1520 clicking (maybe fan)

hi

had my 1520 for just over a year now, all in all it's been alright, have to use cpu clock to stop it whining but apart from that had no problems.

however recently i've noticed a clicking noise coming from the left handside - it starts after the laptop has been on for a few minutes and then will last for a good 10 minutes, then it stops clicking, and starts clicking again. if im listening to music then i cant hear the clicking so that's a rough guide of how noisy it is.

at first i thought it might be the hdd packing up but it occurs even when the hdd is not being read and i've run SMART tests on the disk and everything seems ok. so i think it's probably a fan - i read of a problem on another dell laptop where the fan was slightly warped due to heat/cold and caused a similar problem.

i know it's not the main fan that you can see on the underside because the clicking occurs when that's off. so there must be another fan in there somewhere - am i correct?

i just want to know if anyone else has encountered this and knows of any solution. i tried blowing dust out of the laptop just now (through the gap where the battery connects) and it seems to have improved things but it may still happen later.

thanks.

 

You could just try and clean out the fans.

Just turn notebook off remove any power supply(incl battery) and hold power button for 10 seconds

Blow compressed air into the fan area from both sides.

If the noise dissapears you know it was the fan.

Good luck!