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I am using some old laptops as a render farm (100% CPU load 24/7), and one of them (around 7 years old) eventually started making a grinding noise from the fan. I disassembled it and cleaned the metal rod the fan spins around with 50% isopropyl alcohol. When I put it back in the machine, it started making a grinding sound again within a week of 24/7 operation. Instead, since then, I have cleaned it again but also added sewing machine oil into the shaft the metal rod fits into and this has stopped the grinding noise for up to two months at a time. However, pretty consistently after two months of operation, the grinding noise starts again and I have to remove the fan, clean it with alcohol, and add the lubricant again.

What's interesting is that I have only had this problem with this one laptop (an HP Envy). My other 5 laptops under the same load have never made grinding noises with their fans, and some of those are even older.

I'm not sure if I'm using the wrong kind of lubricant or if there is something else I need to do, because it does get annoying having shut it down and clean it every two months. Here's a video showing my process after I have cleaned the metal rod in the fan with alcohol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzavZBfn-YU

It's hard to see in the video but only one drop of oil goes into the shaft.

Anything else I should be doing here (different kind of oil, get a new fan, etc.) or am I just going to have to deal with cleaning it every two months?

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  • As has already been pointed out - time for a new fan, they're pretty cheap. But… the bearings on that type of motor should never be lubricated at all. Even the lightest oil is too heavy for them. You got away with it so far because the bearings are shot, so it appeared to make an improvement, but really it was just accelerating the failure.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 8:12
  • @Tetsujin, why does the lubricant accelerate the failure in this case? I haven't noticed the time between cleanings decreasing. But I've only been doing this for about a year so far.
    – EllipticalInitial
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 14:13
  • Because it's too heavy & causes extra drag, so it runs hotter & the bearings swell & wear themselves out faster. The motor runs hotter too & can cause burnout. Never oil lubricant-free bearings… they're meant to be lubricant-free.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 14:19

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It's more than likely a bad fan bearing. The sewing machine oil is helping lubricate things which is why it stops for a while, but the oil will only last so long. If you replace the fan with a new one you should be good to go.

I don't know what your fan sounds like, but here is an example of a good bearing vs bad bearing

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  • It's sounds pretty similar to that, but less uniform. I'll probably just try to replace the fan. It's an HP Envy m7-k010dx and I see at least one seller on Amazon selling fans with that exact model number listed, so I guess I'll try it out.
    – EllipticalInitial
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 5:25

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