does my lappy need maintenance?

i have a four year old apple laptop. it runs great - not slow or anything.

recently one of its fans has been making noise. it will start buzzing every once in a while and after a few minutes it sounds like it speeds up and the buzzing stops.

my guess is that there is dust in the fan. should i be concerned with this? there has never been a computer in my house (all macs) that had to be serviced.

it's not irritating because i almost always have music playing when on my lappy, so i'm just hoping that i can ignore this and not pay for anything (mac service people have gotten pretty conceited over the years).

Mm if you have an air conpressor you could try blowing it out.

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Originally Posted by Zebrah

Mm if you have an air conpressor you could try blowing it out.

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I agree. If you feel like it, you could actually try opening up the bottom and giving the fan, as well as all the hardware, a wipe with a cotton swab or something.

brah - i used to have a compressed air can, so i'll consider that.
kook - i'm paranoid about taking the thing apart! :O

i found this picture of the inside of a macbook. with mine, the left fan is the one making noise, but i may be wrong about it being dust - the thing is buzzing... you guys know if a computer with two fans could operate well if one was completely knocked out? i wish computers had triple-double redundancy ;)

http://www.takeitapart.net/photos/macbook_pro/5.jpg

Unless you think it's excessively warm, you should be fine. If the heat is seeping through the keyboard, it may be time to have it serviced. If you feel the bottom and it burns you, take it in. Otherwise, you should be fine. It's 4 years old, so it doesn't have any of the new processors really great at turning out excess heat. If you want to play it safe, though, there is free software that can monitor the heat of your hard drive and tell you when it gets into the danger zone. The hard drive will fail before anything else does, so that should keep you in the clear. :) And if getting it fixed seems a bit scary, an inexpensive solution is a chill mat...a plastic back prop with a fan that improves air circulation. Most go for under twenty bucks.

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Originally Posted by cygnus

you guys know if a computer with two fans could operate well if one was completely knocked out? i wish computers had triple-double redundancy ;)

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Yeah, it should run ok as long as you don't use up too much of the CPU. You could also get a Targus Chill Mat or something for about 20 to 30 dollars. I have one and it works like a charm.

EDIT: Also, don't forget to back up your hard drive more often if you have the resources to do so.

Ooh, fun fact: if you experience catastrophic hard drive failure, try popping your laptop in the freezer. As long as the hard drive remains cold, you may be able to lift all the old files off of it before it passes beyond the point of no return. :)

Fans have bearings, and bearings wear out. Four years is plenty time to wear one out if it's ordinary sleeve bearings and you use the comp a great deal. As the fans bog down due to bearing seizure, the comp will run hotter and hotter, eventually either slowing itself down to run cooler, or shutting itself down entirely. Fan replacement can be tricky on laptops, often you have to take the thing almost completely apart to access the fans. And that's assuming you can find a suitable replacement... laptop fans tend to be proprietary, or at least a weird size/shape.

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Originally Posted by Mario92

If you want to play it safe, though, there is free software that can monitor the heat of your hard drive and tell you when it gets into the danger zone. The hard drive will fail before anything else does, so that should keep you in the clear. :) And if getting it fixed seems a bit scary, an inexpensive solution is a chill mat...a plastic back prop with a fan that improves air circulation. Most go for under twenty bucks.

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ah cool - thanks, mario. my mom convinced me to get the lappy checked out by a professional yesterday, and i dropped it off with a local tech guy. so hopefully that'll take care of the fan issue and general dustiness.

would you mind giving me a link to that software (for os 10.4)? that sounds useful.

also, i cut a block eraser in half to prop up the back of the lappy a bit to let some heat dissipate. i suppose that would help without requiring me to buy something.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id...rature-monitor

I think that should do it. :)

For general informativeness, if a fan is making noises it never made before that generally means there's something wrong. :P I've had my laptop for 6 years this December, never had the fan make any odd noises. Either way, I still believe that bit about bearings.

update: just got it back - the main problem was dust and some permissions stuff being corrupted. the fans are fine. i guess it sounded worse than it was. thanks for the replies, guys.

Good to hear. :)

When I stumbled across a thread about somebody's request to 'service my lappy' followed by recommendations of 'blowing it out', I didn't expect the rest of it to be so pedestrian...