Cold room, grinding fan on startup?

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natstachio

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I have an HP laptop that I've had since January with no real problems. But I've noticed that sometimes in cold weather (it's been in the 40F range at night for the past 3 nights and this has been a 3 day consecutive problem), when I start up the laptop in the morning it sounds like the fan is grinding against something. It's just really loud. After the desktop screen loads it goes away, but it's really loud at first and kind of concerning. It did this a few times earlier this year but only in cold weather, it doesn't have this problem when it's warmer. The room the computer is in gets cold-- we don't have heat, it gets nearly as cold as it is outside.

I just don't want the problem to get worse. I can live with the noise if it's not likely to do anything but I would prefer to fix it. I haven't experienced any issues with performance while it's doing that so I don't think it's a hard drive failure? I couldn't even tell you what fan it is honestly. Not the cooling fan that comes on when it's overheating but the one always running. CPU fan? I don't know.
 
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Ubrales
The sound is from the CPU fan, and is due to clearance issues. The fan itself is fine.

The way to solve this is to take the laptop cover apart and look for a mounting fastener that is not secure. Do this only if you are familiar with servicing laptops. You will find videos on YouTube that show dis assembly. Your manual will also explain.
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Ubrales

Ubrales

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Dec 3, 2009
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The sound is from the CPU fan, and is due to clearance issues. The fan itself is fine.

The way to solve this is to take the laptop cover apart and look for a mounting fastener that is not secure. Do this only if you are familiar with servicing laptops. You will find videos on YouTube that show dis assembly. Your manual will also explain.
 
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natstachio

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Sep 14, 2014
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Thank you! Does it make any difference though that this goes away right after the desktop screen, like I mentioned? I'll have this thing on all day and won't hear the grinding noise again. Yesterday I turned the computer off for about an hour and a half and when I started it up again, no grinding. But by then the temperature in the room was up again in the mid 50Fs. The only time it does this is right after a cold night, in the morning?

 
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Ubrales

Ubrales

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Dec 3, 2009
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The grinding noise means that something is rubbing against something else. This will lead to wear on both the parts that are rubbing. The severity of this can be determined only through careful inspection of the parts that are rubbing. For instance, if one of the parts is a cable then eventually there will be problems. If it is a fan blade rubbing against the molded fan housing there may not be any serious issues.

because of this it is better to find out the source of the problem. I consider the noise as an early warning. Ignoring it may not be a good idea.
 
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natstachio

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Sep 14, 2014
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I understand that and won't be ignoring the problem, I'm just wondering why it would only do this in the morning, like the temperature has something to do with it? And, it wasn't doing this a week ago when we were in 70F weather?
 
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Ubrales

Ubrales

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Dec 3, 2009
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Correct! The temperature (low) is causing minute changes in components expansion and fitup. In this case, the low temps reduce clearances and cause interference. Higher (or warmer) temps cause components movements in the opposite direction increasing clearances.

Read the manual, watch some videos and take the cover off so that you can see the components. Maybe a retaining latch is partially loose. Taking digital pics of parts as you disassemble them will help.
 
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