XPS M1530 Laptop fan buzzing loudly

In the past week I have been having an annoying problem with the internal cooling fan of my Dell XPS M1530 laptop, where it will begin to whine violently and extremely loudly (it sounds like a damn buzz saw) and causes the entire laptop to vibrate until it turns off once the temperature goes down again.

This began to occur only randomly last week and sometimes the fan would go back to working normally, but now it seems to be doing this constantly every time the fan comes on, to the point I am worried it may damage the laptop.

I really have no idea what could be causing this. I have removed the heatsink and fan cleaned out any built up dust and debris inside the fan case, blew though the air vents, cleaned the back cover of the laptop, made sue the fan blades aren't contacting anything, and still it continues. It isn't because of overheating, because the temperature rarely reaches 60C and soon falls back down to 40-45C, which is when the fan usually turns off again. Could it just be a sign that the fan is dying and needs replacement? Laptop and fan is about months 4 years and 6 months old.

 

Sounds like the fan is dying, the ball bearings are probably no longer working properly. Just drop the ~50$ on a new fan and you should be good to go.

 

If you're in the US you can get 'em off of US eBay for much less... I'm seeing the fan/heatsink assembly down to $5.

 

I decided to have another look at the fan and noticed one of the blades had been bent forward towards the one in front of it somehow, I pushed it back forward and it broke off! Despite this I used it again and the buzzing sound seems to have greatly diminished but the laptop still vibrates when the fan comes on, probably due to the blade imbalance. Regardless I am definitely going to have to get a replacement now. Is ebay the most recommended place to get replacement fans? You can't seem to buy any off the Dell website.