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My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 27 Feb 2015, 14:29
by The Dark Lord
As some of you know my laptop has a problem. At some point the fan just stops and the laptop overheats (yes Sado, you were right, I confirmed it :P).

I will tell you the story. Since 2 months the fan makes a lot of noise. As if that wasn't bad enough, it also started to crash when my laptop needed to perform. For example, when I'm working on an assignment and just typing text there would be no problem at all (except the noise), but when I'm watching a movie or playing a game (even KaM), the fan would stop and the laptop would overheat.
At some point it was so bad that even browsing on the internet made it happen (true, I did have 25425 tabs opened, but still, my browser is supposed to crash before my laptop does :P). I went to a computer store and they cleaned it with compressed air. I knew that was necessairy, because I've had this laptop for almost 6 years without ever cleaning it. I must say it helped a lot, but obviously the fan still makes a lot of noise and it still stops spinning when I ask a bit much from my laptop.

I have downloaded 'SpeedFan' and studied the temperature of different hardware in my laptop. The fan seems to start spinning when temperatures reach 40 degrees and stops when they go below 40. That's all fine. But when temperatures reach some point near or just past 60 degrees, instead of keeping spinning or even spinning faster (at that point it already spinned pretty fast though, not sure if it can go any faster), it stops spinning at all. Then the temperatures rise slowly/quickly (depending on what I'm doing obviously) until they reach about 95 degrees and the laptop crashes.

Now, because of the noise I suspect some mechanical problem. However, that doesn't really explain why it stops spinning when the laptop is performing intensely (it especially happens after playing StarCraft II for +- 30 minutes). Who can help me?

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 27 Feb 2015, 15:59
by Krom
Step1: Disassemble the laptop and inspect the fan, remove dust, grease bearings.
Step2: Check for fan stopping at high speeds and try to detect why (maybe giving it a gentle push with a hand)
Step3: Replacement fan

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 27 Feb 2015, 17:26
by dicsoupcan
Step1: Disassemble the laptop and inspect the fan, remove dust, grease bearings.
Step2: Check for fan stopping at high speeds and try to detect why (maybe giving it a gentle push with a hand)
Step3: Replacement fan
your masterplan makes it sound like you can skip step 1 and 2. but is it even possible to replace stuff in laptops? (rigs ftw)

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 27 Feb 2015, 20:20
by Krom
Step3 is optional last resort (probably done through service center).

Replacing laptop fan is viable solution if it can be identified and lookep up at eBay or something. Service centers usually have all sorts of replacement parts too.

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 27 Feb 2015, 21:15
by Tiank
I suggest you should try Krom's step 1. I have heating problem with my laptop as well, so I disassembled it (by myself, cos I didn't want to pay ;)). Cleaning fan and everything else mechanically seems to work better than using compressed air. Also, now I keep my laptop higher, so there's some free space between vents and desk. With that fans can draw air more easily. It depends on type of laptop you have, but I assume that most of them have vents near bottom (my Samsung has it like that).

Good luck with that, I know how annoying it can be...

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 06 Mar 2015, 15:14
by Michalpl
U can use laptop cooling case from outside also

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 07 Mar 2015, 13:47
by The Dark Lord
Thanks for all the feedback. A little update: since I'm a bit hesitant to open it up myself I went to a computer store and they think the fan needs to be replaced. So now I have to choose between buying a whole new laptop or let them do the replacement. Since it feels like there has been quite little progress in the price/quality ratio of laptops over the years I'll probably go for replacement instead of buying a new one.

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 07 Mar 2015, 14:10
by dicsoupcan
i'd rather get a new one depending on how old your craptop is (could not resist :P) . if it is very old i would not bother rep[lacing it since the hardware is outdated anyway, and maybe some of it might even break resulting in wasted money on the replacement.

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 07 Mar 2015, 14:47
by The Dark Lord
Well I'd rather wait a while and buy a better laptop than what's for sale now, because if I want to buy a new one I'll spend around 600-700 euro and I'm not satisfied with what I can get for that.
Also, if my current laptop manages to survive for, well, let's say, another year after the fan has been replaced, I'll have a spare laptop that's actually capable of doing something when I buy a new one. If I buy a new one now I have 1 pretty good laptop and 1 piece of junk. :P
Of course it's a gamble but it always is.

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 07 Mar 2015, 20:15
by Michalpl
Well I'd rather wait a while and buy a better laptop than what's for sale now, because if I want to buy a new one I'll spend around 600-700 euro and I'm not satisfied with what I can get for that.
Also, if my current laptop manages to survive for, well, let's say, another year after the fan has been replaced, I'll have a spare laptop that's actually capable of doing something when I buy a new one. If I buy a new one now I have 1 pretty good laptop and 1 piece of junk. :P
Of course it's a gamble but it always is.
Well best solution would be buying high end laptop or buy new one or buy better fan

ALSO DON"T TRY TO BUY LAPTOP WITH AMD BECAUSE THEY DO OUTPUT TOO MUCH heat

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 07 Mar 2015, 21:22
by Ben
Why not AMD? I use AMD and I enjoy them. Why? Because $$$

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 07 Mar 2015, 21:39
by Vatrix
ALSO DON"T TRY TO BUY LAPTOP WITH AMD BECAUSE THEY DO OUTPUT TOO MUCH heat
That's a little outdated information. Most new AMD stuff is not producing that much heat now. And it's cheaper (At least in CZ)

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 08 Mar 2015, 02:05
by The Dark Lord
Most laptops I've been looking at have a i7 anyway. I'm more worried about the GPU.

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 08 Mar 2015, 08:19
by T*AnTi-V!RuZz
Most laptops I've been looking at have a i7 anyway. I'm more worried about the GPU.
Why? Who uses a laptop for gaming anyway, tbh? :P

Re: My laptop's fan :(

PostPosted: 08 Mar 2015, 08:34
by The Dark Lord
<--

It's much more convenient for me.