ASUS R500A (K55A Clone?) annoyingly vibrating

Hello all!

I have been using my ASUS 500A for a while now (since Nov 2012) and it has been a great experience. However, recently, I have been noticing that the palm rest and the keyboard area has been vibrating for a while. Nothing violent to the point that I can see the laptop vibrating but I can definitely feel it as I am typing this message. I don't recall this laptop vibrating like this before.

I did notice that during the log in screen (the screen to enter user password), there is no vibration but the fan does run. Thus, I do not think it is the fan. The vibration starts as immediately as I enter my password and load Windows 8 -- the vibration does not change in severity despite me running some taxing programs like say computer games. I also note that I feel the vibration most prominently around the left hand palm rest area, which is weird because the hard drive on this laptop seems to be on the right side.

Anyways, I was hoping if anyone had any ideas regarding this issue. Much appreciated!

The laptop specs are:

Windows 8 64 bit
i7 3630QM CPU
750GB 5400 RPM HDD
8GB DDR3 1600 Mhz RAM
Intel HD 4000

 

The only components with moving parts are the hard drive and fan(s), and I would be inclined to cast my vote on the fan being the more likely culprit (that, and any potential design flaw of the chassis construction). Do you happen to hear the fan rev a little bit once you log in? I think this concern has come up on a few Asus units, particularly the ultrabooks.

 

Hi Prostar Computer,

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, I do notice that the fan revs up alittle more after logging in. Now, I'm curious as to which is the culprit between the hard drive and the fan. Is there any way to disable one to determine which is the cause?

I appreciate your help!

 

Hey Shunshin,

You can't really disable either as far as I know, other than disconnecting one or the other (but opening the case to disconnect the fan would result in killing any warranty). To be honest, I'm almost certain your hard drive would not produce enough vibration to cause the whole chassis to rattle a bit. It's most likely a fan + design.

 

If the spindle motor in your HDD was that off it would have shredded the platters to pieces by now

 

Hi,

Thanks for the responses you two.

So I guess it isn't the HDD? I do feel that the rattling does originate from the fan side (left) more so than the HDD side (right).
I have also noticed recently that the vibration is much more pronounced when the battery is out and the laptop is completely running solely on AC power.

I guess I'm curious whether or not I should send this in to ASUS for warranty repairs...

 

It doesn't sound broken. It just sounds like the chassis is not properly secured. There's no impending threat, but if it becomes/is a nuisance, you can send it to them.

 

Hi Prostar Computer,

Thanks for your help. Glad to know that there is no impending threat but I do feel that I should send this in as it is quite annoying.

 

Fair enough. I hope they take good care of you! And they should fully inspect it to make sure nothing else is wrong too, so rest assured that if it's a fan-specific problem, they would repair or replace it for you.