Clevo laptop fan is making a really annoying rubbing noise again

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...noisy-rattling-grinding-noise.html?highlight=

Long story short, i got replacement fans, replaced them, everything went fine. Today i opened up the laptop to clean out the fan dust, and i just removed the fans, washed them a bit, and put them back.

Right after this, i noticed that when i press down on the laptop with my hands (where your hands rest as you type), the fan on the right side of the laptop (where the audio ports are) makes a noise that sounds like metal rubbing against metal.

I opened up the laptop again, checked everything, but could not figure out what was causing the noise exactly, other than the fact it comes from the fan on the right.

This was pretty much what happened last time round as well. It's not a coincidence. Something is causing the rubbing noise, but what?

The fact that it only seems to happen when i press down on the laptop suggests that maybe it is making the inners of the laptop "bend" enough to touch the spinning fan blades, which causes the rubbing noise. Thoughts?

But i definately need a solution here because the sound is driving me nuts. I'm not sure what i can do because when i open it up, i don't see any problems at all...

There might be a design flaw with the way the fan slots into the bracket which is causing the base of the bracket to be too "close" to the fan blades.

Edit : After some more testing i THINK the sound gets noticeably softer when i remove the CD that was in the CD rom. Does anyone know how to remove the optical drive so that i can further test it?

Edit 2 : Nope, false alarm.

Edit 3 : Hmm actually it might be the monitor hinges...i noticed that there is no sound at all if the lid was closed and at certain angles there is also no sound...maybe the hinges are loose or something?

 

So...from testing it seems that the angle of the monitor screen has an effect on the rubbing noise...but is not solely caused by it....

Placing the laptop on a cooling pad definately seems to make the noise worse.

Everything seems to point towards things that are causing the laptop to "flex" making the rubbing noise worse...

 

Reseated the fan again....noise is greatly reduced but still somewhat present.

 

bump?

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With the bottom open adjust the monitor position and see if it's pulling the cable that connects to the motherboard. Since you mentioned that makes a difference you may want to check if its moving something internally causing it to rub. If it does see if you can get any more slack on that cable.

 

Could you tell me which one is the motherboard cable please?

Edit : Can you also confirm that removing the fan is safe to do? Someone else told me that the fan is sealed for life and you arent supposed to remove the fan blade portion, because its factory installed for balance.

 

You probably destroyed your fan if you actually took it apart. I made the same mistake with a fan in my Alienware M17x and suffered a loud screeching noise whenever it would spin up until I replaced the fan.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

Yea, I've noticed the fans are fairly well calibrated. You may be able to stop the squeeaking/squorking by using some teflon lubricant or similar on the joints of the fan. Usually for cleaning them you just use an air can and hold the fan blades so it wont' spin as you blow them out.

 

The only reason why i removed the fan was because the retailer sent me a cleaning guide that specifically said to remove the fan.

Can a retailer here confirm the fans are NOT meant to be removable please?

 

Fans can be removed but you don't open the casing that they are in.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

It could be the bearing in the fan is going also and unbalancing it slightly.

 

What do you mean?

Theres a limit to how much dust you can remove if you dont pop the fan off. At bare minimum theres awlays going to be dust right under the fan that you cant reach because the fan is in the way.

I just dont get how you are supposed to totally clean it if you cant pop the fan off. I thought about removing the entire bracket, fan still inside, washing it, and drying it before putting it back, but then you run into the problem of how to dry the insides...

I was doing more testing, couldnt find the mother board cable though. The only cables i can find are the ones that seem to be fan cables and one weird white cable that is attached to this USB like device right above the GPU fan.

I noticed that if the laptop battery is in the laptop, the buzzing noise is dramatically reduced. I further noticed that if i put the laptop on a surface with no battery in + the back cover taken off, there is ZERO buzzing noise at all.

Reddit suggested that its some kind of case vibration issue and to make sure all the screws, etc were tight. I replaced a missing screw for the fan bracket and it seems to have partially helped the rubbing/buzzing noise (its a lot softer), but its still present.

Any other ideas at this point? I cant figure out why there is no noise at all if i have the laptop on a surface with the back cover off. That seems to imply that the back cover is related somehow...

 

Are you sure the buzzing is from the fan and not from the voltage regulators on the motherboard?

 

It probably is case vibration. The fans and their bearings very seldom wear out and in turn begin producing harsh cacophony, so it's unlikely a problem with a fan. Your troubleshooting is alluding to case reverberation, considering that you can alleviate the noise to some extent with that missing screw, the battery, and, in full, by removing the back cover.

Make sure the fans are secured. It could be them that is causing the case to tremor a bit. Check for any broken clips on the cover as well.