Dell 5150 fan noise/rattle

For the past year or so the cooling fan on my brothers Inspiron 5150 has been horridly loud and rattling from either completely trashed motor spindle, or some bad lubrication. I have cleaned out all the dust, but have not disassembled the heat sink assembly to get at the fan. Is this a common problem with these units? Is there any hope of cleaning the spindle area and reoiling it, or is the only option a replacement unit?

While I am in there any thoughts on if some artic silver, or new thermal compound in general will help with the fan going all the time? I know it has a p4, but I don't remember it being always that loud. Maybe I am spoiled by my Pentium M

 

I have seen many of these, they are generally too silent.A full cleaning should be enough,although the Arctic is always your friend.

 

Now by cleaning, are you talking about just dust, or a dismantle of the fan and reoiling it? The fan looked spotless, all the dust (pretty minor) was in the heat sink fins.