Far Left Fan making grinding noises

Whenever I'm viewing the smallest things, like images or even streaming on youtube. The far left fan goes into gear -- but it sounds like it's hitting a wire, making a loud and obnoxious grinding sound.

And recently my computer would go at 100% CPU Usage, requiring me to restart a couple of times until it became neutral.

Any ideas other than opening the computer?

I'm using an Inspiron 1520. It's 2 years old.

 

I remember reading a post where one guy said his laptop had a dent in the fan casing which would scrape against the tips of the fan blades. It might be worthwhile to open up the laptop and just take a look and see if you can see what's going on in there. Just be careful not the damage the sensitive internal parts (or yourself) when you do.

 

sounds like the casing and not a wire.

 

I suppose I am forced to open it. Can someone link me to a good tutorial on how to open it? I googled and I get random forums :S

Thanks for the replies.

 

Nevermind I found it. But is it even possible for the fan to become loose and start hitting its case?

Looking at http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1520/en/sm/csl_fan2.jpg

The fan looks intact and secure in it's container. Damnn, I hate opening computers =(

 

First of all, the machine going to 100% CPU usage is a software problem. That in and of itself has nothing to do with the fan.

If this has been happening a lot, your fan is obviously going to be working harder than it needs to, and you may have a lot of dust built up, rather than a "true" mechanical problem with the system.

I'd try blasting some compressed air through the cooling solution if you don't want to take the thing apart. That may or may not solve the problem with the fan.

 

That's a good point. The fan is overworking and loud because the CPU is maxed...so find the root cause of the CPU usage. I recommend downloading and running Microsoft Process Explorer to track down the process hogging your resources.

 

The CPU problem seemed to have fixed itself. Now my CPU rarely goes over 50%, however, my fan is STILL loud as hell. Here's an audio sample of what it sounds like: http://www.4shared.com/file/157729398/894b25c9/Fan.html (You can stream the audio file).

What do you think it could be?

I blew compressed air into the fan for around a minute, and of course, no progress.

 

Just gotta open it up now.

 

Agreed. Either you've got something lodged in there that won't be cleaned out by compressed air, or the fan actually does need to be replaced.