laptop auto-shuts down - technical issue

[rh71]

Friend has an HP Pavilion n5425 that shuts itself off after a brief blank screen. Could be as quick as only 15 minutes into a session. HP support already had her try safe mode and it did the same thing. She tells me the fan is louder than usual, which leads me to believe it's a bad fan no longer capable of keeping the CPU cool enough so the thing shuts off in self defense. Sound about right ?

I'm wondering if this is a known issue for this thing (or laptops in general) and also how much it would cost... if she were to bring it to a local place vs. shipping it back to HP. Those fans can't cost that much, but I imagine labor would. Anyone have good/bad experience with this kind of thing ? Is it a do-it-yourself job ? I've never worked on the inside of a laptop before other than throwing a NIC in there through a panel.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Dark54555]

as a quick fix, try blowing the fan out with canned air. if it's like some of the dells, that will fix the problem in no time flat.

 

[BigBadBiologist]

My girlfriend's toshiba did the same exact thing after about a year of usage. The fans started coming on more frequently and they seemed louder. I opened the thing up (luckily the Toshibas have a hatch right over the CPU) and there was a big wad of dust bunny that was pretty much clogging the heatsink. This thing was so thick that air duster wouldn't have removed it. You may be experiencing a similar situation.