Laptop Whining Sound

[Mad Maxx]

About 2-3 Weeks ago, my Laptop Started to make a Whining Sound. It's not Loud at all, just enough to Hear it.

It comes and goes. The Sound Fades In, it'll Whine for a lil bit, then it'll Slowly Fade Out and go away.

Should I be Worried?

 

[JiFaire]

Fan. Should you worry? That depends on if it's whining because the bearings are going out and stopping whining because the fan stopped, or...

When it quits whining, do you still have air blowing out of the cooling ports?

In any case, if it is a fan, it will become an issue.

HDD failure is more rare, but also possible. That isn't fun, either. You might want to explore backup options...

 

[Mad Maxx]

It Sounds more like an Electronic Whine. Not like a Bearing or something.

The "Function" of the Laptop doesn't Change at all when this is going on either. It doesn't Lag or Freeze.

Fan still Speeds Up or Slows Down when it needs to.

 

[SfcJones]

It is the fan IMO, if it is a desktop then this would be a easy fix, laptops are different. Why don't you replace it now and see if the noise goes away. On edit I see it is a laptop you are talking about. What brand? btw a little cleaning should help it too....

 

[Mad Maxx]

It's a Sony Vaio.

 

[Clark20ry]

is it coming from the speakers? I have an older set of speakers on my desktop and if they are cranked up the make a whining noise. Not sure if this applies..

 

[SfcJones]

take some canned air and see ifyou can blow the fan out some, on my older laptop I can remove the fans and clean them. It has helped my noise issues but John has a point too. there could be a speaker that is making the whine.

 

[mpljc]

Laptop fans can be variable and come on when needed when the internal temperature gets too hot. Turn off (stop spinning) when the internal heat cools down enough.

Can you see the fan blades - should be located on the back corner? If you can - when it is not making the whining sound look to see if the fan is spinning. Then when the whining starts back - take a look to see if the fan is spinning. Try to see if the two are correlated.

If it is indeed the fan - eventually the bearings will wear out and it will sieze up and cause the laptop to overheat. The immediate impact of it overheating you will start getting weird random error messages but more than likely your laptop will lock up and freeze.

You don't want it overheating on a long term basis. But you won't have to worry with that because it will lock up and freeze so quickly that you can't do anything when it does happen.