Laptop fan making noise

[akist]

We have two Vortex 17" laptops almost same spec except the VGA card (780M vs 970M). My son's one which was purchased last March is making a lot of fan noise. The fan seems to start and stop or rather speed up and slow down, but even on the "slow down" it is still loud. Way louder than my laptop which, unless I go into a 3D game will not make much audible noise.

I looked at task manager while the laptop was making all this noise and the CPU was almost idle. There is an Intel Tune utility on his laptop which showed CPU temp as 55C at the time. I am not sure if it were the CPU or the VGA fan that was making all this noise especially the speeding up and slowing down noises.

There were no 3D applications running at the time. To make sure , I went into NVidia Control Panel and set the "Integrated Grpahics" as the default, but that did not make any difference.

Has anyone faced similar issues?

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

We have two Vortex 17" laptops almost same spec except the VGA card (780M vs 970M). My son's one which was purchased last March is making a lot of fan noise. The fan seems to start and stop or rather speed up and slow down, but even on the "slow down" it is still loud. Way louder than my laptop which, unless I go into a 3D game will not make much audible noise.

I looked at task manager while the laptop was making all this noise and the CPU was almost idle. There is an Intel Tune utility on his laptop which showed CPU temp as 55C at the time. I am not sure if it were the CPU or the VGA fan that was making all this noise especially the speeding up and slowing down noises.

There were no 3D applications running at the time. To make sure , I went into NVidia Control Panel and set the "Integrated Grpahics" as the default, but that did not make any difference.

Has anyone faced similar issues?

55C is quite high if it's just idling, have you cleaned the laptop since you had it? Should think about giving it a clean every six months or so to keep performance peaking. To clean you need to remove the bottom of the chassis and used compressed air to blow out the cooling radiator fins, not just blow it from the outside in, that'll just block the innards even more.

 

[ubuysa]

55C is quite high if it's just idling, have you cleaned the laptop since you had it? Should think about giving it a clean every six months or so to keep performance peaking. To clean you need to remove the bottom of the chassis and used compressed air to blow out the cooling radiator fins, not just blow it from the outside in, that'll just block the innards even more.

I agree with this too. Dust build-up on the fan blades is rarely uniform so over time the extra (and variable) weight of the dust on the blades makes them wobble a little whilst rotating, this may well be the noise you hear. The dust also destroys the laminar airflow over the blades and that can create noise too.

So not only do you want to clean the fans to keep the laptop cool but removing this unbalanced dust will prolong the life of the fan's bearings.

 

[akist]

I usually try to clean laptops fans by locating the grill, making sure it is blowing air outwards, switching laptop off, and putting the hoover on it. This procedure has kept the Vaio and the Acer in working condition (although not perfect) for many years. Once I tried to open the Acer for a more thorough clean but I could not.

Is it easy to open up the Vortex in such a way as to expose the heatsinks/fans?

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

I usually try to clean laptops fans by locating the grill, making sure it is blowing air outwards, switching laptop off, and putting the hoover on it. This procedure has kept the Vaio and the Acer in working condition (although not perfect) for many years. Once I tried to open the Acer for a more thorough clean but I could not.

Is it easy to open up the Vortex in such a way as to expose the heatsinks/fans?

Very easy, you just unscrew the main (large) panel on the underside and slide it off.

There's a TEARDOWN to show you.

 

[akist]

The back panel was very easy to remove. I identified the fan that is making noise as the CPU fan. The GPU fan also makes noise but only when you play games.

With medium load, the CPU seems to heat up towards 58C and above. At 55C-58C you are aware of the fan. At around 58-59C it spins up faster and now it is making much more noise. Eventually it hits 60C and the noise increases further.

The actual fan blades were not in bad shape in terms of dust and the copper grills were not bad either, but I gave them a thorough clean anyway. I then restarted the laptop and even without the bottom cover, the CPU again reaches 58+ C and the fan starts to make this noise.

I do not have this Intel Tuning utility on my laptop to check my identical CPU's average temperatures. It maybe that it is the actual fan that is noisy or it may be that the CPU/heatsink interface does not draw heat efficiently enough to keep the CPU below the 55C magic point.

I presume I could remove the heatsink clean it up and use better quality thermal paste, maybe it has very little of it or maybe there are uncovered spots - I will not know until I pull out the copper heatsink. But I have not done so for fear of voiding the warranty.

 

[ubuysa]

The back panel was very easy to remove. I identified the fan that is making noise as the CPU fan. The GPU fan also makes noise but only when you play games.

With medium load, the CPU seems to heat up towards 58C and above. At 55C-58C you are aware of the fan. At around 58-59C it spins up faster and now it is making much more noise. Eventually it hits 60C and the noise increases further.

The actual fan blades were not in bad shape in terms of dust and the copper grills were not bad either, but I gave them a thorough clean anyway. I then restarted the laptop and even without the bottom cover, the CPU again reaches 58+ C and the fan starts to make this noise.

I do not have this Intel Tuning utility on my laptop to check my identical CPU's average temperatures. It maybe that it is the actual fan that is noisy or it may be that the CPU/heatsink interface does not draw heat efficiently enough to keep the CPU below the 55C magic point.

I presume I could remove the heatsink clean it up and use better quality thermal paste, maybe it has very little of it or maybe there are uncovered spots - I will not know until I pull out the copper heatsink. But I have not done so for fear of voiding the warranty.

I'm pretty sure that repasting will not void your warranty, but a phone call to PCS will confirm that.

 

[keynes]

I'm pretty sure that repasting will not void your warranty, but a phone call to PCS will confirm that.

Yes, from previous post you are able to do it without voiding the warranty as long as you don't damage it.