Clicking noises in the back of 7811

I'm getting these clicking noises coming from somewhere in the back of my 7811. I first heard them when I took off my headphones while playing a game. I confirmed that they would stop a little after I stopped playing, and then start a little after I started. At first I thought it was the CPU fan, because it sounded like it was coming from there, but now I don't thinks so. I ran prime95, and the CPU fan got up to max and stayed there a while before the clicking started. My temps also seem to be unaffected, both GPU and CPU. So right now it's just the noise, nothing seems broken. The clicking isn't uniform either. It sounds electrical. I'm going to try running furmark or something GPU intensive to see if high GPU load alone will trigger it. They seem to be getting louder and more erratic the longer I run prime95. Sometimes sounds a little like grinding, sometimes starts making noise in a pattern. Usually random.

And as I typed that they disappeared, and just before they went silent I heard a lot of grinding sounds (definitely not the hard drives). My computer is working and nothing seems to be on fire, so hopefully this problem just fixed itself lol. Doubt it though. I'll run the GPU test after letting things wind down, and then another CPU test.

Update: I can't reproduce the noise. 3dmark and Furmark did nothing. I then ran prime again, but it didn't come back. So I guess I might burned my problem away. I'd still like to know what it could have been though, as it might be something that could come back or do damage in the future.

 

The cpu fan is probably on the way out.............

 

I wouldn't be surprised. The sound still hasn't come back, but I'll buy that extra fan anyway. If it does go out, then this is pretty much the best time for it to do so.

Crap, I'll have to do a disassembly for this, won't I? That's alright I suppose, I can do it on the weekend, and spring break is next week, so I'll have plenty of time in case something goes wrong. I'll probably end up posting a question about the disassembly though, even with the nice guide we have.

 

If its the cpu fan, and if your 7811 is like my 7805.. then the only disassembly you need is taking the back plate over the cpu off. but if you need that guide.. here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gat...embly-guide-covers-all-17in-fx-notebooks.html

 

Have you taken your CPU fan out? I don't see a way to get to it from the bottom. If you look at one of the pictures in the guide, it looks like the fan controller and screws holding it in place are on the top of the motherboard.

 

You're right.. you have to take the keyboard off and what not.. complete disassembly it looks like.. I've taken mine apart for a insane cleaning, but its been a few months. Honestly.. the hardest part to it man... is its time consuming.. When you take the screws off.. put them in a bag and label it.. just make sure you know where they all go.

 

I'll have all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to work on this if need be, so I'm not to worried about time. I'm more worried about breaking something.

 

Alright update.

I got my fan in earlier in the week, but I was at school and really busy, so I couldn't do anything until now, and I ran into complications, so I didn't finish until a little while ago.

So anyway, it looks like TANware was right (of course), and it was the fan. No big surprises there. Teardown was uneventful for the most part. azrickster's guide is great, and these things seem made to be taken apart, so it wasn't a big deal. I had a problem when booting up though. The hdd light would come on for a second, and the screen would turn on, but then nothing. I swapped out ram, tried running with one stick, tried without the hard drive, but nothing. I got that bad feeling of despair in the pit of my stomach. It really did feel like a friend was dying or something. I decided to take everything apart and reassemble again, even though I doubted it would work, as I couldn't think of anything I had done wrong. Amazingly, it actually worked on the second attempt. I have no idea what I fixed though. Now things seem great. I've been running Prime 95 for about half an hour, and no sign of noise. And as a bonus, my temps are lower now than they were before. I had to keep my hand over the exhaust in order for it to even reach 60C, and now it actually is able to cool itself till the point the fan spins down again. Pretty good for stress test temps IMO. I think it has more to do with my application of the TIM than it does with the new fan though. I had clearly overdone it on the CPU last time. So thank you very much again TANWare, and also azrickster for the guide. I didn't put anything on my GPU, as it has never run hot, and I don't like fixing stuff that isn't broken.

Also, I have a extra screw now. I have no idea where it came from. I found it inside the laptop during the first disassembley, and confirmed that all screws were accounted for during the final assembly. I also confirmed that it doesn't quite match the size and shape of any of the other screws, yet it has the same color and blue mark on the threads as a lot of the other screws. So yeah, no clue what that's about.

 

Good to hear all eventually went well. Apparently these systems are real picky about being put back together. Just adds to my paranoia about my time. I probably should just order some ICD24 and get it over with.........

Edit, well before the system had a screw loose, guess it is back to sanity now...............