Recently my laptop cooling fan has started this thing where it makes a sound much like if a CPU fan was rubbing up against a wire, which worries me. I am not sure how serious it is or what I should do about it but it is starting to make me nuts. I think the fan is running more than it used to but I really don't know as I wasn't able to hear it in the past! I guess my options are to either take my laptop in and have it looked at or (if I am brave) open it up myself. I know that taking it in will cost 80 dollars for an overall checkup and thne they will credit that towards anything that needs to be done. What should I do? I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro M15-S405. Has anyone taken one of these apart before? I just don't know how serious this is.

Something is loose in the computer or the fans bearings are bad and thats making the blades hit something. Take it to a repairman. Laptops can be difficult to take apart and if you make a mistake the repair bill can be big.

Sorry to bump up such n old thread, but after all the googling in the world, this is the only relevant thing i could find. My laptop has been making the noises described above for some time now, and recently, it started giving me this message:

Warning: A problem with the cooling system has been detected. Please turn off the computer immediately, and return it for service.

When that message pops up, the processor slows down by 25% and everything works so ridiculously slowly that I can barely get anything done. Then, ever six seconds or so, it seems like the fan tries to spin but can't, gives up after a few seconds and tries again.

When the problem first started happening, tilting the laptop helped with the noise for a brief period. Now, the only thing I can do is blow into the fan to get it 'moving' again (or at least seem to move). I really don't want to take this thing in for service. Is there anything I can do to fix this myself?

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

As Vegasgmc said in his post, laptops can be difficult to open and work on unlike pc`s.

If you are detemined to do the job yourself then look HERE for laptop spares.

Obviously you need a new cpu fan.

Regards Howard

too many guys attempt to repair thier laptops and end up destroying them. not only are you probably going to need special tools but if you're not familiar with the layout and procedures thing will turn out really bad. take it to a local PC repair shop unless toshiba still covers it with a warranty.

if you do channge out the fan yourself it had better be EXACTLY the same as the fan before it (but working of course ) on account of elecrtical and space considerations.