Almost bought a new laptop

My Problem

The cpu fan was making an annoying grinding noise. The laptops still works perfectly except for that fan noise. I recently installed a new ssd and the boot time is less than 10 seconds. Even though the laptop is more than 2 years old, I did not want to replace it especially with an 8GB ram bought for $25 at the same time.

My Fix

I read in a forum online about putting a cooking oil in the fan with good result. The type of oil seems to matter, and canola happened to be what I have. I took the risk since I do not want to buy an out-of-production fan and the parts I found online come from dubious stores.

It was risky putting the laptop back together just as it was opening. I probably broke some ribbon cable attachment but it still works.

The fan is quieter than ever. I hop that the canola oil does not leak to much or freeze. But hey, it is a working laptop.

My Advice

I wish I knew how complicated, compact and fragile laptops have gone through the years. A simple fan replacement required taking out the motherboard and almost all other parts.

If you want to stay safe, buy a laptop with absolutely no moving parts inside. Good luck with that, but don't buy a tablet.