Fan ventilation grille

[Linneyloo58]

Hi, I have an Acer Aspire 5336 laptop, and recently have been getting a strange rattling/crackling noise out of the fan ventilation grille intermitantly when using the laptop. I don't believe there is anything stuck in the laptop and have also tried blowing into the grille but it still continues. Can anyone help with this problem?

 

[CaedenV]

could you load a video of this on youtube?

My best guess is that (being a laptop) the housing has warped just a bit, and so as it expands and shrinks from the heat then your fan is slightly running into things. So long as it is still pushing out air this is not particularly a problem, but is just annoying. However, the extra stress this is going to put on the fan will cause premature failure. I don't know if this means you have a week left, or several years left, that all depends on the type of fan that they used and how bad the problem is.
Either way this laptop is already a few years old, and these types of low end laptops are only meant to last 3-5 years anyways. I would start saving up for a replacement, and then whenever this one dies pull the trigger on whatever you can afford. Considering that most cell phones have more GPU power and nearly as much CPU power I would say that anything you purchase will be a nice little upgrade.

 

[Linneyloo58]

could you load a video of this on youtube?

My best guess is that (being a laptop) the housing has warped just a bit, and so as it expands and shrinks from the heat then your fan is slightly running into things. So long as it is still pushing out air this is not particularly a problem, but is just annoying. However, the extra stress this is going to put on the fan will cause premature failure. I don't know if this means you have a week left, or several years left, that all depends on the type of fan that they used and how bad the problem is.
Either way this laptop is already a few years old, and these types of low end laptops are only meant to last 3-5 years anyways. I would start saving up for a replacement, and then whenever this one dies pull the trigger on whatever you can afford. Considering that most cell phones have more GPU power and nearly as much CPU power I would say that anything you purchase will be a nice little upgrade.

Thanks for your reply - this laptop does get some hammer so a lot of what your saying does make sense - already had to replace battery earlier this year! It is still pushing air out but gets very warm very quickly. Will try to upload to youtube but may have to defer to a younger member of the family who is far more techno than me. Thanks for your help.

 

[CaedenV]

Not a problem. I love Acer products, and have gone through several of their Netbooks. For what they are, they are quite durable, but the idea is that they are cheap enough to not loose a lot of sleep over when they die or are stolen. But because they are so cheap you almost have to expect to replace them every 3-5 years. Their newer stuff is a bit better quality and may age a little more gracefully, but as things slowly move to tablets and convertables cheap laptops are beginning to make less and less sense.