Question Laptop fans going very fast for no reason

[Dreamslayer]

Hello, and thanks for opening this thread! Tonight my 1 year old laptop has started making very, very loud whirring sounds which seem to come from the fans. I am not 100% sure if the sound is caused by the fans (I am not a tech expert) but I am 99%, as it sounds too much different from HDD sounds I have been finding online. I have recorded a very bad case of this, so listen for yourself: https://vocaroo.com/i/s0JRmK6raUcU

Most of the time it is just random, short bursts of whirring sounds, but this is a case in which it kept going for a solid 30 seconds. The whirring can happen in any case: it first happened while I was loading a game of League of Legends, but it can happen literally everytime, even when the laptop is at standard temperatures (40-60°C). So, I wanna ask: is there any way to fix this and determine the causes? Has excessive dust gotten into the fans? Is it an issue with the sensors? Maybe it's not the fans???? Another thing that I thought was weird is that GPU-Z keeps saying that fan speed is at 19% at all times but Fan Speed (RPM) is at 0. I have no idea what is happening, so I would like some tips! Also, is there any way I can fix this without fully opening the laptop? The laptop took a very bad fall 3 months ago and now I can't close the lid or bend it too much, or I risk breaking it completely. With this handicap as you might understand it would be very hard for me (or a technic) to open the bottom of the laptop up, although I can still flip it over pretty easily if this can be fixed by blowing air into the vents or something. Thank you for reading and replying!

 

[taeioum]

From the recording it sounds like the CPU fan. Sounds to me like a ball bearing in the fan being the problem. Could be terribly wrong though. I'm afraid it's one of those things we can't really tell unless it's physically in front of us.

Also, did you use GPU-Z or CPU-Z?

 

[Dreamslayer]

From the recording it sounds like the CPU fan. Sounds to me like a ball bearing in the fan being the problem. Could be terribly wrong though. I'm afraid it's one of those things we can't really tell unless it's physically in front of us.

Also, did you use GPU-Z or CPU-Z?

GPU-Z...whoops.

Anything you recommend doing?

 

[taeioum]

You said it's a year old? So I'm assuming it's not got any warranty left on it. You're probably going to spend over a hundred bucks to get it fixed by the manufacturer. Either that or try to find a compatible fan online and replacing it yourself (the fan itself is usually not that hard to replace), or take that new fan to a repair shop and let someone do it for you. Should be significantly cheaper than getting the manufacturer to do it..

 

[jamesanyoung]

easiest first step to do is to remove the back of the laptop and blow it out with some compressed air. could simply be dust build up.

 

[Dreamslayer]

You said it's a year old? So I'm assuming it's not got any warranty left on it. You're probably going to spend over a hundred bucks to get it fixed by the manufacturer. Either that or try to find a compatible fan online and replacing it yourself (the fan itself is usually not that hard to replace), or take that new fan to a repair shop and let someone do it for you. Should be significantly cheaper than getting the manufacturer to do it..

The problem is that I'm afraid they won't replace the fan because of the fact that they would have to operate with the laptop lid open...as I explained before, it refuses to be closed and if forced it would probably break the screen entirely. I'm just gonna hope that it is a removable dust buildup. Taking it to the manufacturer is a no-no since I know that the wait times to get laptops back are pretty damn long, especially in Italy with Acer.

Also...Is there any way I can blow the dust out without opening the laptop? I've seen someone blow air into the intake/exhaust of laptops with a drinking straw...some people just fire compressed air into them...and I've seen someone even do it with a vacuum. But I'm afraid of damaging my laptop or something tbh. But, again, it seems to be the safest way since opening a laptop with an open lid is very, very uncomfortable. Also I think one of the intakes is located right above the fan...so maybe I could try doing something there...?

easiest first step to do is to remove the back of the laptop and blow it out with some compressed air. could simply be dust build up.

Yeah, hopefully.

 

[Dreamslayer]

https://streamable.com/u9plv Video footage. I think I saw a lot of dust around the fan? I'm not sure. But still, I wonder why is it acting like this? Is the exhaust blocked? Had the problem been with the fan, it would not be able to spin this fast, or to spin at all I guess. This happened during very normal activity, by the way (I only had a youtube video and some other tabs open.)