Noisy fan

[briand]

Just of late I've noticed that the fan on my laptop here is "hunting" i.e. sort of whooshing up and down.  It normally comes on now and then and then switches off.  Also the area around the fan seems relatively warm.  I've checked Windows Task manager and there are no suspicious processes running (CPU usage is generally low).  Is there anything obvious I can check - like blowing out fluff (how)?  I was prompted to ask about this as this morning, the machine suddenly shut down (turned right off).  I left it a couple of minutes and turned the power on again and everything seems OK.  It's done this before.  If it's relevant, the laptop is three and a half years old, and has performed brilliantly so far.

Many thanks.

[briand]

Sorry - pressed Post too soon.  I should have said that "...it's not done this before".

[Jon]

My first guess would be that it's accumulated dust inside. As far as getting it apart far enough to clean it, do you have a low-power vacuum (there are small battery-operated ones for cleaning small appliances)? If so, pull the power from the laptop (including the battery) and try vacuuming around the vents. Then remove the covers over the hard drive and memory compartments and see about vacuuming in there. If you feel really ambitious, here's a guide to disassembling the Satellite P105 (not tested).

[briand]

Thanks Jon.  I gave the vents a jolly good blow and the problem seems to have gone away - though I don't have the courage to open up and get inside.  The fan activity now seems to be more correlated with HD activity, which I guess is normal.

[Jon]

Yep. Could be dealing with the drive motor's heat, or could be drive activity associated with CPU activity and the CPU getting warm.

[briand]

Just to put this to bed, I remembered I had in the workshop a can of compressed (?) air 'Air Duster' it says on the tin - and used this to blow into all the vents and crevaces.  I then used the nozzle of the household vacuum cleaner up real close to the vents.  Since then the machine (fan) has been quiet as a mouse and the keyboard and surrounds almost cool by comparison.

Many thanks again.