The Basics
It is often easy to forget the troubleshooting basics during times of frustration. Before making any significant repairs to your device, please check the following.
- Ensure that the vents to your device are not blocked. If your device's air vents are blocked, then this will cause airflow to be restricted. Often, dust and debris can accumulate in the vents, which results in your system's fan spinning faster to cool the device's internal components.
- Try using your device on a level and smooth surface. Irregular types of uneven surfaces, like carpet or fabric, can block your device's vents and cause airflow to become restricted. Ideally, you would want to use your laptop on a flat surface, like a desk or a table. This does not mean that you should never use your device in your bed or have it on your lap, but if you begin to notice that your fan is running loudly, try using it on an even surface.
If the above steps did not resolve your issue, try the more in-depth troubleshooting steps below.
Causes
While the vents for your Chromebook might be clean, dust and debris can accumulate inside, obstructing the cooling fan and making it work harder, resulting in increased noise. This is why it is always a good idea to occasionally clean the internals with compressed air and a soft brush.
- Power off your Chromebook
- Open your device. (This will be different depending on your specific device model)
- Using compressed air and a soft brush, gently clean the fan vents and the surrounding areas.
- Ensure that the cooling fan and heatsink are free from any obstructions.
- Once everything is clean, reassemble your device and check if the fan noise has reduced.
Outdated software can cause your cooling fan to run unnecessarily fast. To ensure that ChromeOS is up to date, follow the following steps.
- Click on the Time in the bottom-right corner of your screen and select the gear icon to access Settings.
- Scroll down and click the option About Chrome OS.
- Click on Check for Updates and install any available updates.
If no ChromeOS update is available for your device, or the issue has not been resolved after you have finished updating, continue to the next section.
If you are running multiple applications or have numerous browser tabs open simultaneously, this can strain system resources and cause the fan to spin faster due to heat generated by the system. Typically, when this is the case, you might notice that your Chromebook is slower than usual. If this is the case, consider looking at the Acer Chromebook Running Slowly Troubleshooting Page.
You can also see which applications use a significant amount of power using ChromeOS's Task Manager by tapping the Search button and Esc on your Chromebook's keyboard.
If you notice that your fan is constantly running loudly, the issue might be caused by an underlying hardware issue. Often, resetting the hardware resolves this issue.
- Power off your Chromebook.
- Disconnect the charger.
- Locate the small pinhole on the bottom or side of your device.
- Insert a paperclip or similar object into the pinhole and press the reset button for 10 seconds.
- Release the button and power on your Chromebook to see if the fan noise has decreased.
If your device does not have this pinhole, then follow these steps.
- Power off your Chromebook completely.
- Disconnect the charger from your Chromebook.
- Press the Refresh key (usually above the four keys) and the Power button simultaneously.
- Continue holding both buttons for about 10 seconds.
- Release the buttons.
- Power on your Chromebook and check if the fan noise has improved.
If the issue continues, it may be an issue with the Chromebook's Operating System. If so, you may need to restore ChromeOS using a Recovery USB. Thankfully, the process is very simple, and the instructions can be found here. This will restore your device to the factory default, so ensure that all the files you want to save are backed up to Google Drive or an external storage device.
- 5 minutesVery easy
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