Fan buzzing - 15.6" INITIA [SOLVED]

[bhunachicken]

All,

Sadly, after about 18 months of ownership, my 15.6" INITIA's fan has started buzzing when it's running.

Does anyone know how easy is this for me to check myself, to see what's going on? Googling suggests the bearings have gone.

Is it easy enough on this laptop to remove the back and investigate?

 

[Martinr36]

Maybe just needs a good clean inside if its 18 months old and never been cleaned, I've no idea on that one how the back comes off, on my cosmos, you just take out all the screws and it pops off, I'd suggest one of these for blowing it out

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01G1Z0RF0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[bhunachicken]

I got hold of some compressed air and gave that a go.

Laptop fan is still buzzing, though, so will probably need to open her open and look around. I think something's come loose.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I got hold of some compressed air and gave that a go.

Laptop fan is still buzzing, though, so will probably need to open her open and look around. I think something's come loose.

You can't clean it without taking it apart, you'll have to remove the heatsinks and the fans to clean it, this means repasting at the same time.#

It's not possible to clean a laptop from the exterior.

 

[bhunachicken]

this means repasting at the same time

Eep! The interweb gives the impression that one can fix this issue by spraying compressed air into the various vents. Hmm, I'm not sure I'm brave enough to attempt all that other stuff.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Eep! The interweb gives the impression that one can fix this issue by spraying compressed air into the various vents. Hmm, I'm not sure I'm brave enough to attempt all that other stuff.

No, all that would do would be to further compact the dust into the chassis, wouldn't blow it out. Bad bad bad interwebs, there is a spanking heading its way!

 

[bhunachicken]

Of course, it could just be that the fan in this system has always been this noisy, and the heatwave is just making it work harder. I only noticed it in the past week or so.

 

[Martinr36]

Take the back off,give it a proper clean out and repaste, plenty of videos on the interweb showing how to do the latter

 

[bhunachicken]

Well, I opened her up and look a look. The fan looks as good as new, no dust or anything.

I gave the whole thing a high level clean, with some compressed air, and replaced the back panel. Thought that had done the trick, but after about 15 minutes the grinding began again.

Here's the odd thing - when the laptop first comes on, or has been dormant for a while, the fan spins normally, without any horrible grinding (it's more of a grinding sound, rather than a buzz). After about 10 or 15 minutes, however, the grinding begins, and will continue to grind even when the fan comes on at low speeds.

I've no idea what that can mean, as I thought it would be fuzzing and grinding right away, but it seems something is just getting hot..?

I didn't dare unscrew the fan enclosure itself, as that looks like it's connected up to a load of heat pipes.

Maybe I should ask PC Specialist themselves, in case something has broken some place? But, again, it's weird that the fan's RPM needs to come up for a certain speed before this happens.

Edit: have dropped a message to PC Specialist, to ask for any advice, as the fan might just be a bit dodgy (sent it to their enquires email, not sure if right one?)

 

[bhunachicken]

Right, I have no idea what was going on at the end of the day, but I found some fan controls for Linux, that allowed me to set sane values, and now everything is working great.

(mods, I'm not sure if I can name it, as it's probably a bit of a grey area..!)

I installed Tuxedo Control Centre, and the selected the Cool and Breezy fan control profile. The fans have no stopped misbehaving and all is good.

I'm a bit perplexed, to be honest, as I had Linux running on this laptop for 14 months before, without issue. Perhaps stuff went wrong when I upgraded my distro back in April, and I didn't notice until now. Well, whatever the issue, it certainly wasn't related to the hardware.

 

[bhunachicken]

Returning to this thread quickly - it seems that it is actually a hardware problem, and the bearings are probably shot.

My thoughts that it was to do with Linux, etc. were simply coincidence, and it's a hardware fault that had been getting worse over time. May have to return it to PC Specialist to see if they can replace the fan. I've tried looking into myself, but I can't see how to remove it, etc.