The cooler on the laptop is humming, what should I do? The principle of operation of the cooling system

In this article, you will learn what to do if your laptop makes a lot of noise, which not only reduces the comfort of work, but also creates an alarming feeling that something is wrong with the computer.

It lists all the possible reasons why the laptop cooler begins to spin more actively, their symptoms and possible options for eliminating the sources of the problem.

Content:

If the device is several years old from the date of purchase, and its operation is accompanied by increased generation of noise that occurs due to the accelerated rotation of the cooler, this is a reason to think about it.

During prolonged operation under heavy load, increased fan speeds are normal.

The processor processes large amounts of data (3D games), which causes it to heat up more, and to prevent it from overheating, the system automatically increases the fan speed.

By the way, if you encounter the “cpu fan error” problem, we have a separate one for solving it.

So, if you watch movies in high quality or play games, the appearance of strong noise is somewhat normal, especially after several hours of operation of the device.

It's another matter when the problem appears immediately or a few minutes after the device starts.

Is high cooler volume bad?

In addition to feeling discomfort and thinking that something is wrong with the laptop, increased noise from the CPU cooling fan is a sign of significant heating or overheating of the CPU.

And the operation of any components at elevated temperatures, for which they were not designed to operate or were designed for short-term exposure to such conditions, causes their faster wear.

And that's the best case scenario. At worst, the computing device will simply overheat and fail.

The advantage of the utility is the ability to control the speed of fans installed on the GPU and display the temperature dynamics of key hardware components.

By manually changing the initial fan speed in 5% increments, you can either lower it if the device is humming a lot without load or overheating, or increase it when the CPU temperature is close to critical or simply elevated.

Unfortunately, the application is not updated often, which is why it may not be supported by some new products on the laptop market, and is also not compatible with a small percentage of computers due to the specificity of their hardware shell.

It is no less simple, but in each firmware version from each manufacturer this parameter may be called differently and located in different submenus.

The instruction manual or your own ingenuity will help here.

Blowing out the cooling system

If the first option does not solve the problem, or rather it is caused by dust and small specks stuck to the cooler blades and radiator mesh, then we move on to the option of purging the cooling system.

This is done in several cases:

• when the device is still under warranty, and it is not advisable to void it by disassembling the case for cleaning;
• the user does not have the skills to disassemble laptops or is afraid to do so, and going to a service center is not a solution.

In this case, you will need a special canister filled with compressed air (sold in specialized stores) or a powerful vacuum cleaner, preferably turned on for blowing (reverse).

In extreme cases, a hair dryer will do, but its effectiveness will be extremely low.

We take the device with a spray can or vacuum cleaner to a balcony or other room that you don’t mind getting dirty with dust.

This should be done in calm, dry weather if the procedure is carried out on an unglazed balcony or in the yard. After several blows with a stream of air, the laptop can be turned on and tested.

It happens that blowing does not bring almost any benefit, or a few months after it the laptop begins to hum just as loudly.

Then it will have to be done both on the cooling system itself and on getting rid of dust under the back cover of the case.

How to quickly and easily clean your laptop from dust with a vacuum cleaner?

Let's consider a simple household method of cleaning a laptop using a vacuum cleaner, so to speak, at home. We'll also look at why it's important to clean your laptop and how to determine if it's worth cleaning.

Removing dust

You should undertake this when you are confident that you will successfully disassemble the laptop case without breaking its fasteners, carefully follow all the recommendations below, and disassembling the case will not void the warranty (it has already expired).

To remove small dust particles you will need:

• screwdriver for unscrewing bolts;
• preferably a kit for opening laptops and other equipment (if you don’t have one, you can use improvised tools);
• a couple of napkins, a piece of cloth, cotton swabs or something similar;
• vacuum cleaner, compressed air cylinder or hair dryer (optional).

The sequence of actions for removing dust will be as follows.

1. We disconnect the laptop from the network and remove the battery from it.

Rice. 2 - Remove the battery

1. Disconnect all wires and external devices.
2. Unscrew the bolts of the back cover.

Rice. 3 – Remove the back cover

1. We remove the entire back cover or the segment where the processor with the entire cooling system is located.

Advice. If you do not have tools for disassembling tablets/laptops, find a replacement and carefully, so as not to damage various latches, disassemble the case.

1. Using fabric, cotton wool, or simply by hand, we remove large pieces of debris, often compressed or welded together.

Rice. 4 – Remove dust from the blades

Advice. Remaining dust can be blown off using an air can or a vacuum cleaner. When there are no such devices, carefully remove them using a napkin or a cotton swab. If you want to blow off the dust, do it outside or in a utility room.

1. If tiny air ducts in the radiator mesh are clogged with dust, the cooler and radiator can be unscrewed and thoroughly cleaned one by one.

Rice. 5 – Remove the cooling system

1. Carefully assemble the laptop, performing all steps in reverse order.

Cooler maintenance

At the point of contact of the radiator with the surface of the processor, a special substance with high thermal conductivity is applied.

It removes excess heat from the CPU to the radiator, which is cooled by a fan by removing hot air outside the case.

And it copes worse with the functions assigned to it, and it has to be replaced.

You can do this yourself.

1. As in the case of removing dust, we disassemble the laptop, letting it work a little or warming up the processor area with a hairdryer so that the thermal paste becomes more viscous.
2. We remove the cooler and carefully disconnect the radiator from the processor, if necessary, heating the place of their contact.

Rice. 6 – Remove the cooling

1. Carefully clean the contact pad from any remaining thermal paste.

Rice. 7 – Removing residual thermal paste

1. We degrease the surfaces with an alcohol-containing substance (cologne) and let them dry completely.
2. Apply a thin layer of new paste from the tube, using a syringe or plastic/cardboard.

Rice. 8 – Applying thermal paste

1. We put back the radiator with cooler.
2. Putting the body back together.

The likelihood that the problem will be completely eliminated here is small, but periodic replacement of thermal paste once every year or two is necessary.

How to replace the thermal paste of the processor and video card on a laptop?

If you are interested in how to replace the thermal paste of a processor and video card on a laptop, then this video is for you. In it, I briefly, bypassing the obvious and understandable steps for everyone, explained how to do this after disassembling the laptop.

Fan repair/replacement

The last thing that can help the user is replacing or restoring the cooler. Over time, the ball bearings in it can wear out or the lubricant in which they move can be depleted.

Try to remove the back cover of the case in order to get to the cooler, and drop a thick lubricant: grease or lithol into its center (usually you have to tear off the sticker).

If this does not help, a possible scenario would be to purchase and install a new cooler. The need to replace it may be indicated by:

• the fan grinds throughout its operation;
• the cooler does not rotate at the slightest touch of a finger;
• The device is wobbly or loose.

Advice. If you are not confident in your strengths and abilities, contact a specialized center for help in cleaning your laptop from dust, replacing thermal paste, cooler, or repairing it.

And finally, a recommendation: to improve the cooling of your laptop, you can purchase a special table-stand with a built-in cooler, which will not only make work more convenient, but will also blow cold air from below the case.

Is your laptop overheating, slowing down and turning off? How to disassemble and clean a laptop from dust?

In this video, we explain why a laptop overheats, starts to slow down, and even shuts down. The whole problem is one thing - the cooling system is clogged with dust. This causes the laptop, that is, its processor and video card, to get very hot, and to prevent a malfunction, the processor and video cards lower the frequencies so as not to heat up even more. And, of course, here we tell you how to clean a laptop, change thermal paste, and in general how to disassemble it.

Impeller noise and vibration of the cooler bushing, an increase in the temperature of electronic components (>50°C) in laptops are constant, but not the only companions to breakdowns as a result of the imperfections of current technologies. Other unpleasant phenomena may also be present. Sometimes a sound atypical for normal operation may be heard from the housing, similar to a crackling or rumble, and sometimes vibration may be felt in the housing. Many of the listed signs of impending repair are familiar to our clients and site readers, but some will have to be learned over time.

What should be done in this case? How to restore normal operation of the cooling system? When should you start taking action to prevent your laptop from permanently breaking down - after all, the problem of overheating is far from harmless?

The principle of operation of the cooling system

The noise in any laptop is created primarily by the rotation of the cooler(s) of the cooling system, the main task of which is to effectively remove heat from the heating elements: central processing unit (CPU), chipset (Northbridge and southbridge I/O Controller Hub), video card (GPU) for limits of the device body.
In normal condition, with normal CPU and GPU load, the device makes barely audible noise. This is also facilitated by the Cool’n’Quiet and SpeedStep energy saving technologies.
Higher noise levels and heating of the case, as well as the internal space of the laptop, can be caused by some applications and running games, which, as we know, can put quite a lot of stress on the processor and video card.

In turn, a tandem of a video card and a central processor can increase heat dissipation several times compared to the standard mode. All excess heat must be removed, since constant overheating leads to deformation of the chip substrate, and then to chip failure. The situation may be aggravated by the ongoing intensification of oxidative processes at the points of contact between the solder balls and the substrate. Ultimately, coupled with the susceptibility to failure due to errors in circuit design and manufacturing defects in manufacturing, the laptop quickly fails.

Noise to noise - discord

It is also necessary to distinguish between increased noise as a result of high load on the laptop after several hours of gaming, which is natural, and pathological noise when the laptop is running with virtually no load. This noise should serve as a warning that it is necessary to replace the thermal paste, and possibly replace the cooler. Thus, the person performing preventive cleaning increases the efficiency of the cooling system, returning it to its original high values.

Risk factors

The main factors causing a decrease in the efficiency of the cooling system and noise:

• Dust in the cooling system is the number 1 cause of noise. Dust reduces heat exchange with the environment, which causes overheating. Trying to cope with overheating, thermal sensors are triggered, which turn the cooler speed to maximum. If it is ineffective to increase the rotation speed of the cooler of the cooling system, this happens.
• Wear of the cooling system cooler, most often the bearing bushing. At the same time, the cooler is much noisier even in normal mode. In particularly advanced cases, it is possible that vibration may be observed. Fine dust and poor quality of the product contribute to cooler wear.
• Noise can also be observed when the cooling system is working properly. Most often this is due to working in a resource-intensive application or while playing games. The load at this time reaches its maximum, which leads to heating of the entire laptop body and cooling system. This must be taken into account when using the laptop as a gaming computer for a long time. Not all laptops are designed for such purposes - constant load and cooling system features can lead to costly breakdowns. There are some types of mobile processors that are prone to overheating. Such a laptop will overheat at the slightest provocation, even after global disassembly and cleaning. Turion 64 processors from AMD and i7 from Intel are very sensitive to overheating.

Prevention

To prevent wear and tear on the cooler of your laptop cooling system, follow some rules:

• Operate your mobile PC on a flat, hard surface. A table or flat floor is best suited for these purposes. Forget about the bed and your own knees - the laptop will “suffocate”.
• To use a laptop as a gaming console, purchase a cooling pad from a computer store, which will serve double duty: it will prevent the device from overheating and will help maintain high performance of the laptop during games. An overheating processor reduces performance by skipping clock cycles, so-called throttling in action.
• Regularly, once every six months or a year, clean your laptop from dust. Once a year, change the dried thermal paste in the cooling system. Try to use only high-quality materials with high thermal conductivity. For expensive and powerful laptops - no KPT8 or Alsil, only thermal pastes with high thermal conductivity such as Arctic Cooling and better.
• If spontaneous shutdowns of your laptop become more frequent, please contact service immediately. After all, buying a new board or the cost of repairing a damaged one sometimes amounts to up to 50% of the cost of a new laptop.

Solution

If The laptop started making a lot of noise and warm up, it is recommended to carry out preventive cleaning of dust and replacement of thermal paste. This service can be ordered from our service with a technician visiting your home (this is a guarantee that your laptop will be taken care of by an experienced person in your presence).
If there is strong noise (crackling) or vibration, you will most likely have to order and replace the cooler. At home, you can try to “extend its life” by dropping machine oil into the base of the bushing.

In some cases, to eliminate overheating and noise of the laptop, it is necessary to change the entire cooling system. Most often this happens due to damage to the heat pipe of the radiator, damage to the heat exchanger or fasteners.

If your fan makes too much noise when working with your laptop, then these instructions are intended specifically for you. In this article we will look at why the fan is noisy and what should be done to get rid of the annoying sound.

Causes

There are several obvious reasons why a laptop is buzzing a lot:

• Overheating and, as a consequence, high rotation speed of the cooler blades, which leads to a high noise level.
• Dust and dirt in the cooling system, which interfere with its full and uninterrupted functioning.

Everything is quite simple, but there are a couple of nuances. For example, if your device makes a lot of noise only when certain games or programs are on, then there is no need to worry or take any action as this is quite normal.

All that is needed in this situation is preventive action every six months in the form. If your laptop makes a lot of noise when programs that do not load the computer are running, you should try to do something.

What actions can you take?

There are several options to correct these problems:

• Cleaning from dust and dirt;
• BIOS update;
• Using a program to change the cooler rotation speed;

Cleaning from dirt and dust

If the cooler in your laptop begins to make a lot of noise and overheat, this may mean that it is excessively dirty. It is recommended to regularly clean the laptop, but for this it is not at all necessary to take it to a service center, because everything can be done at home.

If you decide to clean your laptop yourself, you need to:

If there was a lot of dust in the device, then after cleaning you will immediately notice a positive result: the computer will heat up less and work much quieter. However, prevention does not always help, for example, when the mechanism wears out, in which case complete repair may be required.

Updating BIOS and drivers

Developers often release driver and BIOS updates that fix previously made errors. It is in the BIOS that the temperature of the sensors corresponds to the speed of rotation of the cooler blades. Therefore, updating the software may help eliminate the fan noise.

Sites with the necessary drivers for users of the most popular models:

• Acer;
• HP;
• Toshiba;
• Lenovo;

Changing the cooler rotation speed

If the fan in your laptop is making too much noise, then perhaps a special program called SpeedFan will help you, which will allow you to change the speed of the blades. It receives all the necessary information from the temperature sensors that your laptop is equipped with and provides options based on the received data. By correctly adjusting the indicators, you can eliminate the cooler noise by limiting its rotation speed.

If the processor temperature rises too high, the program will automatically start the fan at full power to protect the laptop from overheating. Therefore, if after the settings you made, the laptop began to make noise, then there is nothing to worry about.

How to prevent and reduce laptop noise?

Now you know how to quickly and without any problems reduce fan noise yourself at home, and you can help not only yourself, but also your friends and family.

Has your computer become significantly louder than usual? Does it buzz or hum loudly, especially when turned on?

In 99% of cases, one or more cooling fans fail, and if you do not solve this problem, then you will face not only a migraine from constant noise, but also the very likely death of your computer from overheating.

REMEMBER!

Any actions inside a computer system unit or its parts can be carried out ONLY with experience working with electrical appliances and electronics, clearly understanding the mechanism of operation of the device and the essence of the operations performed. All actions inside any devices and mechanisms are carried out EXCLUSIVELY when the power is turned off. Including - the cord must be pulled out of the outlet and the body must be grounded.

In general, don't be idiots - follow the electrical safety rules and be reasonable. I warned you.

So, the first thing you should do is find out which cooler (fan) started acting up. To do this, remove the side cover, simply turn on the computer and listen - you can localize the source of the noise with sufficient accuracy.

There aren't that many of them.

Case fan

Most often, case coolers located on the rear end or side covers of the system unit fail. Replacing them is not difficult.

Firstly After turning off the computer, carefully unplug the power cable. It can either connect to the power supply using a standard molex connector, or to the motherboard using a small 3 or 4 pin connector. If you have little knowledge of computers, remember where the fan was connected. After this, use a Phillips screwdriver to unscrew the four screws that secure the cooler to the case. Take it out (cooler).

Secondly, needs replacement. This kind of fans can almost always be purchased at any company/store that deals with computers. They usually cost no more than a couple of dollars. To avoid mistakes, just show the old fan to the seller and ask for the same one. 🙂 This is the most reliable way.

Installing a new cooler, I think, will not be a problem - just repeat the first step in reverse order. The only subtlety is that the fan should be positioned with the base (on which the turntable itself is attached) facing outwards (in the figure the base is on top), since it is in this direction that the air flow will flow, i.e. — for blowing out of the body.

An example of a case cooler with a connector for the motherboard. The base that should be facing the outside world is here on top.

Power supply fan

The next most common failure is the fan inside the power supply. This is especially true for economy and middle class power supply models, which have a fan with a diameter of 80mm. Finding a power supply is not difficult - it is a large metal box inside the computer. housing, screwed end-to-end to the rear wall. (a dozen or two wires come out of it - you won’t miss it!)

I would not recommend replacing this unit without special knowledge (or at least without knowing how to use a soldering iron).

But you can read about lubrication of the power supply cooler here:

Although if you really need to replace it, but don’t have the money to buy a new power supply or call a technician, you can try. I will tell you about the method of replacing the cooler on the power supply a little later, in a separate note.

CPU fan

With rare exceptions, processor fans are only sold complete with a radiator that is mounted on the processor. So, to successfully replace this device, you will need not only three drops of ingenuity to remove the old radiator, but also special tools such as cotton swabs, isopropyl alcohol (or, in extreme cases, regular alcohol) and, of course, thermal paste.

A little later I will describe in detail the procedures for replacing modern coolers and processors. Now I will limit myself to only a general description of the procedure. So:

1. Make sure you have thermal paste ( Any will do for a home/office computer. Well at least the same KPT-8. Both inexpensive and quite effective), new cooler ( If you don’t know which one you need, it’s no big deal, just take it off and go buy it with a sample in your hands), cotton swabs or facial swabs, alcohol (isopropyl or regular)
2. If all of the above is present, remove the side cover of the case and take a closer look at the radiator. It can be attached using one of the following methods:
3. A) It can be pressed crosswise with a bracket, and have a plastic lever on the side (pull it up - the bracket should loosen and begin to dangle. Then remove it from the protrusions on the frame screwed to the motherboard)
4. B) Almost the same as A), but without a latch - you need to carefully remove the bracket from the protrusions on the frame with some strong tool like a narrow screwdriver ( be careful — a tool that comes off can irreparably damage the motherboard)
5. IN) It can be attached with some kind of four large plastic bolts; turn them all the way in the direction of the arrow (without fanaticism or extra effort!) and pull each of them towards you - they should come out about 3-4 millimeters.
6. After removing the cooler mounts, carefully, without excessive force, make a “twisting” movement of 5-7 degrees parallel to the plane of the motherboard, because The thermal paste that was used to coat the gap between the processor and the heatsink could have dried out over time and temperature. After this, remove the radiator. Remember the connector where the fan was connected.
7. Wipe off the layer of old thermal paste from the processor with a cotton swab slightly moistened with alcohol.
8. Apply a thin, even layer of thermal paste to a dry, grease-free surface (too much paste can even be harmful), firmly “seat” the new radiator (the contact surface must also be clean and grease-free) and snap the fasteners into place.
9. Don't forget to connect the fan to the power supply - it will be a shame if the processor burns out after half an hour of operation!

To be continued….

Symptoms: After switching on, you can immediately hear the hum and howl of the fan. Sometimes you can hear something like crackling or popping.

Cause: the cooler axle or bearing has become loose, the lubricant has dried out and the impeller is loose and noisy.

Solution: It is necessary to determine which cooler out of half a dozen makes noise.

Attention! By opening the case, you lose the warranty (if it still exists and unless otherwise agreed upon when purchasing the computer. By opening the case, you take a risk, since some elements of the computer are under high voltage and careless handling can lead to electric shock or equipment failure. Be careful and prudent.

Open the computer case. Try to identify the problem fan by sound (they are also called “coolers” from the English word “cooler”).

There are 4 options: the cooler on the processor is noisy, the cooler on the video card, the case cooler or the cooler in the power supply.

1. The fan on the processor is noisy (buzzing). The most likely reason. Most likely you will need to remove the processor cooling unit (naturally, with the computer turned off and without power). Please note that in order to put the cooler back, you will need the so-called. thermal paste for applying to the processor. If you don’t have thermal paste and don’t know what it is, we advise you to refrain from disassembling it. Due to inexperience, you can break off a piece of the processor and bend elements.

2. The cooler on the video card is noisy. The solution to the problem is strictly individual. There are video cards simply with impellers, which are quite easily removed and lubricated, but there are also those with turbines, which cannot be removed so easily.

3. The case cooler is noisy. The simplest option. The case cooler is held on by 4 self-tapping screws, which can be easily unscrewed and the cooler removed from the wall. Do not forget to disconnect the power cable and reconnect it after disassembly and reassembly.

4. The cooler in the power supply is noisy. There is no way to do this without disassembling the power supply. The cooler inside is very similar to the case, but the power wire is often simply soldered on the board. Attention! The power supply contains capacitors that maintain voltage even after the power is turned off. Without relevant experience, you can get a rank. Carefully!

Read the article on how to properly lubricate a cooler