Gateway NV7921U Cooling Fan Ticking

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I'll try another tech question even though I haven't gotten a lot of results in the past.

I've had one of these notebooks for many years and it's been a real workhorse for what I do with it as my daily driver .... browser.

Recently, I've begun noticing a very faint ticking that will get louder when the fan kicks up speed for some reason. I haven't tried to dig into it yet, so I don't know if it just has a piece of gunk sucked in or if a bearing is going. But since it's so old, I can't find any accurate pictures or guides on how to proceed.

I found this one picture of a similar unit, but I'm not sure what I'm looking at as far as the attached piece. I do NOT want to mess with the CPU at all.

 

[denis280]

am sure you did the dusting with air. my guest is good as yours.could be dust,bearing or
gunk, or peace of dirt stuck on a blade making it unbalance

 

[sdifox]

Fans do wear out. That is the heat pipe to the cpu, so you will have to remove the whole piece, reapply thermal paste and put it back together if you want to replace the fan, assuming you can find it.
Vaccum it as best as you can and learn to live with the noise is my advice.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Vaccum it as best as you can and learn to live with the noise is my advice.

Noise isn't the issue. I don't want it to hang/seize and cause overheat issues.

 

[sdifox]

Noise isn't the issue. I don't want it to hang/seize and cause overheat issues.

it's a 11 year old laptop... eventually it will die. the heat pipe might leak before that.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

It's sounding very angry this morning. Quiet for a bit, then goes into a rage like a petulant child. I have Speccy running and the temp is not going up .... yet.

Guess I need to pull the SSDs and put them in the spare, identical machine.

This one has been running almost non-stop for around 5 years, maybe longer. Shut down only for a few minutes at a time every 7-10 days for a cold reboot. Well, other than when the HDD died and I had to do a restore to the new SSD. And when the Intel SSD died and I had to replace both of them with Samsungs.

The spare has been sitting unused since I bought it a few years ago. Only run a few times for testing to make sure it still would.

Once I do the swap, I can try to find out how to open this one and see how the fan comes out. Hopefully it separates from the tuba thing.

Ooops, forgot. Gotta swap the RAM too. 8G in this one, but only 4 in the spare. Never bought the extra stick for it.

I hate 'puters.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Running on second unit. Drives and RAM swapped. Had an issue with a BOOT MGR MISSING error on attempted boot. Found I had to change the boot order for some reason. Will explain more later.


Issue now is how to get to tye fan on the first unit. I have all the screws out that I can find from looking at the bottom (15 or so). But neither the top or bottom is loose, neither will come apart.

Do any of you have instructions for disassembly of a Gateway NV7921U? I can find generic instructions, but nothing specific to this brand and model

 

[sdifox]

Too old. Generally you have to strip down whole machine or most of it to have access to the heat sink mounting screws.

I wanted to reapply thermal grease to an old studio 17, took off back cover, looked at it then cleaned it as much as I can and closed it back up. There was no way I was going to spend that kind of time.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Too old. Generally you have to strip down whole machine or most of it to have access to the heat sink mounting screws.

That part isn't a problem. B-)


But the fan itself is under that red box area and I need to split the case to get at it. I think.

Again, I'm hoping to separate the fan and replace it only without disturbing the heat sink.

 

[sdifox]

Check if there are screws under the rubber legs

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I thought about that too, but haven't tried them yet. Wanted to ask for other details first.

 

[sdifox]

I thought about that too, but haven't tried them yet. Wanted to ask for other details first.

worst case scenario you hot glue it back... no one will have the service manual for something that old.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

No screws under the feet.

But it's out. It's dirty as expected, but runs free by hand. May blow it out and try to apply 5V to see how it runs. For $15 or so though, I'll try to get another one.




Bottom cover is not a cover at all. It's the main chassis that everything else mounts to. Had to basically gut the whole thing from the top down --- monitor, KB, Optical drive, a whole bunch of very small ribbon connectors and a hundred or so screws (or so it seemed). Then the MoFo-in' MoBo, since the fan was mounted to the top of it. However, the copper tuba looking thing just slides into a cavity that the fan attaches to.


I'll be amazed if any of it ever works again. It's in a pile for now until I can get a fan. Then, will I remember how it all goes together?

 

[sdifox]

LoL like I said, you have to strip the whole thing.

 

[bigboxes]

That's why I don't have laptops. A bitch to work on. Lousy for cooling. I stopped taking apart laptops. If compressed air didn't do it, then I just recommend getting another laptop. Backup your data.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I leaned towards laptops because they use so much less power than any desktop I've had. I may look at some kind of small form factor desktop, but I can't have one that eats 300W or more. This thing only uses around 30 or 40 watts.

Replacement fan shipped today, but it remains to be seen if I can put the jigsaw puzzle back together and get it working again.

This one seems to run a bit hotter according to Speccy. I'd see the other one spike out around 150F or so, maybe a little more. I've seen this one get to 160+ which kind of bothers me. There are no obstructions that I can see.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Other thing is that this model maxes out at 8Gb RAM. Not sure, but I remember somebody saying Win7 only goes there too. Or maybe that was XP?

I looked at some used laptops with 17.3 " screens like this one has. I find a few with 16Gb or more RAM but even used they're over $400.

 

[bigboxes]

Other thing is that this model maxes out at 8Gb RAM. Not sure, but I remember somebody saying Win7 only goes there too. Or maybe that was XP?

I looked at some used laptops with 17.3 " screens like this one has. I find a few with 16Gb or more RAM but even used they're over $400.

Pawn shop

 

[Soulkeeper]

Every laptop i've ever had the fan eventually failed and had ticking noises. They are typically rated for a few thousand hours of operation before failure. It's like the bearings wear out and they begin to wobble/tick. Most of them don't even have a real bearing, it's more like a bushing with 1 drop of grease/oil and a plastic clip holding it in place. You can often buy exact replacements on ebay or from china for $10 or so.

 

[Justinus]

No screws under the feet.

But it's out. It's dirty as expected, but runs free by hand. May blow it out and try to apply 5V to see how it runs. For $15 or so though, I'll try to get another one.


View attachment 49919View attachment 49920

Bottom cover is not a cover at all. It's the main chassis that everything else mounts to. Had to basically gut the whole thing from the top down --- monitor, KB, Optical drive, a whole bunch of very small ribbon connectors and a hundred or so screws (or so it seemed). Then the MoFo-in' MoBo, since the fan was mounted to the top of it. However, the copper tuba looking thing just slides into a cavity that the fan attaches to.

I'll be amazed if any of it ever works again. It's in a pile for now until I can get a fan. Then, will I remember how it all goes together?

If you're brave enough, you can peel up the sticker on the back/bearing of the fan and attempt to apply lubricant through the motor/shaft to improve any noisy motor issues. The main problem here is the sticker, especially on older fans, does not want to re-adhere so the new lubricant can leak out.

I leaned towards laptops because they use so much less power than any desktop I've had. I may look at some kind of small form factor desktop, but I can't have one that eats 300W or more. This thing only uses around 30 or 40 watts.

Replacement fan shipped today, but it remains to be seen if I can put the jigsaw puzzle back together and get it working again.

This one seems to run a bit hotter according to Speccy. I'd see the other one spike out around 150F or so, maybe a little more. I've seen this one get to 160+ which kind of bothers me. There are no obstructions that I can see.

Did you get a new replacement fan? I was able to buy two brand new replacement fans from aliexpress for my old razer blade laptop. Fortunately the ticking that drove me to order replacements stopped for now, but I've got them in reserve for later.

Other thing is that this model maxes out at 8Gb RAM. Not sure, but I remember somebody saying Win7 only goes there too. Or maybe that was XP?

I looked at some used laptops with 17.3 " screens like this one has. I find a few with 16Gb or more RAM but even used they're over $400.

You're thinking of the 32 bit OS that maxes out at 3.5GB of ram. It was common for XP as it shipped as a 32 bit OS and only later did a 64 bit version ship. Windows 7 was primarily 64 bit, but they made a 32 bit version for older systems that didn't support 64 bit. Any 64 bit OS has practically unlimited memory capacity support, for an end user.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Fan arrived this morning. Got it all back together. A few mis-steps and re-dos. But it booted up which I didn't really expect. Can feel air moving, no ticking noise. Wireless works. Trackpad works.

No screws left over. Well, not more than a half dozen or so.

Haven't decided if I'll switch it back to primary or leave it as the spare.