My laptop started making a loud grinding noise
My laptop makes a loud grinding noise, it’s HP Compaq nx5000.
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.”
I let it sit for about three days over the weekend, and then come Monday I turned it on without problems. Then after a while it made the grinding noise again, so I had to pull the battery out again.
So now, it periodically makes the grinding noise when I’m using it, and it will freeze up. When I turn the laptop on and it’s not making the grinding noise right away, the fan IS spinning and I can hear it running and everything is normal. Usually the fan is spinning when I pull the battery out because of the grinding noise, too. I notice that everytime it makes the grinding noise, the laptop is hot when I turn it off. Sometimes letting the laptop cool off will fix it, and sometimes it won’t. Usually, if it persists in making the grinding noise, letting it sit overnight will fix it.
So I’m not sure if it’s the fan or not. I’ve noticed that tiliting the laptop will sometimes stop the grinding noise, but then it will come back and won’t stop no matter which way I move the laptop. When I listen it sounds like it’s NOT coming from the fan, but I could be wrong.
Any ideas about why my laptop sounds like it’s trying to eat its hard drive?
Here are some important moments you mentioned in the post above:
1. laptop started making this loud grinding noise
2. computer freezes up
3. laptop flashed this blue screen of death at me
4. “Non-system disk or disk error” on startup
I’m 99% positive that you have a failing hard drive. Back it up as soon as possible while you can access it, because the hard drive might fail any time now. Data recovery is very expensive, transfer data yourself while you can. After that replace the hard drive and reimage the drive using a set of recovery CDs or DVD you got from HP.
Do you need spare parts for your laptop? Search here by the laptop model and part description.
January 11th, 2010 at 10:49 am
I’m having a similar problem…
My SONY VAIO VGN-CS310D sometimes creates this grinding noise near the fan area. It’s around 6 months old and the sound appears sometimes.
I don’t experience any other computer shut down problems or breakdowns.
December 14th, 2009 at 4:49 am
My laptop Dell inspiron is making noise on left side, if facing to type.
some days its make grinding sound all day long, and even if its on screen saver. some times its stops for a few hours
and start again.
but it doesn’t effect performers, all my data backed up.
and it`s happens a year ago too and noise just stops, but now few days ago noise starts again and stops and starts. its kinda annoys me
but i didn’t do any thing about.
some body can tell me please whats happening??
December 12th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
okay so im having the same problem & i stuck a bobby pin inside & the noise is GONE! but i wanna no what will happen if i dont take it out?
December 4th, 2009 at 7:55 am
I seem to be having a bit of the same problem. but mine dosent shut down. it hasent been awhile but then like 5 min ago it happened. I’m sitting here and the fan starts grinding. if I beat on it [which I know is not good] after a while it goes away. it seems like its hitting something. I hope its not broken. any way to fix it cheap?
November 15th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Sunny,
Listen for the sounds coming from the hard drive. Does it make strange noises (grinding, clicking, etc…) when the laptop freezes? If it does, most likely the laptop freezes because the hard drive is failing.
Can you fix it yourself? Yes, if you known how to replace the hard drive and reinstall the operating system.
November 15th, 2009 at 7:21 am
I have a macbook pro, it’s about a year and a half old, and starting maybe… 8 months ago it started making that loud grinding noise that people talk about. I haven’t done anything about it because it doesn’t seem to effect performance and I didn’t have the money to shell out on fixing it, but lately it has been freezing up now and then.. about 3-4 times in the past couple of weeks. Can I fix this myself or should I send it in to someone?
November 13th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Jeff,
It’s hard to tell what’s going on. If the laptop works fine and doesn’t shut down, probably there is nothing wrong with the fan.
I know that on some Dell laptops you can adjust the fan speed using a keyboard shortcut (Fn+Z). I’m not sure if you can do the same with Acer laptops.
Also, on some Toshiba laptops you can adjust the CPU performance in the power management software. If you set the CPU performance to maximum, the cooling fan starts working harder all the time. Maybe you have similar software installed on your laptop?
Also, check the BIOS settings. It’s possible that you can set the CPU performance in there. Instead of maximum, select auto. The CPU speed will increase when needed.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Bateman,
Buy a can of compressed air and spray it inside the air intake on the bottom. This will remove most dust from the heat sink. Test the laptop again.
By the way, I don’t really trust all these cooling pads and here’s why.
In most laptops, the cooling fan sucks air from the bottom and blows it through the grill on the side.
Some cooling pads (maybe all) suck air away from the laptop, thus kinda canceling the fan inside the laptop.
Do you understand what I’m taking about?
Fans inside the laptop and cooling pad work in opposite direction canceling each other.
Clean the heat sink and test your laptop without cooling pad.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Hey, I have a problem with my Acer Aspire 5920. The fan is really loud, as if it’s in high power. I was told that the fan kicks into high power if the cpu is overheating, but it isn’t. I cleaned the fan several times to no avail. It starts acting up as soon as windows starts up and remains on high power until I turn off my laptop. Is this a problem with the fan / heatsink? Should I remove it and clean it more throughly or replace it altogether?
November 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I have hp laptop and it keeps crashing for no apparent reason. The fan always get going loud and fast then it crashes just siting on a desk. I figure it has to do with over heating but it dosent seem to be hot on the bottom. it will not resart with out leting it sit for a while. fan seems to be working and still crashes when using a cooling pad. PLEASE HELP!
October 9th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Hi, My laptop is Sony Vaio and it’s new (about 4 months old) and it was working perfectly fine, from a few weeks it started to make a very loud noise every time I use it even if I don’t open a game or a program and even if it’s charged. now it makes that noise sometimes and sometimes it makes low noise and sometimes it’s really quiet. Also whenever it’s on the standby mode and I open it again it has to delete the restoration data and restart again! Is it a hard drive problem?
thx
September 10th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
mine too, all the time grinding and spinning and sounds like a motorcycle. Have tried everything including cleaning all fans.
Don’t want to re-format, Needs a good tweak. Got any??
August 29th, 2009 at 4:08 am
Well sitting on your laptop is a sure way to break it, they aren’t designed to hold that much weight!
on a serious note, it is probably a fan problem. if your comfortable disassembling, take off the keyboard and look at the fan. the connecting wire may just be loose and getting hit by the fan. if so just use some electrical tape to hold it taut and out of the way.
otherwise you will need to replace the fan, look up your laptop model to find out which one to get, they are cheap on EBay like $20 or so.
June 28th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
hey guys, I’ve been using ASUS F2J for 2 years now. and I just realized that when it comes to pretty heavy task like gaming, my laptop makes a bit noise. But then noise will disappeared when I close the program and not run anything. Is my laptop ok? thanks a lot!
May 16th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
I seem to have the same problem…though i know about the problem i tried to find out more on net cause i dont feel like openin the machine on my own cause there is a damaged screw(i gave it to service center before so i think then it might have been damaged by those asses).
HDD isnt the problem. You by chance had the blue screen along with the soung fan problem;maybe cause you opened the battery without proper shutdown. As far as i know the problem may be because of some thing that has become loose and it stickin to the side of the fan…this is usual problem for old laptops…my friend had the same probl though i was not touch with him to know how he got it fixd…Also a lot of dust sticks on the fan and it starts to slow down in rpm and also begin to sound more and more(generally seen in desktop PCs.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Hi, your problem is with you hard disk. That is the reason for the grinding noise. Seems the spindle of the Hard disk for some reason have damaged and it have damaged the disk. As, you said it is not booting up to the system. Please try change a hard disk and install new OS, this would solve problem.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I have this EXACT same condition with my compaq nx5000. Everything the initial poster said was like I wrote it. Noticed grinding noise, affected by tilting it, then it froze, let it sit, fine for awhile, froze some more, blue screen w/ kernel mem dump message, EVERYTHING. I am SOOOO grateful that your hear LTF.
You saved me alot of troubleshooting time. Keep up the good work
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:15 pm
my laptop also makes this noise all the time, usually when I play games and the computer freezes up. I tilt it and it stops for a second and then continues the laptop is getting on my nerves
February 14th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Laptop Freak thank you so much, and I think it’s a Bad cooling fan.
do you know how to fix it ?
February 14th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Laptop Freak thank you so much, and I think it’s a Bad cooling fan.
do you know how to fix it ?
February 11th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I have a Dell Vostro 1710. It is brand new (I just got it for Christmas) and it makes grinding noises a lot. A lot of times when I put it into sleep mode it won’t come out. I don’t think that it is even trying. The light for num lock is on but the light that is the cylinder that means that it is working doesn’t even blink or anything like that. I’m running Windows Vista Home Basic (with Service Pack 1). Here is some more information: Processor: Intel(R) Core (TM)2 Duo CPU T8100 @ 2.10GHz, Memory (RAM): 3.00 GB, System type: 32-bit Operating System
February 9th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Haya,
1. Bad cooling fan.
2. Failing hard drive.
You’ll have to listen very closely to find out which one is making noise.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Hi ,
I’m having the same problem
my Toshiba labtop suddenly is making a loud noise
from the left side I think. So what kind of problem I’m haveing and how can I fix it.
Thank you
February 2nd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Sounds like the fan problem I just encountered. Here’s what I did.
The fan started making a grinding noise, like fan blades hitting the enclosure or possibly the bearings. From past experience the fan has proved to be an important piece of apparatus for cooling and maintaining the longevity of my microprocessors so I decided to repair the problem.
The fan on a Compaq Presario V2555US Notebook computer is visible through the grill work in the bottom. First I tried blowing compressed air into the vents. It didn’t work. I figured I’d have to remove the fan. The base of the V2555 is held on by a dozen or more screws. It’s important that if you remove any of the screws that they be refitted back into the same opening as the length may be critical for clearance of fragile circuit board or semiconductor parts. I didn’t want to find out so I numbered all the screws and openings in a diagram placing removed screws in their appropriate ice tray container, labeled.
All the screws that needed removing were visible, except one under the hard drive, plus the five screws in the battery trough. The hard drive also had to be removed in order for the plastic base of the V2555 to come off. There are two metal snap clips that require forcing to pop the hard drive base up before it can be tilted away from the connectors.
The most frustrating was a snap clip located by the main latch button, almost in the center of the front console of the notebook. With careful prying, after all the screws are removed or loosened, you’ll notice where the base is restrained. You need to apply the right amount of force pushing the freed base towards the rear of the notebook. As a note of caution, it’s a good idea to make sure your plastic has reached room temperature before prying or bending it. Cold plastic breaks.
I also removed the CD drive. I don’t know if it’s necessary, but it’s very easy to do, removing one screw, marked with a circle and a dot molded into the plastic base and then applying gentle pressure the to face plate of the CD drive. The process is well documented online.
You can remove the memory and I believe the video card, but I didn’t find it necessary to access the fan. Instead I loosened the video card wiring and just twisted the base to gain access to the fan. It appears the right way to do it is to removed the video card and slip it through the opening in the base for full removal. It would be a good idea to note the position of the wire and how it lays in order for the ram cover to fit back on snug.
The fan has four base mount screws, smaller than any other screws. One is stainless steal and three are annealed black. Once again a diagram would be a good idea and label the screws. I also noted a wire harness running under one of the front screw mounts in front of the screw mount.
For my repair it wasn’t really necessary to remove the fan. The reason I removed it was to inspect it and make sure it wasn’t rubbing agains the housing. Also removing it allowed for a more thorough cleaning as some dust, caught by the stickum on some of the tape, had restricted an air way. The grinding noise might have been the enclosure, but I surmised it was the bearings starting to go so I decided to use some grease.
Greasing the bearing requires peeling back the black tape covering the fan bearing. I only peeled it back far enough to gain access to the bearing with a toothpick dabbed with wheel bearing grease. It doesn’t take much and avoid getting it anywhere the tape will have to be restuck. There’s probably a better type of grease for this, but all I had was whell bearing grease. It will probably require reapplication periodically based on past experience with desk top fans I’ve had running for several years using wheel bearing grease.
Once the grease was applied I turned the notebook over and ran it for about an hour (after reassembly). Gravity has to work and the tape is on the bottom of the bearing so it’ll have to warm up a little and melt down into the bearing. Since the fan only runs intermittently on this notebook, it required checking periodically to make sure the computer didn’t freeze up which would indicate an over heated cpu – something to avoid. I kept feeling for heat and checking to make sure the mouse moved in order to judge if the fan repair was taking. The first three or four times the fan ran the grinding noise was apparent, but went away after probably four or five runs. The fan never seems to run more than fifteen or twenty seconds at a time and only a few times an hour.
image showing fan
http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/7296.jpg
January 26th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
hello my problem was the same as the guy from the top, I got it right what can I do to it, so it doesn’t happan again?
October 27th, 2008 at 12:44 am
The hard drive has got to have constant power. If your battery is having a bad connection when you move it or if your depending on your ac adapter the hard drive needs uninterrupitable source of power or it will crash. We are talking milli secs the screen will stay on but if the hard loses power you will have error messages of all kinds. check the contacts on your batt and on the underneath of the laptop for a film on the contacts or if using ac adapter make sure it has good contact inside the machine. The cooling fan heat sink tends to collect dust and this will cause the fan to become noiser than normal. It is extremely important if you open it up not to discharge static eletricity into the machine. THe IC’s are extremely sensitive to this and it will damage them permantly. I have experience with desktop pc and you would ground your self to the case but since laptop are plastic i am unsure on a good way to do this.