The fan in my computer broke.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Yeah, see above. This morning it just stopped working. I've been clearing it out with that canned air thing, but no dice.

Right now, I only have three options: Get a cooling mat, repair the fan, or get a new computer.

I can't get a new computer until next year. How much is it to repair the fan?

[PJ the Epic]

Well, if you don't mind the utterly cheap route, cut your fan from the computer, strip the wires, and electrical tap the wires to a nine-volt battery. Then tape the fan back on. Also, is it a laptop or a CPU?

[CoffeeIncluded]

Well, if you don't mind the utterly cheap route, cut your fan from the computer, strip the wires, and electrical tap the wires to a nine-volt battery. Then tape the fan back on. Also, is it a laptop or a CPU?

It's a laptop. If I use the cooling mat, how long will I be able to last with it? I only need this laptop for a few more months; I'm going to college next year and my parents have promised me a new laptop then. And I'm going to need an external hard drive, but I digress.

[PJ the Epic]

Well, my Omnibook 4150 has lasted pretty long with one so far. Then again, I do run Arch Linux on it which doesn't make the poor thing's processor work so hard.

[IonDragon]

Absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, get it replaced by a professional or be prepared to get a new computer. In the meantime, don't play games, or do anything that will make the computer work. Run a tempature monitoring program so you know before it is going to overheat. Use it as little as possible and when it gets hot put it in SLEEP MODE (don't shut it down, because turning on works the computer tons).

[BritishBill]

yea i wouldnt over work it too much. Especially a laptop it will heat up super quick.

[The Succubus]

I blame that comic strip of yours. The racy action between Lucrid and Saphrin in the recent strips got your computer over-excited.

[Brewdude]

Yeah, you can try and find the correct part yourself, most likely on ebay, or you can suck it up and pay the piper his 125 for fixing your laptop plus his 75 bucks for finding the exact right part on ebay himself and installing it.

Alternatively you can pay the laptop manufacturer to repair it directly, but that usually involves sending it in.

Laptop fans sux0r to replace.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Okay, I'm (Hopefully) going to get it fixed tomorrow morning. In about an hour, I'll (hopefully) go to Staples and get one of those cooling pads. It'll hold me over and I'm gonna end up using it in college anyway, so it's no waste.

And it's around 200 dollars? Okay, that's still in the "Worth it, let's not buy another laptop range." I want to keep this laptop until college, plus I want it as an emergency backup.

[Brewdude]

it's not that fixing the fan is hard...all you need is some screwdrivers. It's finding the exact correct part.

[thubby]

im googling laptop fans and seeing them come up at 50$ at the high end...

i don't know laptops terribly well but 200 seems excessive.

[KuReshtin]

What's the make and model of the laptop?
If you have that information, you can get the correct part through a google search.
As has been said, it's a bad idea to run a laptop without a working fan, even if you do have a cooling pad. The cooling pads aren't meant to replace the system fan, they're meant to complement them.

Replacing a fan in a laptop can get a bit fiddly depending on the make of laptop, which is why most manufacturers don't allow customers to replace them themselves without voiding the warranty.

[dehro]

went to a computer shop..one of those retail chains...they suggested high prices to repair my laptop when my cooling fan broke. lucky break was to notice they also had cooling mats for sale. spent 20 pound and have been using it ever since. it sucks a lot of juice from your battery, but if you're using your laptop mostly at home like I do, you should be just fine. I'm told it's marginally less effective than the internal fan, especially in the summer heat..but on balance, I'm quite happy with it.

[IonDragon]

went to a computer shop..one of those retail chains...they suggested high prices to repair my laptop when my cooling fan broke. lucky break was to notice they also had cooling mats for sale. spent 20 pound and have been using it ever since. it sucks a lot of juice from your battery, but if you're using your laptop mostly at home like I do, you should be just fine. I'm told it's marginally less effective than the internal fan, especially in the summer heat..but on balance, I'm quite happy with it.

Yeah, but if you're using a cooling fan instead of the internal fan it doesn't run enough air over the heat sink grill to adequately cool the GPU and processor if you're doing anything intensive. My computer (currently a quite cheap one) actually gets hot enough to burn my lap if I'm playing a game for a prolonged period of time without the external cooling fan.

[dehro]

Yeah, but if you're using a cooling fan instead of the internal fan it doesn't run enough air over the heat sink grill to adequately cool the GPU and processor if you're doing anything intensive. My computer (currently a quite cheap one) actually gets hot enough to burn my lap if I'm playing a game for a prolonged period of time without the external cooling fan.
I'm not sure I understand your objection.

"Yeah, but if you're using a cooling fan instead of the internal fan it doesn't run enough air over the heat sink grill to adequately cool the GPU and processor if you're doing anything intensive."
here you're saying that a cooling mat isn't enough

My computer (currently a quite cheap one) actually gets hot enough to burn my lap if I'm playing a game for a prolonged period of time without the external cooling fan.
here you're saying that an internal fan is not enough
:smallconfused::smallconfused:what gives?

incidentally, before my internal fan kicked the bucket I had the same problem of burning laps, lol...to my knowledge it's quite a common thin. now that I use the cooling mat (and that alone, as the internal fan is very much dead), that doesn't happen and the laptop seems to be cool enough to support my various activities
it would probably be better if I had both internal fan and cooling mat, but that would defeat the purpose of me buying a cooling mat to begin with.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Okay, I'm using my dad's computer right now. Here's how it stands:

IF I'M LUCKY: Something got stuck in the fan or a screw came loose or something, they'll be able to fix it easily, and I'll have my computer back by tomorrow or Monday.

IF I'M UNLUCKY: They have to order a new part and I won't get the computer fixed until Saturday evening. Next week.

IF MURPHY'S LAW APPLIES TO MY LIFE YET AGAIN: THAT won't work, I'll have to get a new computer, and I won't be able to update for about a week and a half or even 2 weeks.

[Jimorian]

I'm not sure I understand your objection.

"Yeah, but if you're using a cooling fan instead of the internal fan it doesn't run enough air over the heat sink grill to adequately cool the GPU and processor if you're doing anything intensive."
here you're saying that a cooling mat isn't enough

My computer (currently a quite cheap one) actually gets hot enough to burn my lap if I'm playing a game for a prolonged period of time without the external cooling fan.
here you're saying that an internal fan is not enough
:smallconfused::smallconfused:what gives?

It actually makes sense. The overall amount of heat generated is going to be the same just because of how much energy is run through the system, and that can be enough to be uncomfortable if it's sitting on your lap, let's call this 50 degrees C. The heat that gets to the bottom of the laptop gets there by slowly radiated from all the internal parts combined.

What the internal fan does is keep air flow moving over very specific and sensitive parts, namely the CPU. With this fan, we're talking perhaps 60C. Without the fan, we're talking 75C or 80C. While the heat going out the vent from the CPU fan does help with the bottom of the laptop some, it won't be noticable overall, because that heat is more likely generated by the power converter and other parts.

A cooling mat alone can suck away enough heat on its own to keep the CPU in operating temperature range, but it's still probably dangerously high and this will shorten the life of the computer. It really is a bad idea to run any computer without a proper internal fan.

[dehro]

It actually makes sense. The overall amount of heat generated is going to be the same just because of how much energy is run through the system, and that can be enough to be uncomfortable if it's sitting on your lap, let's call this 50 degrees C. The heat that gets to the bottom of the laptop gets there by slowly radiated from all the internal parts combined.

What the internal fan does is keep air flow moving over very specific and sensitive parts, namely the CPU. With this fan, we're talking perhaps 60C. Without the fan, we're talking 75C or 80C. While the heat going out the vent from the CPU fan does help with the bottom of the laptop some, it won't be noticable overall, because that heat is more likely generated by the power converter and other parts.

A cooling mat alone can suck away enough heat on its own to keep the CPU in operating temperature range, but it's still probably dangerously high and this will shorten the life of the computer. It really is a bad idea to run any computer without a proper internal fan.

I see..much clearer now :smallsmile:

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

Coffee, I'd try and look up online somewhere how to replace the fan yourself, and see if you think you can handle doing that. If you determine you can handle the repair yourself, find out the part you need and go look on ebay or another computer shop site and buy it. On my last laptop, I had a hinge that broke, and the low estimate for the repair from somewhere was $200. I said the heck with that, looked up the info to do it myself, and bought the parts I needed for all of $30. But then it died on my and I never did fix it. But when I looked online, I found it was a rather easy thing to go and fix. Yeah you might spend an hour or two doing the repair depending on how labor intense it is, but that probably far outweighs the cost of having someone fix it for you.

[Mystic Muse]

IF MURPHY'S LAW APPLIES TO MY LIFE YET AGAIN:

waitwaitwaitwait.


D&D IS REAL!?!?!?!:eek:

In all seriousness, I hope things work out well for you.:smallsmile: