Toshiba Satellite A15 has a loud fan. Can I tighten the fan?
I own a Toshiba A15 Satellite laptop, and I have owned it for about two years. For the past couple of months every time the laptop is on the fan becomes annoyingly loud like it is loose or something, I was curious on how do I tighten the fan; I use this computer everyday, and it is painstakingly annoying. Any help would be appreciated.
If the cooling fan starts making a grinding sound, then it’s time to replace it. You cannot fix it just by tightening the fan. With Toshiba Satellite A15 it’s very easy to replace the fan yourself. You can replace it in 5 minutes. You can easily access and replace the CPU fan from the bottom of your laptop, here are some pictures. You can find a new fan of ebay for $40-$45. Search for “Toshiba Satellite A15 fan”.
January 20th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Thanks to Ian for the comment about cleaning the fan. It works like a charm!
My fan was very loud and very annoying, but I was hesitant about paying $50+ for a new fan. I didn’t even think to clean it.
It’s very simple to remove and clean the cooling fan from a Satellite A15. For those of you who haven’t done much technical work like this, here are the details.
1. Unplug the laptop and remove the battery
2. Close the laptop and turn it so the underside is facing up.
3. Three screws hold in a cover for the fan/heat sink. Remove the screws, making sure to mark the position of the longer screw.
4. The fan is held in by two screws, remove them and unplug the fan.
5. With a pair of “tech tweezers” (pointed ends, not flat ends), gently pry open the metallic cover of the fan and remove it
6. The fan blades will slip off of the spindle. Clean the spindle with electronics cleaner (nothing that leaves a residue) .
7. Gently clean the blades with a moist q-tip
8. Add a small bit of light lubricant to the spindle. I used graphite.
9. Replace the fan on the spindle and reinstall cover, bending the metal tabs back into place
10. Plug in the fan and reinstall
11. Replace fan/heat sink cover and reinstall
12. Enjoy the once-again quiet operation of your laptop!
January 9th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Banfffall,
If the cooling fan is noisy, you should replace it. I cannot hear the noise so I cannot tell if it’s coming from the fan, you’ll have to figure out yourself. Make sure the noise is not coming from the hard drive. It’s relatively easy to access fans on this model. You turn the laptop over, remove the battery, remove all cards (wireless, memory), remove all screws from the bottom and carefully lift up the bottom cover. You’ll see the cooling fan as soon as you remove the bottom cover from the laptop.
January 9th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
David,
Find a power management utility in the control panel and check if you can change the laptop performance in there. I believe you can set some laptops for a high performance (cooling fan starts more often and rotates faster) or you set them into low performance mode (quieter). I saw these settings on a Toshiba Satellite A75 notebook. I’m not sure if you have these settings for your laptop.
January 9th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Dear Laptopfreak,
I have a toshiba tecra M4 (a tablet) and recently it suddenly started making this annoying noise that comes from what seems like the fan. The loudness of the noise changes randomly and it’s really weird. Is this a problem with the fan and how do I solve it?
Thanks a lot
January 9th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Hey, when I bought my brand new laptop, it makes this loud fan noise. I have noticed this with other laptops, but I figured it just was never going to get quiet. It’s like when I start something up, the fan make a huge noise, and then settles down for awhile. Because it has done that with 2 laptops I have had, I’m guessing it can’t be fixed. Did I make a good conclusion, or is there actually a way to quiet down the noise? Thank you in advance.
January 3rd, 2007 at 7:58 pm
have a question how do you get the screen from shaking do i have to replace the motherboard or soundcard?
December 27th, 2006 at 11:12 pm
Since I am economy minded, I took the fan apart (easy to do) and cleaned the bearing assembly then used two drops of Boeshield T-9 chain oil. Problem solved, time 15 minutes, cost… $0.00. I have been running my satellite with the original fan for 3 years now, using this procedure to clean and lube it.
December 27th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
jjmai,
Nope, it should be quite. It’s pretty easy to replace the cooling fan for a Satellite A15 laptop, just remove the heatsink cover on the bottom of the laptop as it show on the steps 2 and 3. You can find a new fan if you search by the part number: P000377310
December 27th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
Michael,
Toshiba Portege M200 has 2 cooling fans inside – CPU fan and VGA fan. In order to replace fans, you’ll have to remove the laptop bottom cover. The VGA fan is attached to the bottom cover, you can see the fan connector on the step 10. The CPU fan is attached to the system board and is pictured on the step 15. It’s not necessary to remove the keyboard, you just have to remove the laptop bottom cover, follow steps 1, 3, 12, 11, 12. You can find new fans online if you search by the part number: VGA fan – P000388600, CPU fan – P000388599. I gave you part numbers for both fans because I’m not sure which one is making noise, most likely the CPU fan.
December 27th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
Clerk,
I cannot tell you if the noise you have is normal or not because I cannot hear it. I haven’t worked on Tecra A7 units yet but I believe it’s something similar to Satellite A105. I own Toshiba Satellite A105 and it’s pretty quiet even when it’s loaded heavily. If the fan in your laptop is unusually loud, probably you have a defective fan. Your laptop still should be covered by Toshiba warranty so you don’t have to repair it yourself.
By the way, listen in the hard drive area. It’s possible that the noise you hear coming from the hard drive, not from the fan. If that’s the case, backup all personal data as soon as possible because you might have a faulty hard drive and it can stop working any minute. After that replace the hard drive and reimage it.
December 27th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
I have an old Toshiba Satellite A15-S129, the fan works alright, but it makes a loud winding-down sound as it stops/slows down periodicly (which seems like part of normal operation). It does not make such sound as the fan starts up. I’ve also cleaned the heatsink and used a new hard drive. Is it supposed to make that winding sound? Is it possible to keep the fan on all the time? Thanx in advance.
December 26th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
I notice my laptop fan is also making a grinding noise. I presume that this means that it will need to be replaced. Any ideas on where I can get a Toshiba Portege M200 cooling fan and how hard it is to replace it?
December 25th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Hi,
I bought my first laptop 5 months ago, its Toshiba Tecra A7. whenever i run my laptop, the fan starts to function quitely but after a while it becomes a little bit noisy. ( noiser than most laptops which i have ever seen). what seems to be the problem, i mean is this normal? . Most of the time i dont run heavy applications just browsing, word , excel,…
does cpu speed has something to do with fan cooling speed and thus noise? my laptop is 2.0 GHz daul core.
do i need to replace the fan or bare the noise?
Thanks for your help.
December 16th, 2006 at 9:44 am
I have a similar problem with my Hewlett-Packard compaq nx5000 laptop, and by “similar” I mean “it also makes a grinding noise.”
This laptop is about three years old. It’s been in for repairs multiple times, for everything from a dead LCD backlight to a destroyed keyboard (which, by the way, was my father’s fault; HE’S the one that sprayed it down with water). In fact, it just recently got back because of the keyboard.
So anyway, about a week ago, I was sitting on my laptop browsing the internet when I noticed it started making this loud grinding noise. Then the computer froze up. So, I popped out the battery, let it sit for a minute, and then put the battery back in and turned it on again. It started up without problems. Then, later on while I was using it that same night, it flashed this blue screen of death at me. I saw something about the kernel and memory dump, and then it turned off. When I went to turn it on again, the grinding noise was back and it wouldn’t start up, it would just say “Non-system disk or disk error.”
This comment (and possible solution) has been published here: My laptop makes a loud grinding noise
December 15th, 2006 at 4:34 am
Thanks Laptop Freak!
December 14th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Beth,
You can remove the hard drive and start the laptop without the hard drive. If the noise is still there, then most likely the hard drive is fine and you’ll have to replace the fan.
December 13th, 2006 at 2:22 am
Reading this page with interest as my laptop is crazy loud, I have a Toshiba Sattelite Pro A10 and I’m pretty sure its the fan that’s noisy but how can I check it’s not the hardrive?
Many thanks, Beth
December 8th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Hi. I have a Satellite Pro M15-s406 and the fan started to make a lot of noise, indicating that probably I need to replace it. 2 things please:
1. fan part number
2. wether or not I need to take apart whole laptop. When looking at your guide (http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/Toshiba-Satellite-Pro-M10/replace-laptop-motherboard.htm), it seems that way.
Thank you for your advise,
Regards,
December 1st, 2006 at 10:38 pm
Got the fan for the M15-405, followed the disassembly instructions on irisvista, and after working about two hours, I had everything back together. Paid about $50 total with shipping included. The new fan seems to be working perfectly, and its as silent as a mouse. Wonderful! Now I can actually do some digital recording without the microphone picking up the fan noise.
Thanks again!
November 30th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Jon-E,
First of all make sure that this sound is not coming from the hard drive. If it does, replace the hard drive as soon as possible.
Here’s a guide that shows how to access the cooling fan, just in case if you decide to fix the laptop yourself. You can remove the keyboard and check if there is something loose inside the laptop. If you need a new fan, you can find a replacement by the part number: V000042110
November 29th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Laptop Freak,
I have had a Toshiba Satellite A60 for two years now. The fan makes a ricketty noise. I tried cleaning it but that didn’t help. When I tilt the laptop in certain directions the ricketting stops but starts up again as soon as it is level. I’m figuring something is loose but wanted your opinion first. What could it be?
November 20th, 2006 at 11:47 pm
Jaime Ross,
Here’s a disassembly guide I’ve created for taking apart Toshiba Satellite M35. The cooling fan is located deep inside the laptop and you have to remove the top cover in order to replace the fan. Follow steps 1-17 to access the fan.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
i have toshiba M35 and the fan suddenly started to make a much louder than usual noise. how do i access the fan to replace it – or tighten it..
November 18th, 2006 at 6:24 am
Thank you for the quick response and the expertise. Heatsink was totally clogged, now runs with virutally no heat buildup.Hasn’t run this cool since I took it out the box almost 3 years ago. Also thanks to your site, I can field strip and reassemble my laptop. Again, many thanks. Walt
November 16th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Chris,
You can find the cooling fan for your Satellite Pro M15 laptop if you search by the part number: P000370160. Google for it and find the best price. Sparepartswarehouse sells it for $34.
November 16th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Hi,
Can someone tell me what the part number is for my cooling fan, or where to buy replacement? This is a Toshiba Satellite Pro M15-405. I know the maddening noise that I now hear is the fan and not the hard drive because I’ve already replaced the hard drive, and its super silent. I saw the irisvista page on replacing this fan, and I know it looks like a lot of work, but I think i’m up to the task.
cheers
November 14th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Walt,
This laptop has 2 fans. The small one you can see on the step 20 and the main one is located under the motherboard. You still have to remove the motherboard from the base in order to access and replace the main fan.
Buy a can of compressed air, remove the heatsink cover as it shown on the step 4 and blow off the heatsink and fan with compressed air. It might be not necessary to remove the heatsink from the CPU. Overheating is a common issue with this model.
November 14th, 2006 at 4:47 am
Have Sat A45-S150 and recently noticed change in fan sound(don’t hear second fan kick in occasionally)and bottom of laptop might be getting hotter, or perhaps imagination? On your instructions for disassembly for this unit, is it all the way in step 20 that I can access the fan by the cpu? The bottom fan is still running. Just trying to do some PM instead of having it die and really start overheating. Any thought appreciated before I carry on.
November 13th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
Chris,
I don’t know. Are you sure that the noise is coming from the fan and not from the hard drive? It’s very easy access the fan in a Toshiba Tecra S1 laptop, here’s a disassembly guide (www.irisvista.com) I’ve created for this model. Look at the step 3 for the heatsink assembly removal instructions. Remove the heatsink cover from the botoom of the laptop and make sure if the noise is coming from the fan. If it does, replace the fan. I’m not sure if you can buy the fan separately from the heatsink, I think you’ll have to replace the entire assembly (heatsink+fan). Here’s a part number for the Tecra S1 heatsink assembly: V000020970. Google for the part number and you’ll find it. When you replace the heatsink assembly do not forget to apply new thermal grease on the CPU, you can buy the grease in any local computer store.
November 12th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Hi, i have almost the exact smae problem with my toshiba Tecra S1 laptop.. it just makes a grinding sound like its scraping on something.. do u think i need to replace the fan as well? (or am I even able to replace the fan on the Tecra S1 series?)
thanks