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How To Quiet Laptop Fan Noise (Stop Weird Loud Buzzing Sound)

how quiet laptop fan noise

A noisy fan is very common on laptops and this bizarre sound could drive you crazy. Especially at night, you might want to stick your finger find inside the vents to stop the buzzing sound of a loud laptop fan. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to do any good but there are some easy and effective fixes that make this buzzing sound go away. If you’re wondering how to silent or make quieter your laptop fan noise then you’re at the right place. Let’s get started.

In a hurry? The best way to quiet the laptop fan noise is to clean the vents with canned air. Investing in a Laptop Cooling pad also lowers the temps which would make the laptop fan run at a normal pace and therefore make it much quieter. 

You may also want to check out the Quietest Gaming Laptop and best quietest computer fans 2024

How To Fix Laptop Fan Noise: Stop Loud Buzzing or Whirring Sound

1. Canned Air 

The laptop makes a lot of noise when dust particles get stuck inside the heatsink around the fan.

The easiest way to get rid of the dust is to get canned air and use it directly into the vents.

Unlike a vacuum cleaner, canned air is completely safe and it will not harm the internals of the laptop if you’re using it from an appropriate distance.

Canned air is the most effective and easy way to fix a loud laptop fan. Plus, it’s very cheap too.

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2. External Cooling Pads 

Some high-end gaming laptops tend to heat up very quickly and with a laptop fan running at full speed, your ears will have a very unpleasant experience.

However, investing in an external cooling pad or Mini vacuum can fix the loud sound coming out of the laptop.

Especially when you’re gaming on laptops, temps will reach around 70c-80c and at this point, the fan will be at its maximum speed and making all kinds of strange sounds.

But, with these external cooling options, the laptop will run much cooler and the fan would make much less noise.

Plus it’s again a very easy and affordable solution.

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3. Lower the Fan Speed 

A laptop fan running at full speed while temps are around 50c-60c doesn’t make any sense and it could be caused by either some kind of malware or faulty bios settings.

If you’re not facing any overheating issues then slowing down the fan speed will fix the fan noise for you.

With HWiNFO fan control, you could easily lower the speed of your laptop fan which would eventually fix this problem for you.

But make sure to keep an eye on the temps after limiting the speed of the fan. Keep this in mind that overheating could damage the internals and shorten the life-span of the machine. 

4. Increase Airflow 

The ventilation inside the laptops isn’t much effective and if the fan vents aren’t getting proper airflow then the laptop will heat up.

In such a case, elevating the laptop in the air with a stand is the most appropriate option because it will effectively increase the airflow.

And because fans are positioned at the bottom, the weight on the laptop could decrease the breathing room for these fans and you often hear the whirring sound.

Once you’ve elevated the laptop, you will definitely notice that the laptop fan will be much quieter.

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5. Getting it Serviced 

Most of the time, dust particles are the culprit behind the loud buzzing sound of laptop fans and it can be fixed quite easily.

If no other option is working for you then all you will need to do is to take apart the whole thing and clean and heatsink and the fan.

If you haven’t done this before then I wouldn’t recommend taking apart the whole thing yourself.

The last time I tried this, I ended up destroying the power and keyboard connectors, and then I had to sell it for pennies.

I’d recommend getting your laptop serviced at the nearest laptop center because those youtube tutorials are not as easy as they might seem. 

Why Does My Laptop Make  Noise 

Weird Buzzing or Whirring Sound

There are many explanations behind the loud fan noise coming out of the laptop but very often, clogged vents and dust around the fan are responsible for the weird buzzing sound.

The vents are positioned at the bottom of the laptop and it is easy for the dust to get inside the fan vents and block the airflow.

Getting the dust out of vents and heatsink is a headache but you could always use canned air to get it out. 

Another explanation of the whirring sound is when the laptop is placed on a table, the airflow isn’t very efficient because the build quality of laptops is not very rigid.

And they often bend quite easily from the top side which could decrease the breathing room for the laptop fan which results in loud whirring sound coming out of the laptop. 

Laptop Fan Making Grinding Noise

If your laptop fan is making horrible grinding noise then you’re in trouble.

A laptop fan only makes a grinding sound when one of the fins is broken. Unlike the loud buzzing sound, this grinding sound is completely unbearable and it could also damage the internals of the laptop.

The only way to fix this problem is to replace the laptop fan. Usually, laptop fans and heatsinks are available on Amazon

Replacing the fan would solve this problem for you but taking apart the laptop yourself is not recommended unless you know your way around a laptop.

Taking your laptop to the professional to get it fixed would make more sense. It might cost you a penny but this is the only possible solution to fixing loud grinding fan noise otherwise.

There’s a 50/50 chance that the laptop would work again after you’ve replaced the fan yourself.  

Laptop Fan Loud But Not Hot

If your laptop fan is running at full speed and making a loud noise but everything under the hood is running cool then there’s probably something wrong in the BIOS settings or could be a result of Malware.

Running Anti-Malware software would fix this issue for you if the loud fan was caused by some kind of malware.

However, if the fan is still running hot then eliminating some background apps from ‘Task Manager’ would also be a possible solution for loud laptop fan. 

Additionally, if the sensors aren’t working properly then you will have to manually change the fan settings yourself using the 3rd-party apps like HwINFO fan control.

This application would allow you to lower the laptop fan speed to make it much quieter. Beware that one wrong click could damage your laptop so make sure to do some research before tweaking the settings of the fan. 

Laptop Started Making a Loud Growling Sound And Went Black

The loud growling sound could be related to the fan but chances are that this weird growling sound is coming out of the hard disk.

Overheating hard disk or faulty one could trigger this response in a laptop and to make sure if your hard drive is working properly, you will need to download Hard Disk Sentinel which is a 3rd-party app that could analyze the health and performance of the hard drive.

If there’s something wrong with the hard drive then you will probably need a new hard disk for the laptop. Check out the best quiet hard drives available on the market.

Another explanation could be that the laptop is overheating and reaching 90c-95c temps and as a fail-safe option, laptops tend to show a blue screen of death of black screen when this happens.

You will probably need to clear out the dust and the loud growling sound will stop. 

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FAQ

Why Is My Laptop Fan So Loud All Of A Sudden?

If you haven’t cleaned the vents of the laptop in a while then the laptop fan could start making a loud noise all of a sudden when you’re playing games or processing bulk of data.

Cleaning the vents at least once in 6 months is necessary and aside from making the laptop fan quieter, cleaning the internal could also prolong the laptop’s life. 

Is A Laptop Supposed To Make Noise?

If your new laptop is making a strange noise then there’s something wrong inside the laptop. There could be a number of things that factors in but mostly, it’s the faulty laptop fan.

Sometimes the fan can get damaged during the shipping which could be the reason behind loud fan noise.

In that case, to make it quieter, you’ll need to go to professionals to get it fixed. 

What Does It Mean When Your Laptop Motor Gets Loud?

The laptop motor tends to get loud when the laptop is reaching a critical temperature. Anything beyond 85c is alarming and could harm the internals.

If your laptop is overheating during gaming then there’s a solid chance that the integrated GPU is heating up and it could die.

The best way to tackle this problem is to take apart the whole thing and apply thermal paste on the CPU and GPU. 

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Conclusion 

We know that a loud laptop fan could literally drive you crazy. Fortunately, there are some easy and affordable ways to make the laptop fan noise quieter or stop the loud weird buzzing sound completely.

So, how to do it?

In summary, using canned air is the most effective way to get the dust out and fix the buzzing sound.

Another good option is to get an external cooling pad. It will contribute to lowering the temps and fix the overheating and loud laptop fan problem for you.

In order to stop the grinding sound, the fan must be replaced and we recommend taking your laptop to the professionals to replace the laptop fans.