Going without Inspiron 1420 fan for 1-2 weeks--good idea?

A Dell technician came today to fix an audio problem on my 1 month-old Inspiron 1420. He couldn't fix it, so I'll be getting a new 1420 in 5-10 business days to replace it; I'll just mail in my current one back to Dell once I get the replacement. But in the process of disassembling and reassembling my laptop, the technician somehow caused the fan to make achingly loud, grating sound every time it comes on. It sound like metal scraping against metal, and it's LOUD. It comes on every few minutes, stays on for a few minutes, shuts off, and repeats.

Anyways, I took the laptop apart and unplugged the fan. Should the machine be okay for one or two weeks if I'm conservative about what programs I run (mostly Firefox, Word, and iTunes)? I don't want to damage the hard drive (I'll need to swap it out), and I also don't want to cause any substantial damage that I may be charged for by Dell when I send it in. Also, are there any overt warning signs of overheating to look out for? Thanks for any help.

 

Install a monitoring program and u'r good to go. Just keep watching the temp level.

 

you could also use i8kfangui, it let you raise the temperature threshold when the fans are activated.. this could be a safer solution