Noisy Laptop Fan

[cx]

Having 3.8 year old Dell Precision 3530 laptop (bought for me by helpful folks here). Bought in February of 2020.

Cooling fan has gotten rather noisy of late. Much growling. At least I'm assuming it's the cooling fan. Is there any other moving part in these things?

Question is: Does one repair such things these days, or is replacement the only option? I'm a repair it 'till it dies kinda guy with all other machinery and vehicles as a rule, but I'm becoming painfully aware that many machines today are made such that repairs are just not an option.

Is this one such?

[me1483]

It doesn't hurt to try to fix it, to my way of thinking. Here's a service manual.

https://www.ifixit.com/Document/2741...ice-Manual.pdf

BTW, iFixit.com is a great site for DIY electronics repair. They also sell tools & some parts.

I agree, a 3-4 year old laptop most likely only has the one moving part. On an older computer it could be the hard drive, but those have been SSD for a long time. The last time I had to maintain a laptop fan on my now-replaced 2007 MacBook I used a little gun oil on the shaft after cleaning out the dust with some canned air. Not sure if that's recommended by manufacturers but it seemed a better choice than motor oil.

[cx]

Thanks, Phillip.

Of course, nothing at all about the cooling fan in the Table of Contents. I guess those never need replaced, eh?

I'll bet I can recognize it when I see it.

[me1483]

More like the fan is part of the heat sink assembly, which is in the TOC. In fact it doesn't look that deep, most likely you'll see what needs to be done as soon as you pop the bottom cover.

[PC7060]

Hi CX,

Typically the fans get noisy when dirty. You can access the fans by removing the back panel and we clean the CPU heat sink while we are in there. I had a system problem recently that was due to fans being clogged with drywall dust.
Can’t imagine how that happened.

What model number is your system? I recall it’s a 3000 series Precision; is that correct?

[cx]

Originally Posted by CX

Having 3.8 year old Dell Precision 3530 laptop

That not enough info, PC?

The grille openings on the bottom are visibly dusty and I did consider that as a good reason to remove that bottom cover for cleaning, anyway.

I'll get in there and see what things look like and report back.

[PC7060]

Sorry, missed the model number. I’ll ask our people where they get replacement fans and such. Recently we’ve had issues getting new batteries from Dell. We only use OEM batteries after a few bad experience with the after market knockoffs.

[me1483]

I agree, PC. Some things aren't worth the cost of going cheap. Laptop batteries, inkjet cartridges, and toner cartridges are prime examples.

The service manual implies that the fan is part of the heat sink assembly, which may be stuck to various chips with thermal compound. That will make it a somewhat more annoying replacement. For one thing they don't make a trowel with a small enough notch.

I would guess dust removal with canned air and some light oil on the fan shaft (if you can get to the socket the shaft rotates in) will get at least a few more years out of it.

[cx]

Not a matter of cleaning. Fan motor is only even trying in fits and starts. On its last legs for reasons not known to me. If someone can give me a good source for a replacement, would be most appreciated. I can't be doing this computer any good running it without that cooling fan, eh?

[me1483]

Sorry to hear it.

Looks like parts-people.com has fans for your model.

https://www.parts-people.com/index.p...256&refine=fan

I haven't bought from this website and so can't speak to the quality of the products. I found this list by searching for Precision 3530, but it looks like there may be some variations. Best to search for your specific service tag.

[cx]

Thanks, Phillip. I'll let you know about shopping with those folks when I get my parts.

Not a mark on the fan/heatsinks in my computer as far as identification numbers. Site indicates their part is compatible according to Service Tag number on the laptop bottom. We'll see.

While I was there I decided I might as well buy another 8Gb of RAM for only 30 dollars more. Don't think that was as much as Dell wanted to install it initially. But I've slept since then.

Do we know if that pookey on the heat sinks is critical? Doesn't say anything at all about such in that ifixit Service Manual.

[me1483]

It's almost always cheaper to buy aftermarket RAM. The cynical person might think this is why Apple solders the RAM to their motherboards.

No, the service manual didn't mention the thermal goo, but good computer building practices require something to get the heat from source to sink. Maybe they used thermal pads. They're thicker than goo can be and may not work as well, but they're generally reusable. If you think you'll need it you can get decent thermal paste on Amazon. In many ways the stuff is similar to thinset - you want a thin, even layer with as few air pockets as possible because air = insulation. On a desktop computer where there's a strong system holding on the heat sink the goo is applied in a drop or an X (my preference) and spread by the force of the heat sink. Not sure if the laptop heatsink clamps on that strongly. If not then thermal paste probably isn't as much an issue.

[cx]

Well, it appears that I either have, or have not, successfully replaced my cooling fan and installed additional RAM, but that's just a guess. I had little doubt that I could repair the hardware, now if I could just learn to effectively use the software portion of the thing, eh?

Originally Posted by Phillip

(referring to Parts-People.com) I haven't bought from this website and so can't speak to the quality of the products.

I found them very easy to deal with, Phillip, and they were very useful when I called for minor technical assistance. Would be happy to do business with them again. Won't know about the quality of the parts for a while, I guess, but they appeared to be the correct parts, installed without difficulty, and appear to be working.

Thanks again, guys, for the assistance.

[me1483]

Thanks for the update, and for the info about parts-people.com. I'll keep them in mind. Happy to help.

[PC7060]

Glad it seems to be working for you CX.

Good feedback on the parts people site. I’ll forward their information to our IT team.