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My Sony Vaio (2009) laptop is making a hell of a noise. It's like suddenly a storm starts, goes on for some time, and then stops. I am not a geek, but I think I could make out 2 noises, one a crackling sound (could it be the hard drive?) and another rotating friction sound (could be the fan?).
I tried using a vacuum to blow out the dust, but it made it worse. :-(
I cannot afford a new one and cannot even think of expensive repair!
Please help! How I can sort it out myself?
2013-03-19 15:18:48
"Defragging has helped a bit. The frequency of the noise has decreased, but when it comes- the noise is as loud as ever!"That would suggest to me that it is time to replace your hard drive. If you do not know how to do it or do not feel brave enough to try, have a tech replace the hard drive for you.
2013-03-20 00:26:22
Completely agree with planning on a hard drive failure in the near future. It may or may not happen, but this is one gamble that should not be made. Backup all important data if one hasn't been made yet and get another drive to try to Ghost/image the noisy drive. Norton Ghost (paid) or Clonezilla (free) can be used to make a true copy of a hard drive so that swapping drives is just that, taking out the old and putting a new one in without losing any data, software, settings, etc.
2013-03-18 12:41:08
try cleaning the fan, drop an oil on the bearing of the fan, or just send it to the technician if you dont know how to. with the cracking sound it might be your hard drive, try to replace and see
2013-03-18 11:52:50
Try out compressed air to blow out the dust from laptop to reduce or remove the fan sound and as for Hard disk make sure to do backup of each and everything that is important for you in case the HDD dies.
2013-03-18 10:15:17
If you don't want to spend much money on repairs,then on software side -Run CCleaner,create full data backup including license keys of paid softwares.O hardware side,take it to the technician and ask him to assess the repairing costs.If it includes changing parts that are too costly,then ask him to atleast thoroughly clean the laptop from dust,replace the fan with a new one and apply new heat paste.This must not cost you too much and will help you extend its life.It it gets done,then you will need to keep care of its ventilation and have to regularly clean it as gadgets starts to weaken after years of use and needs good care.
2013-03-17 19:53:47
Since the sound stops,its not likely a HDD problem. If you have a small child, perhaps he/she stuck a small item into the fan exhaust. Hold the shutdown laptop with exhaust down and give it a gentle shake to see if anything rattles or falls out. Examine the exhaust with a flash-lite for foreign objects.
2013-03-18 06:10:45
Tried That Jim. But sadly nothing was stuck! I ll take it to a specialist only I guess!
2013-03-17 17:38:54
Ha14, Bruce are right, finding out whats going on inside will help. There are free programs who will allow you to check the temp of yoiur cpu, and the rps of your fans.To using a vacuum or even a a can of compressed air on a fan, I highly recommend not doing those, The Vacuum can create a static charge around the hose, which static electricity is bad for circuit boards. Compress air cans can actually spin fans fast enough that it can wear our bearing is seconds. Also thiese two things might not help any ways due to the fact that the fan might have started blowing harder which causes the fan to be louder do to the fact that the heat sink side that the fan blows into might be covered with dust to the point that it has clogged. With noisy fans problems about half of them are caused by the fan blowing harder because of clogged heat sinks.If you get me the model number of your Sony, I should be able to get you the hardware matnience manual. I repair many brands of laptops in my business and have access to allot of different manuals.
2013-03-17 16:14:41
I suggest you to save money and bring the machine to a specialist. You may harm the pc if you don't know what to do.
2013-03-18 06:09:40
I agree Man! My expertise was restricted to Vacuuming and Defragging!
2013-03-17 13:55:11
I certainly agree with HA14 & Bruce Epper's comments. Finding out the what's going on with your laptop's health is key, and defragging should help - even if it doesn't resolve the problem entirely.One problem which occurs too often in laptops is that the heat sink separates from the processor, or the thermal paste dries out. This results in the processor heating up more than it should do, particularly when under load, and the fan then screams to high heaven trying to cool it down. If this is the problem with your laptop (back to the "PC Health" programs here), then the solution is to remove the heat sin, give it and the CPU a good clean, apply good thermal paste (e.g. Arctic Silver) and reseat the heat sink. If you feel comfortable in doing so, go ahead. If not, perhaps you should take it to a professional. This is a fairly simple procedure and should not bee all that expensive.
2013-03-18 06:08:55
Defragging has helped a bit. The frequency of the noise has decreased, but when it comes- the noise is as loud as ever!
2013-03-17 13:26:41
If it's the sound of a hard drive failing, you'll hear the "click of death".Here's an example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WD_bad_heads_click_of_death.ogg
2013-03-20 08:29:12
Not going to replace HDD with SSD, it's way too expensive and actually doesn't last longer than HDD!
2013-03-17 09:07:17
I think it's the cooling fan.http://www.pcworld.com/article/166219/Fix_a_Noisy_Overheated_Laptop.html
2013-03-17 07:00:18
Rotating friction sound - that could possibly be the fan's bearings in which case its a new fan.
2013-03-17 06:28:56
Sounds like the cooling fan is having trouble! since this is the most common sound problem, try disassembling the laptop. Then see whether the fans are clean! if dust is there, use a blower and clean the fans! Then check whether the fans are seated well in their mounts and not loose! Try turning on the lap and see for the noise! if it's still there, replace the fan with a new one!
2013-03-17 02:59:01
You can Google "(laptop model) service manual" to see what it takes to replace the CPU fan as it seems that is one cause for the noise, then check out www.ascendtech.com to see if they carry the parts for your laptop. I tend to be wary of loud laptop fan noise if it is abnormal as it could lead to premature failure of the processor. I would definitely check out what ha14 said to try to get a better idea what the problem(s) is.
2013-03-17 01:39:14
I would advise against messing with the BIOS if you have not had previous experience with it before as you may accidentally make it worse.For the fan, I would suggest using compressed air to blow out any dust - the vacuum may not have done much to remove the dust. You can easily buy one off Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Stoner-94203-GUST-Easy-Duster/dp/B0002KKIUA/ref=sr_1_2?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1363483715&sr=1-2).If the hard drive is making a ton of noise - back up your entire drive onto an external hard disk using software like Shadow Copy Cloner or Restoret. Then, reformat the hard disk and reinstall the OS (maybe even upgrade?). This is can be a long and somewhat confusing process, so you may need to ask for help or get more in-dept instructions online - this was what I could find for you http://howtoformatacomputer.com/format-windows-vista.
2013-03-18 19:14:17
@ Tina - thanks for the advice and I'll keep that in mind in my future posts
2013-03-16 23:09:44
5 Things You Can Do To Silence A Noisy Laptop Fanhttp://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-silence-noisy-laptop-fan/Monitor Your Computer Fan Speed With SpeedFanhttp://www.makeuseof.com/tag/monitor-your-computer-fans-with-speedfan/Check your BIOS for any cpu fan speed options, lower it to see if it will reduce noise.sometime updating/resetting bios can helpif its the fan maybe time to replace.
2013-03-17 15:20:23
need a new fan