Skip to main content
Super User

Return to Question

Question Protected by Giacomo1968
Updated to include my solution.
Source Link
John
John
  • 13
  • 1
  • 4

I have an HP G60 Laptop. It's an old laptop that I got around 2010. It has a Pentium dual-core cpu (2.00 GHz), and 3 GB of memory. It was Windows 7

I resurrected this laptop mid-last year after my other laptop got stolen. Since turning it on again, it made this unbelievably loud whining sound which reminded me of an airplane taking off. Right away I tried blowing some compressed air into the vents, which did nothing to stop the noise. Nonetheless, I assumed it must be the fan and it never went away. As time went on, I was also able to get used to the performance which was bad but not unusable.

The other day I noticed that once again, a lot of dust had accumulated on the vents, so I decided to blow some air into them again, thinking it might increase the performance. After that, when I turned the laptop on, I was amazed that the whining noise was completely gone. It's silent. However, after doing some normal activities on it I realized that the speed is much worse. If you're doing anything remotely resource-intensive, the computer lags tremendously. Music skips and sounds choppy even if the only other thing I'm doing is using a browser. Most video files lag too much to be viewed anymore, etc. The CPU spikes very easily. Throughout all of this lag though, the fan never makes a sound. In the past it would get much louder and start "screaming" whenever doing anything. Now it seems to have stopped doing that, but at the expense of actually being able to do the task.

Even if I can't fix it, I'm so curious to know why blowing out the fans would cause even more lag. I'd love to know what anybody's theory is. I can't really afford a new laptop as you can probably tell. Thanks very much for any help.

Update:

So a few days ago I decided, before opening it up, that I would just blow into the vents again, hoping to shift some of the dust around or something. It seems to have had a positive effect. I blew the compressed air very deep into it and was very thorough. When I first turned the laptop on some dust flew out and it made a pretty scary sound, like the fan was breaking, but after I restarted again it didn't do anything alarming. The laptop is still very quiet, almost silent. But the performance is much better. I might even say it's better than it was originally. Music still skips and is choppy sometimes, but it had always done that. However, watching high quality media and even playing graphically heavy games is now an almost lag-free experience. The computer never gets hot the way it used to. It's definitely back to the way it was, if not even better in some ways.

Thanks again for all your help guys.

I have an HP G60 Laptop. It's an old laptop that I got around 2010. It has a Pentium dual-core cpu (2.00 GHz), and 3 GB of memory. It was Windows 7

I resurrected this laptop mid-last year after my other laptop got stolen. Since turning it on again, it made this unbelievably loud whining sound which reminded me of an airplane taking off. Right away I tried blowing some compressed air into the vents, which did nothing to stop the noise. Nonetheless, I assumed it must be the fan and it never went away. As time went on, I was also able to get used to the performance which was bad but not unusable.

The other day I noticed that once again, a lot of dust had accumulated on the vents, so I decided to blow some air into them again, thinking it might increase the performance. After that, when I turned the laptop on, I was amazed that the whining noise was completely gone. It's silent. However, after doing some normal activities on it I realized that the speed is much worse. If you're doing anything remotely resource-intensive, the computer lags tremendously. Music skips and sounds choppy even if the only other thing I'm doing is using a browser. Most video files lag too much to be viewed anymore, etc. The CPU spikes very easily. Throughout all of this lag though, the fan never makes a sound. In the past it would get much louder and start "screaming" whenever doing anything. Now it seems to have stopped doing that, but at the expense of actually being able to do the task.

Even if I can't fix it, I'm so curious to know why blowing out the fans would cause even more lag. I'd love to know what anybody's theory is. I can't really afford a new laptop as you can probably tell. Thanks very much for any help.

I have an HP G60 Laptop. It's an old laptop that I got around 2010. It has a Pentium dual-core cpu (2.00 GHz), and 3 GB of memory. It was Windows 7

I resurrected this laptop mid-last year after my other laptop got stolen. Since turning it on again, it made this unbelievably loud whining sound which reminded me of an airplane taking off. Right away I tried blowing some compressed air into the vents, which did nothing to stop the noise. Nonetheless, I assumed it must be the fan and it never went away. As time went on, I was also able to get used to the performance which was bad but not unusable.

The other day I noticed that once again, a lot of dust had accumulated on the vents, so I decided to blow some air into them again, thinking it might increase the performance. After that, when I turned the laptop on, I was amazed that the whining noise was completely gone. It's silent. However, after doing some normal activities on it I realized that the speed is much worse. If you're doing anything remotely resource-intensive, the computer lags tremendously. Music skips and sounds choppy even if the only other thing I'm doing is using a browser. Most video files lag too much to be viewed anymore, etc. The CPU spikes very easily. Throughout all of this lag though, the fan never makes a sound. In the past it would get much louder and start "screaming" whenever doing anything. Now it seems to have stopped doing that, but at the expense of actually being able to do the task.

Even if I can't fix it, I'm so curious to know why blowing out the fans would cause even more lag. I'd love to know what anybody's theory is. I can't really afford a new laptop as you can probably tell. Thanks very much for any help.

Update:

So a few days ago I decided, before opening it up, that I would just blow into the vents again, hoping to shift some of the dust around or something. It seems to have had a positive effect. I blew the compressed air very deep into it and was very thorough. When I first turned the laptop on some dust flew out and it made a pretty scary sound, like the fan was breaking, but after I restarted again it didn't do anything alarming. The laptop is still very quiet, almost silent. But the performance is much better. I might even say it's better than it was originally. Music still skips and is choppy sometimes, but it had always done that. However, watching high quality media and even playing graphically heavy games is now an almost lag-free experience. The computer never gets hot the way it used to. It's definitely back to the way it was, if not even better in some ways.

Thanks again for all your help guys.

Source Link
John
John
  • 13
  • 1
  • 4

Laptop performance much slower after blowing out fans

I have an HP G60 Laptop. It's an old laptop that I got around 2010. It has a Pentium dual-core cpu (2.00 GHz), and 3 GB of memory. It was Windows 7

I resurrected this laptop mid-last year after my other laptop got stolen. Since turning it on again, it made this unbelievably loud whining sound which reminded me of an airplane taking off. Right away I tried blowing some compressed air into the vents, which did nothing to stop the noise. Nonetheless, I assumed it must be the fan and it never went away. As time went on, I was also able to get used to the performance which was bad but not unusable.

The other day I noticed that once again, a lot of dust had accumulated on the vents, so I decided to blow some air into them again, thinking it might increase the performance. After that, when I turned the laptop on, I was amazed that the whining noise was completely gone. It's silent. However, after doing some normal activities on it I realized that the speed is much worse. If you're doing anything remotely resource-intensive, the computer lags tremendously. Music skips and sounds choppy even if the only other thing I'm doing is using a browser. Most video files lag too much to be viewed anymore, etc. The CPU spikes very easily. Throughout all of this lag though, the fan never makes a sound. In the past it would get much louder and start "screaming" whenever doing anything. Now it seems to have stopped doing that, but at the expense of actually being able to do the task.

Even if I can't fix it, I'm so curious to know why blowing out the fans would cause even more lag. I'd love to know what anybody's theory is. I can't really afford a new laptop as you can probably tell. Thanks very much for any help.