Pavilion DV4 Fan running constantly

[TonyA11]

My fan is constantly running, very noisily. Have tried to blow out vents with compressed air - with no result. HP advise updating BIOS but it appears my model is no longer supported.

[Huffer]

It likely needs to be disassembled and clean out around the CPU and reapply thermal paste. 

[TonyA11]

Thanks Huffer. Is this something I should be able to do myself at home?

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

I do not know your level of expertise but if you are comfortable with a screwdriver and following instructions you should be OK. Its a pretty substantial teardown. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m66CPzcFaK0

At about 4:10 into this it shows removing the heatsink. Do that and make sure the cooling fins are cleaned out of dust (compressed air is good) and you do not need to remove the cpu but put new arctic silver or similar thermal paste on the cpu core after cleaing everything and reassemble. This tech in my mind should not just put that cpu back in the slot and bolt the heatsink back on he should have cleaned off the old paste and applied new but at least you can see the steps here. 

Post back if you need any more help. 

[TonyA11]

Thanks for the video! I shall give it a try. Hopefully I won't leave any wires unplugged or have any screws left over. I'll let you know if this fixes the problem. (I won't accept this as a solution just yet.)

[Huffer]

Well good luck but this is the solution whether you can implement it is up to you not me. Enjoy. 

[TonyA11]

Okay then. You are the expert after all. 'Accepted'! (I'll still let you know how I go.)

[Huffer]

Please do. If this does not work there is some other problem that likely cannot be solved.