acer E14 E5-475G fan make weird grinding noise

nvincent_08

december 2016, at the middle of december, i purchased a new acer e5-475g the kaby lake version, after using it for some couple days, the fan making some kind of grinding sound so i'm turning off my laptop then booting it up again, it gone. after several weeks of usage(almost 1 month approximately) it started making the same noise, but sometimes the sound of it is loud, sometimes not. it usually happened after i left my laptop on cold room at the table overnight, but that sound doesnt show up everyday, only several times. i don't know what's going on with my laptop, many people say it could cause/caused by overheat, but i don't think mine caused any of that or by any of that, because i usually use a cooling pad, which is cooler master notepal x3. i already checked some things such as checking the temperature, i also tried to feel the airflow, but i couldn't really feel the airflow, because almost the whole part is occupied by the copper heatsink, i tried to push the body at fan part a bit, and the fan noise louder if i do that, but after waiting several minutes usually the sound gone. can anyone please help me? or share your experience if this problem have ever occur to you? thanks

 

acer E5-475G-53IQ

spec:

-i5-7200u 2.5ghz turbo to 3.1ghz

-4gb 2133mhz ddr4 ram

-nvidia geforce 940mx

-1tb toshiba hard drive

Trukntigger

• Sounds like in your description that the fan rubbing chassis. To keep cost down they used plastic which flexes a bit too much for my liking but normally functional. I'd open it up and check the fan for alignment and screws snug.  Easy to do really.  Remove bottom screws, slide out DVD tray, 3 tiny screws under that. Remove ram cover, unplug speaker wire (near edge white connector) then start with video port side work bottom loose (snap locks so small flat screw driver to loosen) toward the DVD side.  Once bottom off you see everything including fan.  Examine close, remove and reseat it.  This whole procedure everyone basically needs to handle or have someone that can. Maintenance- depending on use and environment you need to blow out the dust (canned air) and redo thermal paste on CPU/GPU and lube fan.  The fan brushless but does require upkeep now and then but this soon sounds like blades rubbing chassis. If you suspect fan itself pull sticker and under can access center spin bearing/bushing and few drops of lite oil (3in1/sewing machine oil) to free it up. Let us know how it goes. 

BrandonLIM

God! I thought I'm the only one facing this problem. I bought in Jan of 2017, after one week, I realised this grinding sound!!! But mine is quite consistently since I turn on my laptop. I send to Acer service center malaysia 3 times! And what they replied me is they can't diagnose the problem with their system. I really frustrated with ACER! 

Deviant96

This thread is what exactly happening to me right now. Same spesification, bought near end of November 2016.

 

The fan is like it's wobbling, and yeah, it's rubbing the chassis as there's heavy marking on it. I'm using my own program to control the fan. The sound will be gone if only I set fan speed to 100%. The lower the heavier the sound. It's kind of annoying. Could you please post a video on how to do what you said? I'd much appreciate it

cmdaigle

Has this issue been solved?

nmtbird

I've been having the same problem. Also sent it to repair still under warranty but they claimed they could not duplicate problem and sent it back to me . It is still going on . So I asked to resend it to them as it still has 4 months warranty on it But it will cost me another 30.00 to ship it to them. I'm not sure they will fix the problem anyway and I will be out $60.00 total for a laptop that cost me $289.00 . Why do you think It only happens when I use it ? This sucks !

Mikful

Hi nmtbird, I was having this same buzzing problem with my E14 E5-476G, so I followed what Trukntigger said:

• Sounds like in your description that the fan rubbing chassis. To keep cost down they used plastic which flexes a bit too much for my liking but normally functional. I'd open it up and check the fan for alignment and screws snug.  Easy to do really.  Remove bottom screws, slide out DVD tray, 3 tiny screws under that. Remove ram cover, unplug speaker wire (near edge white connector) then start with video port side work bottom loose (snap locks so small flat screw driver to loosen) toward the DVD side.  Once bottom off you see everything including fan.  Examine close, remove and reseat it.  This whole procedure everyone basically needs to handle or have someone that can. Maintenance- depending on use and environment you need to blow out the dust (canned air) and redo thermal paste on CPU/GPU and lube fan.  The fan brushless but does require upkeep now and then but this soon sounds like blades rubbing chassis. If you suspect fan itself pull sticker and under can access center spin bearing/bushing and few drops of lite oil (3in1/sewing machine oil) to free it up. Let us know how it goes. 

After opening it up and seeing a post on Tom's Hardware stating similar, I realised there was a tag sticking out from the battery under my fan! Closed it up... it wasn't that! Opened it up and realised on the underside of the fan there is another sticker directly over the fan that had come loose, so I moved it and - bingo! 

It's nice and quiet now. Hope this helps you.

Mikful

Well, turns out my celebration was a bit premature! It wasn't the sticker after all (I had to take it apart again!!!). It was that the top of the fan was rubbing on the plastic case. There's a screw that goes through the plastic case and holds the fan in place, but thanks to the crappy case design this actually seems to force unnecessary contact between the underside of the case and the top of the fan! Instead I've screwed the fan down internally using the screw, instead of from the outside. This way the plastic spacer part of the case also pushes it away slightly from the fan. Seems to be OK for now, no buzzing!

Hope that's the end of it.