Laptop Fan Dying

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Today I started hearing the oddest noise and I couldn't locate it. I finally found that it was coming from my Lenovo Yoga laptop. Kind of a 'squelch' sound that repeats itself a few times per minute. I put my ear to it and it is my belief that it is the fan trying and failing to start. Sounds like a bad bearing.
The laptop has got an SSD so I can't think of anything else inside that would make a mechanical sound.

The good news is that while this computer is useful for its portability, it is not hugely important and it will not cause major problems for me if it dies. But it is not nearly old enough to write off so if I can fix it, I'd like to.

The question: I am reasonably handy and I have micro screwdrivers. Is laptop fan replacement something I ought to try to do? I'm willing to gamble and risk trashing the computer if I have reasonable expectation that it can be a DYI fix.

If on the other hand someone warns me that no, it is brain surgery, I might think twice.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Yeah. Patience is my middle name.
Some Googling & Youtubing gave me the confidence to go in and muck around. Actually pulling the fan looks like a minor pain but not rocket surgery.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Most modern computers are like Erector sets. Almost anything can be pulled out and replaced. Sometimes the trick is finding a replacement part without spending an arm and a leg, but can usually be done. Definitely make sure you don't let static electricity build up in your hands as you work. I don't usually bother with a grounding chain, but simply touch my hand to something grounded before touching anything in the computer.

Even if you screw up the computer somehow, you can rescue your data by pulling the hard drive and putting it into an external hard drive caddy like the one I think you described buying a few months ago.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

A couple of Youtubes have shown me the basics. And I'm seeing a replacement fan in the $25 ballpark.

A couple of things that I observed, poking around at the innards while running high resource apps, have me only so-so as to whether the issue is even the hardware or if it is a sensor issue. But the fan replacement is the only thing within my capabilities. Frankly, I'm not so confident that the average repair shop guy is up to the task of anything deeper than that either. So that's as far as I'm going. A new part fixes it or I watch it slowly burn out as the fan (noisily) tries to work but makes a sound and shuts down. It actually ran quietly when I had the case open. Then I touched something not really part of the fan assembly and it went into stop/start mode.

Fortunately there's no panic about data loss as there's nothing much to save. I really could have gotten a Chromebook kind of thing, for the way I use it. Anything on the drive is expendable.

Mike Auman · From: North Texas, USA

When you replace your laptop, look into the Framework brand, they're made to be repaired and upgraded. I've had HP, Dell and Acer laptops, and this one is way more user-friendly for tinkering.
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Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

That's a new name to me. Thanks.

Jim Fogle · From: North Carolina, Winston-Salem, USA

You may want to download and look at the Lenovo hardware maintenance manual for your laptop. https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/videos/ytv102706-find-and-use-lenovo-guides-and-manualsThe step-by-step instructions and pictorials inside a maintenance manual can help you determine what you feel comfortable doing.

Static electricity is a killer of all things electronics. Investing in a static charge wristband really help control static electricity.
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Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Thanks.
After cleaning it really well with vacuum and compressed air at the time of my initial post and closing it back up, it continued its erratic fan behavior for a while. Since then, it is quiet and running normally. I can't even begin to guess wtf. But for the moment, no problem. Glad I didn't order a replacement fan, not that I have confidence that all's well.

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

Be sure to let us know if you do decide to have a go at rocket surgery Smile

Not strictly related, but I had an overheating problem caused by the grease which transmits heat from the CPU to its heatsink becoming hard with age and insulating it instead. My tame tech patiently scraped it all off and renewed it. A week later the hard drive died.

You can make most things last longer by looking after them, but not electronics, which reserve the right to expire on a whim.
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Bob Sykes · From: North Carolina

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Good tips -- thanks. Of course that horse is out the barn door. I went in with a regular vac and regular canned air. Pretty humid air so not like a mid winter static festival.

The thing that was happening, as I mucked around and repeatedly made it do the thing that grabbed my attention to begin with --

-- the fan would kick on, run (silently...sounding perfectly healthy) and then shut down in around 3 seconds. The shut down made a noise, like "squelch". Then it would sit still and in 15 seconds it would kick back on and run for 3 seconds and shut down. I couldn't tell if the sensor was shutting it down or if there was some resistance that was doing it.

But......it has not done it in the four days since I posted this. I figure I am a computer genius.

I actually have a possible hypothesis -- I had double-stick taped a long 1" square piece of rigid foam to the back of the laptop. This was for the purpose of keeping the fan vents clear when the computer was laying on a blanket, just buying an inch of air space. Seemed like a good idea. But it now seems possible that this put pressure on the case which possibly warped a tiny bit and compressed the fan housing and created some friction. While mucking around inside I pried around and lifted some things a hair and just maybe I undid some of this compression and restored free movement.

I'm just making this up but it seems plausible. All I know is right at this moment, what was annoyingly noisy is purring like a kitten.
Does anyone have a fix for that?

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

My father was a government scientist. He blamed all malfunctions on the Law of the General Cussedness of Things
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Not only was he not wrong; he was very not wrong.

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