Fan grinding noise

[frustratedconsu]

Several years ago I sent in my HP Notebook for repair after it started to make a loud grinding noise.  They replaced the fan.  This winter, it started making the same loud grinding noise, and with it out of warranty I just purchased a fan myself and replaced it.  This got rid of the noise.  Now less than three months after replacing it the grinding noise is back (usually a low burbling grinding noise, with occasional grinding noises so loud I can hear it in the next room). I opened it up and used compressed air to clear any dust or detritus. Is changing the fan doing anything?  Am I going to have to keep doing this every couple of months?

For the record, both of the first two times I had this problem I updated the drivers and did the recommended bios update. Neither changed anything.

Thanks.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@frustratedconsu 

I have several laptops that have lasted over 5 years and I have replaced the fans in all of them, the ones used more frequently, I have done this twice.

I would not expect a new fan to fail in only a few months -- but that depends entirely on the quality of the part you get, and you have no way of determining that in advance.  So my guess is that you inadvertently, through no fault of your own, got a shoddy after market fan and it is breaking down early.

Another possibility is that the processor in that laptop is running hotter, as it gets older, and the fan is running more, wearing it out sooner -- but if that was happening, you would be hearing the increased noise and probably would have mentioned that.

It's getting harder and harder to find reliable parts suppliers these days.  I had a charger fail for an HP laptop, ordered a new one using the HP part number, was assured it would be "HP genuine" -- and when I got it, it was clearly an aftermarket knock off of inferior quality. So, i sent it back.  It was not even the right model -- and the seller had the gaul to tell me that all their chargers would work with all the HP laptops!!