Broken fan or hard drive?

[Vuatson]

Either my laptop's fan or its hard drive is making a very loud whirring, buzzing noise. It's okay on startup and sometimes for a few hours after, but at some point the noise will randomly start up and not stop until I shut down the computer (restart and sleep do not make it stop).

I initially feared it was the hard drive, but I looked up the sounds that failing hard drives usually make and this is much louder and not rhythmic at all. I know it is mechanical because I tried tilting my laptop around while the noise was happening once and it it suddenly got much louder when I tilted it all the way up to the right (so the power jack was facing down). Also, according to the task manager my laptop uses "100% disk" for several minutes after startup, but the amount of disk space being used never seems to affect whether the noise happens or not.

If this is the fan, is there a way to fix it or should I just take it in to an expert? The laptop is an ASUS X502C, about 3 years old.

 

[toshibitsu]

From what you're describing, it sounds like it's the fan. The laptop will need to be disassembled to replace it. If you haven't done anything like that before(or don't feel confident), then you should have someone else do it. A replacement fan will probably be anywhere from $1 - $20. Although most laptop repair shops will charge close to $100 labor for this type of work.

 

[kris_hm]

Well if the fan is making the noise its possible that it is just clogged up with lint. This is not recommended... but i used to work at a tech shop and when this kind of thing happened and the fan was just clogged, they would get an air compressor and blow it full blast into the fan vent at the bottom of the computer to try and blow out whatever was in there. They would also blow it into the side vent. And it worked... but again i always felt that wasnt a good idea. But if you want a fast solution that could be your answer.
So heres a question. When it starts making this noise, does restarting the computer help? If the fan was clogged of failing i feel like your computer would be overheating. Does it get hot?

 

[toshibitsu]

You can use an air compressor, you just have to be careful how much pressure you're applying as this could brake some/all of the fan blades. Usually a can of compressed air is recommended for a laptop.
From the sounds of it though, the bearings inside the fan could be going bad as well as there could be a cracked/broken fan blade.