Cheap/easy way to quieten a laptop fan?

[Psycho Savager]

I have a laptop that's 3 years old, but the fan has always been noisy - the computer heats up very quickly. I don't want to overspend on cooling - the laptop isn't worth it, but is there an easy-ish way to quieten it?

 

[dwellman]

Shoot it.

Barring that, not really an easy way.

You could try removing it and using a high-viscosity, heat resitant oil (like this), but you have to partially disassemble the fan to get to have a chance at the bearing assembly.

 

[frozenlead]

You can try getting a tiny nozzle of compressed air in to clean out the bearings, if you can (if it even has bearings, it might not). Other than that...try and get the dust away from it and out from inside of it. Perhaps some oil, if you can - fixing fans isn't an easy road to go down. I generally either get a new one or don't bother.

 

[dwellman]

Yeah, I'm with FL: almost always can find one floating around the Ebay for $10 or so.

Then again, I spent about $30 on a fan assembly for a Toshiba P25 that was getting really noisy only to find out-- after finishing the replacement-- the frame on the "faulty" assembly was bent. Bent it back, good as, uh, old.

 

[frozenlead]

You too? I remember an old HP ze5300 i think it was - huge P4 heatsink, making a nasty noise. Got a new one, took the old one out..plastic had warped down hitting the fan. Bent it back, added some glue, good as...well, as you say..old.

But definitly make sure it is the fan that's making noise, and not just the assembly.

 

[Psycho Savager]

If I stop the fan from spinning, the noise stops. However, I've tried opening my laptop and I can't access the fan, and I can't get tech support for this model - it's made by a bankrupt company.

 

[dwellman]

What is it you have?

 

[Psycho Savager]

Tiny i-Buddie A535

 

[dwellman]

Oh, poor you. . .
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...ilID=378&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=59&LanID=0

EDIT: I hit Enter too soon. Generally, getting to the CPU / FAN is just getting the keyboard off. You figure that out and that is half the battle. Usually, there's a couple screws on the bottom and some latches or tabs on the top that have to be wrangled.