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Question about a weird laptop fan noise I heard in a repair last Friday
I was fixing a Dell Inspiron for a client in Austin and the fan made this high pitched whine, like a tiny whistle. It only happened when the CPU hit 60 degrees, not before. I cleaned the heatsink and replaced the thermal paste but the sound came back after 20 minutes. The fan itself spins fine, no wobble. Has anyone else run into a fan that whines only at certain temps? I'm thinking maybe the bearing is going but I want to be sure before I order a new one.
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lisab436mo ago
That specific whistle at a certain temp is such a weird one. I've seen fans with a bad bearing make noise at all speeds, but that temp trigger makes me wonder about the fan's control circuit. Could it be the motor straining at that exact voltage step?
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mia5926mo ago
Wait, it only happens at exactly 60 degrees? That's wild.
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wendyc535mo ago
Yeah, totally! I had a laptop that did the same thing, but at around 70 degrees. It would get this high pitched whine just as the fans kicked into a higher gear. Drove me nuts until I finally figured out the pattern. It's gotta be something with the power switching at those specific points, like lisab43 said. Something in the circuit just doesn't like that exact speed.
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