I’d like some advice about what happened to one of my computers. The cooling fan of my 5 year old Asus notebook has suddenly started making an awful noise. I took the machine in for service at the local Asus representative. I was shocked to learn from one of their engineers that there was nothing they could do as the spare part is no longer produced in Taiwan. Now, it is understood that 5 years is a long time for computers, but does that mean I have throw away a machine in very good conditions (except for the fan of course)? Furthermore can Asus legally get away with it by saying sorry no more spare parts? Is there a time limit legally for replacing hardware or does it vary with each brand? One more question: any suggestions how to fix the fan other than replace it with a new item? Thanks in advance for any reply, my enthusiasm for notebooks has suddenly died, and desktop computers certainly would not have such a problem.
- Without fan, notebook will overheat and eventually something will fry... - Every manufacturer has a period of warranty. Beyond that, AFAIK, has no obbligation to be able to provide spare parts. In EU, by law, every component must have minimum 2 year warranty. Beyond that, it's up to the individual brand. - I am surprised that they can't replace a "low tech" part such as a fan, sounds more like your local representative is lazy or wants you to buy a new notebook. I 'd make a call to a another ASUS support center. - If all fails, bring the notebook to a PC technician (non official ASUS support). Chances are he can find a fan.
Agree with zap. Ebay is a nice place for spare parts when i blew my bios chip ebay saved me alot of cash on a new board.
I know that of course, but the fan is working albeit with a lot of noise. Well warranty as I understand it, is to replace a faulty part with no charge, and beyond this deadline one has to pay the full price for it. Well I suspect that your second guess might be more likely as a possibility. Here in Seoul it is the only service centre. Well that's the more likely solution I can see as a possibility. Thank you for your feedback, I'm still speechless about the fact (if it is true) that beyond the warranty period they are not legally liable to provide spare parts.
Thanks, but unfortunately I don't live in the US, and even then, looking at the back of my computer, it doesn't seem to be an easy operation to perform for me.
It's quite possible that the only problem is that the fan bearing needs to be lubricated. Granted, a laptop can offer real challenges in terms of removing and servicing parts but an internet search for your models' service manual should detail the correct procedure for the PS fan bearing lubrication and/or fan replacement. It's worth a try.
I think most manufacturers have a stock of spare parts. When these run out, you 're on your own. Imagine, that even within the warranty period, manufacturers may claim they have no spare parts and can replace with "equivalent" component... This happens a lot with "lifetime warranty" items. For example RAM. They can ship you different model. You may try to lubricate it yourself: http://www.overclockers.com/em-spinning-lubricate-pc-fans/ You can use Singer sewing machine oil (you can probably find it in any country of the world). But after 5 years of use, chances are, the bearings have suffered enough and the fan may stop at any time... The definitive solution would be to change it. Personally i have in very low regard small size Asus fans. I had one such on a video card and it started rattling like a snake after just 3 months. At 5 months it was so annoying that i ripped it apart. Very poor quality.
On a lot of ASUS notebooks the fan is very easily accessible (unlike a lot of notebooks where you have to pretty much take apart the whole laptop to access it). Google your model and fan cleaning and you should find information on how to access the fan, possibly YouTube videos too.
Thank you all for your valuable information. The truth of the matter is slowly sinking in, and in the future I'm not going to buy a machine that is the top model if they cannot guarantee spare parts for longer than 4 years.
Don't think you'll get that guarantee excepting, Lenovo, apple & 1 or 2 others. And I doubt it'll be in writing.
Surely you can order parts from eBay, and get them sent to your country? On the whole support for older machines is really bad, they want you to buy a new computer when you have problems. But, having said that ASUS is one of the better brands for build quality.
Right. I suspect the ASUS technician had his hands tied and cannot suggest 3rd party replacements. It is likely the fan is fairly commonly used in other electronics devices and all you really need to know are its physical dimensions, voltage requirements, and connector configuration. Note these DC fans use sealed bearings which means they don't get re-lubricated.
OK guys, this is what happened in the end: the noise was coming and going, and at times the computer was silent for up to 2 hours. Yesterday I decided to look for a good repair shop so that they could replace the damn fan. I found one, and after testing the computer cooling system with a special software the verdict was to say the least unexpected given the circumstances: the fan is perfectly functional, the noise was coming from the hard drive which was about to die. Changing the hard drive was a five minutes job therefore all is well as it shows that Asus reliability was confirmed. What I find pretty ridiculous is the attitude of the Asus service team who couldn't be bothered to investigate the problem notwithstanding the fact that they probably have state of the art diagnostic equipment. I certainly have learnt something quite important, a hard drive that is malfunctioning can make a hell of a noise.
Yep, that has happened to me a couple of times, and when I start hearing noises, I waste no time getting any important data off the drive asap..
Anything with moving parts like motors can make a lot of racket when the bearings start to fail - if you are lucky. If not lucky, the parts just seize. But if lucky and you have some advance notice of imminent failure, you can back up your data before it is irretrievable. Sorry I did not think about the drive as being the problem or else I would have suggested you CAREFULLY rest your finger on the drive while spinning as you can often then feel the bad bearings vibrate and can often associate that with the sound. At any rate, I am glad you got it sorted out and thanks for the followup.
Bill you are welcome, but I should say that the situation that I had would have been hard to diagnose for anyone without having the machine in their hands. I had thought about the hard drive at one stage, but there was no visual confirmation on the monitor in terms of the quality of the display. The only hard drive that I saw malfunctioning in the past didn't make any noise but there was a sudden deterioration of the image, files and folders would open randomly or not open at all.
Yeah, that is pretty much always the case. It is much easier to fix computers that come across my bench than trying to troubleshoot remotely - especially if the user is not too familiar with computers, or comfortable messing with them. As far as drives failing, they usually do give some warning, either with read/write errors or motor vibrations/noises. But being electro-mechanical devices, they can suddenly just stop working if an electronic component suddenly fails. Anyway, thanks again.
This is becoming rather embarrassing, but there is more to this story. two weeks ago the awful rattling noise came back... I thought God this will never end, and the hard drive being new it couldn't be responsible for it. So I've opened up the fan section with the machine on, and it was definitely producing the noise I've been complaining about since posting this thread. So finally what gives? Well sometimes solutions defy any logic, and in this case time somehow helped. I've noticed that twice, after leaving the machine for a couple of days without using it, the problem would go away meaning that the fan would stop making noise. So why? The answer is (wish me luck!) that I've always used this computer on a cooling platform which is slightly angled down towards the user, and the ventilation grid whereupon the machine rests, by design is not perfectly flat. This notebook is quite large and relatively thin (almost 40cm X 30cm) therefore my take is that after a while, there is an imperceptible distortion of the chassis which would adversely affects the fan structure. I've used it now for long hours on a perfectly flat surface and the noise completely disappeared... It sounds crazy but I believe this is the reason. Still I bought a new machine, the old one has become my desktop replacement.
Or, when the computer's tilt angle is changed, the angle of pressure, gravity, and friction forces on the worn fan bearings change, producing, or reducing vibration and the resulting noise.
