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Thread: Fan dying? Or need oiling?

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    Fan dying? Or need oiling?

    The fan on the graphic card of my Sony VAIO is making some rather unhealthy noise. It's like there is something vibrating. To the naked eye, the fan is still spinning fast, though I am questioning about the cooling: even after underclocking a hefty amount, SpeedFan is still reporting temperature above 75C.

    The heatpipe burns to the touch. The back of the laptop burn to the touch (worryingly, even the part beneath the HD is also too hot to touch). Gaming is no longer feasible as the laptop will overheat and shutdown (for the best?). Well, I am not too bothered about that, it wasn't bought for gaming.

    But the noise is really getting to me. I may replace this fire hazard in a few months (I was hoping that it would last another year, but seeing the GPU *and* CPU go up to 80C just from browsing is rather worrying), but I am wondering if anyone knows if the fans are going or just needs oiling.

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    Re: Fan dying? Or need oiling?

    If the fan is buzzing, it needs replacing. They are not servicable, I have tried oiling fans in the past and it didn't help for long.

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    Re: Fan dying? Or need oiling?

    Yeah, replace the fan man. If you can gain access just buy a replacement of like for like, and remember to apply thermal paste again. You could give it a good dust out aswell whilst your "in there".
    Hello, i'm spaced. Lover of mountains and lakes.

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    Re: Fan dying? Or need oiling?

    I am going crazy, it sounds like electric shaver! I even switched to the onboard Intel GFX card hoping that it can run passive, but it's just as loud (but not as hot, so for no random shut down for the time being). It's a laptop, replacing is hard, I've found replacement fans for the CPU but not the GPU :/

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    Re: Fan dying? Or need oiling?

    I've got a SOny laptop here that belongs to a friend with EXACTLY the same problem. I need to get a new fan for it, but all I can find are complete heat pipes which I don't want.

    That said I don't think that replacing the fan is going to cure the issue, it's got horrible green lines on the screen when you power it up.

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    Re: Fan dying? Or need oiling?

    I am not getting the green line issue, but having Googled around, fan issues are not uncommon among VAIO. It's a shame because it'll put me off buying another Sony, yet I really like the size/weight/power balance of the SZ that I have. The Z-series is frankly the best of both world in terms of power and portability (okay, it's no Alienware but it's power, thin and light) that I've seen yet, but but there is no way I'll pay the asking price if the fan start playing up after only two years.

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    Re: Fan dying? Or need oiling?


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    Re: Fan dying? Or need oiling?

    A dust clean out is the first step.

    I don't know how much disembling you'll need to do to get to the fan & heat sink, it varies between every laptop make and model.

    You'll want a can of compressed air, the fan will be faceing a small finned heat sink feed by a heat pipe, you've probably got a big dust build up between the fan and heatsink.

    Ideally you'd want to get that whole unit out to give it a good clean, then reseat it with new thermal paste.
    However that can involve dissasembling the entire laptop.

    So you can try a simplier clean, unplug or disable the fan (stck something in there to stop it spinning) with the can of spray air give the heatsink a blast from the reverse direction of the normal air flow (ie from the outside where the heat is normaly vented)
    Then blast the fan to clear dust from that, then, with the tube that comes with compressed air cans, get inside from the fan side and give the heat sink a good blast from the normal air flow direction.

    Yes the fan may be going however a cloged heat sink way be causeing the fan to work overly hard in the first place.

    If you smoke around your laptop, then I'm afraid that compressed air is probably not enough, the soot residue from tobacco is not a dry dust but a sticky oily dust and air not be of much help.
    You need to remove the whole assembly and wash it in hot soapy water. cheap washing up liquid and a cheap tooth brush is ideal for this.

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    Re: Fan dying? Or need oiling?

    Unfortunately, quite a lot (of disassembling), having looked at the huge service guide. I'll have to go beyond my comfort zone which may not be a bad thing from a learning perspective, but I wouldn't want to do so while I have nothing else to fall back on if I end up killing the laptop.

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