chances of fixing a laptop fan?

Slam

Slam

Slam

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I have an old laptop, a Dell Studio 1555, Intel T4200 cpu, 3GB ram that works but slowly.
The cpu cores hit up to 80c soon after they get busy and I can see that the cpu fan isn't working. TDP is 105c but I guess the cpu is throttling down.

The laptop would be great for my 7 year old son so I want to fix this. I've found instructions for disassembly but it's very involved so I only want to attempt the repair once.

My question is whether I am likely to get the fan going again by peeling off the sticker, accessing the bearings and dropping some lubricant onto them?

If not then I won't open it up until I have sourced a spare part.
 
I used about 3 different fans over the life of my Dell Studio. I ended up buy whole heatsink + fan combo's for various models (my seems to be very unique heatsink). But i was able to fit other fans. I only had 1 fan that didn't fit. Best bet is to grab the model of the fan off the sticker. Then strip down the laptop. Apply new thermal paste and give it a general clean, then fit the new fan. Mine had an Ati graphic's chip and in the end thats the part that gave up.

As its 7 years old I'd have to wonder if its worth it. As some of the plastic may not appreciate being un-clipped after all this time. Getting the old one going? who knows. Could be an electronic issue. Could just need a bios update. Have you tried running the laptop with a cooling fan underneath?
 
This one has the ATI gpu too.

Using a cooling fan is a good idea. If that doesn't make a difference to cpu performance then the laptop prob isn't worth saving.

If it does, and I can find a spare part that's cheap enough, then I might as well give the repair a go. If it goes wrong then it's not like I'm losing anything, the laptop has long been out of use.
 
Quick update...feeling good :)
Fixed the fan, didn't need to clean the bearings just the cr@p caught in between the fan blades. There was so much!
That brought temps to a controlled 65c. Have added a 120 gig SSD (thank you Overclockers sale) and clean installed Windows 10.
Wow what a difference. We all know that an SSD is just about the most significant upgrade you can do to a pc with a traditional hdd but wow, seeing the difference is an eye opener.

Feels capable now and should be able to stream games through Steam too.
 
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