Laptop sounds like it’s about to blow up

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

Eek. So my laptop suddenly started making this really loud noise like a swarm of bees inside it. It got louder and louder until I turned it off. Any idea what it could be?! I had trouble turning it off as well and had to ideas and hold the off button in the end. Louder than a fan noise.

At the time I had been doing some video editing and had a phone plugged into it via usb - but that’s fairly common so can’t see that’s related.

antspants · Jan 9, 2025

Cooling fan? Grinding, loud spin sound? High CPU usage? Has it only happened once?

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

I guess that’s all it could be although I wondered about some electrical short? It slightly smells of burning as well!

It did fall off the sofa on that side (right side) not long ago - posted elsewhere avout that as the usbc socket stopped working - but it’s been fine for the last couple of weeks (apart from the non working usbc port).

antspants · Jan 9, 2025

“If your HP Pavilion 14-ce3514sa laptop is making a loud noise, it's likely due to a noisy fan, which could be caused by dust buildup in the vents, high CPU usage causing overheating, or potentially a faulty fan motor; first try cleaning the vents with compressed air, then check for resource-intensive programs running on your computer, and if the issue persists, consider updating your BIOS and drivers”

antspants · Jan 9, 2025

Hazel123 said:
It slightly smells of burning as well!

Hazel, that’s not good. But if there is dust build up, it could be dust burning?

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

Sorry just edited post above - yes I’ll have to take the back off.

badrobot · Jan 9, 2025

When did you buy the laptop and when did you last clean it inside?

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

antspants said:
Hazel, that’s not good. But if there is a dust build up, it could be dust burning?

Nope!

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

badrobot said:
When did you buy the laptop and when did you last clean it inside?

Not that long ago - when I changed the hard drive. Some point over the last year.

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

It did kind of sound electrical though. Guess I’ll have to look inside before switching it on again.

dacrone · Jan 9, 2025

may have knocked the heatsink or fan loose when it fell. it'll get HOT and FAST when doing mediocre tasks if so.

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

Ok took the back off, didn’t look too bad really but the odd bit of dust. Took the fan out and cleaned that. There was a bit of fluff in the fan. Unfortunately didn’t have my air blower as loaned it to son and he can’t find it so had to just use the brush. Switched it back on and no noise - fingers crossed. Although my idrive service has been turned off when I switched the laptop back on.

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

I actually have a defunct identical laptop so have a spare fan and spare usbc if needed but the annoying thing is that the usbc is soldered to the motherboard and the motherboard on the old one is dodgy.

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

Turned the idrive service back on and it’s stuck in a loop “preparing file list” instead of doing a backup.

Thanks all - would never have believed a bit of fluff in a fan could make such a loud noise!

I suppose I’d better check for corrupted files now.

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

What’s the best way to see if it overheated before I turned it off? And what temperature it got to? I’ve looked in event viewer and there were three warnings but can’t make any sense of them.

dacrone · Jan 9, 2025

hopefully thats all it was. if it start smelling like smoke again, take it apart and inspect the mobo carefully for any missing pieces. if a capacitor got knocked off (very small and hard to notice on a laptop mobo without close inspection), it can cause major issues.

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

Earlier tonight I was complaining of smelling burning fat and assumed it was from someone doing something in the kitchen but no one had been cooking!

It looks ok inside and the noise has gone.

Hazel123 · Jan 9, 2025

antspants said:
“If your HP Pavilion 14-ce3514sa laptop is making a loud noise, it's likely due to a noisy fan, which could be caused by dust buildup in the vents, high CPU usage causing overheating, or potentially a faulty fan motor; first try cleaning the vents with compressed air, then check for resource-intensive programs running on your computer, and if the issue persists, consider updating your BIOS and drivers”

There actually was a bios update available so I've done that too. Although it did mean I couldn't log in with my PIN afterwards - it didn't work any more - but managed to sign in with password and re-set it. It still smells slightly of burning cooking oil! But temperature is ok.

Hazel123 · Jan 13, 2025

Ok it's not right afterwards. The noise went and the fan was cleanred. But since the loud noise it still doesn't turn off. Unless I manually press and hold the off button. It shuts down as usual with the screen going dark, but the light stays on and it doesn't fully switch off until I press and hold the off button. So something did happen at the time I think. Also my audio has gone much quieter ..........................

I've run sfc/scannow and no issues.

mecanicogolf · Jan 13, 2025

Maybe you should try and reinstall Windows. Clean install might help. I know it could be a pain, but if you have a backup.........

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