Heard a strange noise in my laptop just now

[So Cal Hugh]

I used it at last night's wedding and haven't opened it until now. It sounded like a small piece of plastic in the fan. I was able to turn it enough to get the noise to duplicate.

Not sure what to do. With a desk top it would be easy to open and look at.

Any ideas?

 

[Guest]

Open it up and look at it!

Could be that something came loose could be that the wires that supply power to the fan have moved enough to make contact with the fan blades, could be a fan blade has broken!

 

[So Cal Hugh]

Thunder,

I thought of that, but was under the impression that laptops have more widgets and such that make opening it a nightmare, or a manufactured prevention for owners to reclose.

No?

 

[Guest]

I guess it depends on the laptop but i have been into two of mine without problems!

 

[Scott Harris]

You are lucky to have heard the fan noise and smart to act on it. Many people either don't hear it or ignore it. As the man with the Peavey tattoo said, if it's not under warranty open it if possible to see if something is touching the fan. More likely the fan bearing is simply failing. If it is making noise it is probably not running at full speed and you may be cooking things. It may stay in this noisy mode for a while before fully failing. When it fails the noise will stop and you will have no warning. It may not get physically hot on the outside, but the CPU, memory and the hard drive will probably overheat rather quickly without the fan. With a noisy, slow fan they may run for a while but you are probably baking life out of the hard drive.

Check this out today!


Scott

 

[DjDennis]

Ok Hugh
whats the laptop and i'll have a look at a service manual for it
to see what can be done

I need a model number and all details (no serials)

 

[So Cal Hugh]

Toshiba Satellite P205-S6267.

Thanks as always!

 

[fromnaija]

Not too difficult to open up. The sooner you do, the better. I had same issue with my laptop this past weekend. It's a Dell so it wasn't difficult getting the service manual from Dell's web site. You may try the manufacturer's website for the manual.

 

[DjDennis]

Hugh

here you can take apart the laptop

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/toshiba-satellite-p205/removing-motherboard-1.htm

but do not attempt this if you do not think you can put it back together with EVERYthing working - not for the inexperienced

if you need to see a computer store that would be far better

have a nice day

 

[dunlopj]

Actually, if you think its a fan issue, get one of those cans of compressed air and blow it in where the OUTLET is In other words, blow air in the opposite direction the air normally travels.

You'd be surprised at the gunk that comes out.

That would be my first step if I heard fan noises.

 

[DjDennis]

I have pulled many laptops apart and just blowing air is like you trying to SUCK air out of a Baloon after its gone down

once its apart then you see what GUNK is in the laptop

I have had up to 19x laptops come in for over heating
once they are cleaned (completely dismantled and reassembled)
then it works 100% without it even getting hot!

try it some time and you will see it work far better

a can of compressed air will do nothing but force the gunk in further to where you need to clean out all the crap!

 

[So Cal Hugh]

Well,

I did it. Thanks Dennis for the link. It was invaluable!! Took the whole thing apart down to shell, boards, screws and dust bunnies. Got rid of more dirt than I thought it could hold. I was surprised how much dust had collected in the hinges.

Got it back together, and only three screws left over.

The item jiggling around was the top of a screw receiver, that was perm mounted to the very bottom shell. How it came off I'll never know. How it broke I'll never know. Had to super glue it back on and reassemble the whole mess.

It was a party.

 

[DjDennis]

well there u go - see what happens when you do things

 

[So Cal Hugh]

well there u go - see what happens when you do things

I run to the bathroom and wash my hands?:yothumbsup:

 

[Scott McKinney]

Hugh....Sounds like the fan motor. Fortunately...it's a fairly easy fix. And, not overly expensive.
Give me a call. I've stripped my Toshibas about a dozen times. If you know what you're doing....go for it. If not, call me.
ps....I've replaced the fans in my Toshibas at least one time in each.

 

[So Cal Hugh]

Hugh....Sounds like the fan motor. Fortunately...it's a fairly easy fix. And, not overly expensive.
Give me a call. I've stripped my Toshibas about a dozen times. If you know what you're doing....go for it. If not, call me.
ps....I've replaced the fans in my Toshibas at least one time in each.

Thanks Brother! Mission is accomplished already. But, I would love to see you two.

 

[DjDennis]

lol Scott thing is he needed a site like I showed above on how to do it yourself!

so thats what I do al the time - only done it to 19x different laptops over the last 4x weeks

 

[So Cal Hugh]

lol Scott thing is he needed a site like I showed above on how to do it yourself!

so thats what I do al the time - only done it to 19x different laptops over the last 4x weeks

You're slowing down!

 

[DjDennis]

lol yeah - going to the docs all the time dont help things!