. From what I've seen so far, some of those have two fans, some have one, depending on what processor the computer has. I've found some fan assemblies that have the housing and everything, but I'm not having any luck finding just the fan. Do you think it will be possible to find the fan by itself, or will I need to get the whole assembly?

I wish I could just get a new laptop altogether. I have completely outgrown just about every aspect of this one - the HDD, optical drive, memory, screen size - everything.

Thanks for the help.
 
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I don't know what is available in parts, you will just have to go with what the puter store says unless you can find the same fan on ebay.
jlb1705;1133682; said:
Well, I've done some looking around for the replacement part. My laptop only has the one fan on the processor. I have an HP zv5000. From what I've seen so far, some of those have two fans, some have one, depending on what processor the computer has. I've found some fan assemblies that have the housing and everything, but I'm not having any luck finding just the fan. Do you think it will be possible to find the fan by itself, or will I need to get the whole assembly?

I wish I could just get a new laptop altogether. I have completely outgrown just about every aspect of this one - the HDD, optical drive, memory, screen size - everything.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
 
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jlb - sorry about that bad advice on MicroCenter - NewEgg does have extractive fans and, like MicroCenter cooling pads - but matching them up against your HP machine is the trick. The lay of the land varies so much from manufacturer to manufacturer.

What you need is an outlet that actually sells parts if you need them, right? Give these guys a try. LaptopKing.
They only showed the dual fan type that I could see. But, perhaps they are worth shooting an e-mail off to? Guess if they cannot do it then HP would be your only recourse.

Alternatively, if you reclean the fan, with a good blast of air to boot, maybe all becomes well.
 
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Yeah, MicroCenter didn't seem to have too much to offer. I went on eBay and found several compatible assemblies available, and ended up finding a BuyItNow for just under $14 after shipping. I've gone over the fan and heatsink assembly several times now, and it's as clean as it's going to get.

I figure now that I'm going to be doing surgery on my computer, I may as well upgrade some things. Right now I have 512MB of RAM, 60GB HDD and DVD ROM. I use an external DVD-RW and HDD to handle all of my downloads and DVD burning, which is a real pain in the ass. It kinda defeats the purpose of having a laptop if it is tethered to all this other equipment half of the time. It looks like I can upgrade to an internal DVD burner and double my RAM and HDD for under $150 - which sure beats buying a new computer. As it stands right now, my iPod holds more than the computer I sync it with, and since I don't like manually syncing, it would be nice to have the capacity on my computer to be able to actually fill my iPod more than halfway.
 
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If it's the cpu fan, just make sure you take extra care in cleaning the processor and heatsink.

Can't say I have ever done it on a laptop, but if it's anything like a desktop some due diligence really pays off. Get a good thermal compound, and make sure everything is super clean when applying the compound. Then be really careful if use a conductive compound.
 
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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.

My Dell Latitude runs so hot it warped the right side of the key board!
And that fan sounds like "she's goin' ta break up, Captn!" Which probably isn't too far from the truth.
But, it is quite old. It was "liberated" from a work place when they went to newer, better machines. Cost=$0
I do regular backups(flash drive), so when she goes I'll at least have saved all my porn...er..personal data!
And there are lots of cheap, nice quality laptops out there. Toshiba's, for one brand.
 
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