Fan on dv8408us

I'm a bit concerned (okay, obsessively so). I bought a dv8408us from CompUSA back in December. It's a great unit, no keyboard problems. However, yesterday, the fan started making a funny noise. The best way to describe it would be it sounds like a piece of paper hitting the blades of an oscillating fan on a quieter scale. Or, another example, the hum from a window air-conditioning unit. It starts a few seconds after turning on.

I bought a can of compressed air today, cleaned the vents. It's still making the noise.

I've attached a file (.wav w/.mp3 compression). See what you think. Am I being overly paranoid?

 

It could infact be that the fans sucked up a tiny piece of paper and it's stuck in there, besides being annoying it shouldn't effect your cooling. If it comes to bother you enough the only option would be to send it in for repair if you've already tried dislodging whatever is in there with compressed air. It could also be that your fan is going however you would notice that the laptop would get much warmer/hotter than normal and if it's only a year old that probably isn't the problem.

 

It's actually only been two months since I got the unit. I just got done playing City Life for an hour (somewhat graphically intensive) and it ran just fine - temps as they should be. If it gets louder, I'll be concerned. Otherwise, maybe you're right about the dust bunny (I hope).

 

After some "duh" suggestions (clean vents with compressed air, update BIOS), HP seems to think my unit should be sent in for servicing. As the system is only two months old, shouldn't it be covered by the warranty? What are your experiences with HP's repair technicians? I keep the system meticulously clean and scratch free, having bought it under the impression it would last me a couple years. It's kind of ridiculous that I'm already having problems with it.

 

The noise seems to have cleared itself up for the moment. Since I still have several months left on the warranty, do you think I should wait a little while, see if the problem returns, before having it serviced?

 

I would avoid sending it to hp's goons if at all possible. was probably a little piece of god knows what stuck god knows where.

its probably lodged snuggly on your processor now anyway. no worries.


JUST KIDDING!

 

Ha! Is that a common occurrence - dust getting temporarily stuck in the fan and making it louder?

I was thinking about purchasing an extended warranty from HP when I get my $150 rebate from CompUSA. It sounds like you're not too fond of their repair specialists. Do you think their service plan would be worth it, anyway?

 

Their service plan is definitely worth it, however only send it in when there is a problem, otherwise you risk creating one when there wasn't one to begin with. I'm sure your fan is fine and you are just paranoid, relax make some tea and watch some twilight zone reruns

 

One recommendation I learned the hardware is to always, always find a safe way to get your laptop looked at before your warranty runs out. Mine recently died on me right when I got outside of warranty coverage and they want me to spend $300 to fix it now.

 

The noise is caused by a bearing in the fan starting to go. Change the fan before it fails and fries the PC.