[SOLVED] Open | HardwareHP Pavillion x360 - Cooling fan not operating correctly after cleaning vents with vacuum cleaner - next steps?

caffelatte

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Apr 25, 2010
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My girlfriend has a 4-5 year old convertible laptop. It's a HP Pavillion x360 13" that has never really been cleaned. The fan on it has been getting progressively louder.
Earlier I was considering opening it up and cleaning it properly, but thought i'd first try and clean the vents with the vacuum. I tried it and not very much visible dust was removed, however, after turning it on I got the error message:

"System Fan (90b) The system has detected that a cooling fan is not operating correctly. The system will shut down in 15 seconds."

I've self built a few gaming PCs for myself, upgraded components, and self-diagnosed broken PSUs etc in the past, though have never worked on a laptop. I'm relatively confident I could open it and clean/replace the fan - though that said, after doing some reading I may have damaged it with static by using a vacuum so I might be out of my depth.

Regarding static damage - how likely is this to be the cause? I have solid floors and the vacuum cleaner attachment is plastic. There is an option to ignore the warning and turn the system on, I tried that got to the login screen without issue so the system seems fine, but then I turned it off immediately as I don't want it to overheat.

I was wondering what the best next steps are to fix it. I think my options are buying a can of compressed air to try and remove dust, opening it and cleaning it as I had originally intended to (and/or replacing the fan), taking it to a laptop repair center or something else?

If it was my own laptop I'd happily take the risk with opening, but as it's not mine I thought i'd get some guidance.

Thanks.
 
Solution
Then I think there's a good chance the fan isn't spinning.

Perhaps the vacuum pulled something that's blocking the blades.

I would at least open it up to get a visual if that's doable. It may be something really simple.

caffelatte

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Then I think there's a good chance the fan isn't spinning.

Perhaps the vacuum pulled something that's blocking the blades.

I would at least open it up to get a visual if that's doable. It may be something really simple.

Thanks Jay, I really appreciate it.

I opened it up and blew the fan out with a straw and a lot of dust came out, and also found quite a large dust ball that I managed to get out with tweezers - turned it back on and it's back to normal and a lot quieter than before and working as normal.