Question Issue with laptop CPU fan

[somnomania]

Acer Nitro AN515-53, Windows 10, everything as up to date as possible. It had been making a very grating sound from the CPU fan that was slowly driving me out of my mind, so I just replaced that fan. It's still making a sound intermittently, but the noise stops sometimes if I pick up the back edge of the laptop, or tap sharply right above the keyboard, which makes me think it's still a hardware issue of some sort. But additionally, sometimes it just stops completely and my NitroSense app shows that both fans are at 0 RPM; I was under the impression that if the laptop was on, the CPU fan at least was running constantly, even if it was just at low speeds. If anyone has any notions about what's up with this fan, I would appreciate it, thank you.

 

[Fairlytaleree]

Hi! Thanks for posting.

You may need to reopen the laptop carefully (preserving all the screws, perhaps take pictures) and check the fan you replaced. You may find it has clearance issues around it or that the inside of the laptop has some stickers around it you can remove - hopefully. While you have it open, ensure it's free of dust (anti-static measures will apply here though a small handheld vacuum would be fine I feel) in the vents leading to the fan.

If nothing is obviously wrong you may have fitted a faulty new fan, however that's very unlikely if you procured The Correct Acer part number (so check that maybe, hopefully you kept your old fan!). I would contact Acer support via email and explain, with serial number of the laptop even if it's out of warranty, and they should find time to help. A solution may be to get a third party part that matches the fan's Acer part number as that might work out fine too.

In a laptop I would agree (for now...) that the fan should be running constantly, so you're right there but that would not suggest any motherboard flaw or bios problem (do update the bios by the way) I would state. Keep an eye on the temperature of your I5 8300 (?) because it should throttle down and not fail even if the fan stops for some 2 mins +, you can use say RealtempGT (techpowerup and overclockers) to monitor it if you still wish to use the laptop, though I would have to state that the replacement fan could be faulty so be careful there - would be safe but might cause it damages to repair that cost much more. Congratulations on changing a fan, I've done it once too

 

[somnomania]

I did what I always do for new parts, which is put the laptop model into Amazon or Ebay with the type of part needed. Since I posted, it's been fine; I think the thing I use to elevate the back edge of the laptop for better air flow while I have a game open was pressing on something it shouldn't have been. The temps have been fine, though the fans do still periodically stop completely (never while gaming, though). Thank you for your kind assistance!