Crazy Buzzing Noise From Fan

[dash7540]

I've searched the forums hoping to find an explanation or a solution to this, but my problem seems to be inconsistent with many others' fan issues.

The fan makes a really, really annoying buzzing sound when the CPU is idle, in fact, it sounds exactly like my neighbor's grass trimmer from a distance! It's quite loud, enough to be heard even when the optical drive is spinning at full speed. What's really strange is that this intense buzzing goes away when the CPU/GPU temperatures go up (like when I'm running a game) and the fan runs normally like it should at high speed.

I'm quite sure it's not a overheating issue, since it's undervolted. The CPU temp won't go above 70C when fully stressed. I've also removed as much dust as I could from the heatsink and fan unit, but it hasn't helped.

My only guess can be the fan itself is somehow faulty to make this noise. Any ideas?

[Harryc]

It sounds like you need a new fan. Look for FRU 13R2657. It's the long fan.

Used Long Fan

[dash7540]

Thanks for the quick reply and link. I'm hoping that a replacement fan will only be a last resort.

After more observation, the problem is intermittent; it only appears to show up when the CPU is at a medium temperature, not right after startup when it's really cool, or after a resource intensive app when it's hot.

Still to me it makes no sense. You'd think that this would occur only at higher fan speeds?

[dash7540]

Okay, after a day the problem seems to have gone away. However, when I noticed the fan not spinning during a game, I feared for the worst. Restarted, and yep, gave me a fan error. Fan is dead.

[kyrotech]

Sorry to hear that. Happened to me too. I was using the thinkpad, was doing some AVI to DVD conversions, the program crashed and laptop was too hot near the fan exahust, no air flow coming from it. Restarted the laptop, Fan error. Removed the keyboard, cleaned the Fan, re-connected its power cable. Same outcome, Fan error.

Had to replace the fan assembly, bought from ebay (yes )