Defective Fan?

I have read about alot of people complaining about noisey fans in their AA1. Some say its a whine others say its not. Some say they have the problem, others dont. Some try a fan fix or hack to controll the fan. To me this seems unsafe. I understand that the computer already controlls the fan cycles and speed (BIOS?) sure there could be a problem in the BIOS code, but ultimately a temp sensor is used to ensure safety of the equipment. (note: on more than one time in my computer user life, i have had programs that crash, and crash other programs, and bury my cpu to no end, well untill i come back to the pc and realize the problem (and usually its a temperature alarm) stuck cpus cause alot of heat. Thus i feel uncomfortable tweaking the fan from the OS. (This is an opinionated choice)


I would like to share my experience with my AA1 with everyone. I have an A0150-1570 Blue 120G/XP and just a few mins after turning it on I noticed a "buzzing" sound comming from the fan. This was before I read of any problems here, and thus was not expecting or looking for the problem. It was loud enough to get my attention. When i put my ear next to the bottom I got a better idea of what the sound could be. It wasnt a whine or hi-rpm noise, it was a buzzing, clicking, or tapping sound. It was a mechanical sound not an acoustic sound (air). It did not seem to be at the same speed of the fan RPM, it seems slower; as if one of the blades of the fan is contacting something. Perhaps a wire is incorrectly routed, or the case of the AA1 is too close, these might indicate a Desing or Assembly defect in the AA1. Perhaps a fan blade is contacting the shroud or protruding past the shroud, indicating a defective Fan Unit. I have not opened my AA1 (yet) so I cannot confirm this. However, anyone who has opened their AA1 could they please confirm the following:
1) The wire are routed in such a way as they cannot easily end up near the fan blades.
2) The case or parts of the AA1 adjacent to the Fan have sufficient clearance so this could not be the cause.
3) The part number for this (low quality?) fan, so as I can have a replacement on hand when I do my Ram upgrade in a few months.

In my experience whenever the noise of a fan is a mechanical one, it awlays points to a defective unit, or a worn (end of its life) unit. I know that Acer wouldnt put used fans in new computers, but they may choose the "cheapest" (read low manufacturing tolerances and quality control) fan provider to facilitate their efforts to give us such a great netbook at the BEST value (read: cheapest ive found for the specs)

Yes i have a defective fan, yes I still love my AA1 and would buy another if i needed, yes I will replace my fan when i get there. I would hesitate to send it in for a repair (unless there is a recall) I have 20 years experience with computers, and hardware repair. I think it would be a safe bet that, I have opened and repaired more laptops (read: more experience) than the tech that would get his hands on my AA1. Not to mention that I would be more careful not to scratch/mar the unit cause its mine and i have bonded with it. I have seen more than one laptop come back from Manufacture repair with obvious signs of cosmetic damage from the opening, with no resolution provided. :evil:

With more than a few people commenting on fan issues, oh IDk is it possible that some AA1's shipped with a Defective fan?

Has anyone inquired with ACER, is there a place @ ACER that we should ALL post/comment? Strength in numbers. (I would be satisfied with them shipping me a new/better fan installing it myself, ILO wasting everyones time and $$ on sending it in for warantee.) Hell i'd wouldnt even care it they voided my warantee. I presume that will happen when i upgrade my ram (something rare on a laptop, but understandable considering its doorless, stuffed under and behind RAM location Who get the thwap upside the head for that design element?)

So thats my 2c,

nchntr

 

Hi, this fan is really a nuisance. I am using the windows fan controller software. It is not a permanent solution to the problem however. Ever 10 minutes or so(i havent timed it) my AAO heats up and my fan turns on. Which is especially annoying in lecture. People actually turn around and give me a funny look. If you have seen pictures of the "heatsink" that they use, you would also feel that its a flawed design. WHY ARE THERE NO FINS ON IT WITH ALL THAT SPACE!?

I have opened up my AAO and did not see any thing in contact with the fan. The noise sounds like the noise of fans that all higher rpm small fans have (very similar but louder than my large than my notebook and also my desktop video card which is also a small blower type fan). I would love to get my fan replaced with a more quiet one. I wonder if we can find another [quieter] fan that we could replace ours with.

 

Mine is definately a mechanical noise, the fan itself doesnt really seem to spin too fast. It seems to run all the time also. I hope mine is not running slow because its rubbing on something. If the buzzing sound were gone my fan would be quiet. I have laptops (HP and Toshiba) both 2.4G p4 and they both have loud fans when they "throttle up" with CPU load. They have a highrpm elecrtic motor noise as well as the turbine sound of the air flow, both are much louder than the AA1, althhough they are well used also.

Its like my AA1 has a playing card hitting its spokes

 

I too have the problem described. It's a buzzing noise but sounds more 'course' than a typical whirring fan sound. And I get it from the outset. It does change in pitch depending on the CPU load / programs running.

Sometimes these things need time to bed in and it will improve over a few weeks use (has anyone had this experience) or maybe it's a cheap fan as commented before, if so, maybe that's the rub - it's a great netbook otherwise and great price.

I may decide to fit some more memory to mine in a while. In which case, I'll probably investigate further then and maybe even add some silicon grease to the fan spindle. Doesn't seem worth sending it back for this just yet but the noise is getting on my nerves!

 

The fan itself may be defective but from the frequency of problems that people have with the fan, myself included, I doubt that getting a replacement would ensure that the new fan would be problem-free. Currently, from the number of people commenting on it, it would seem that about 1/5 of the fans are of the loud variety and that the majority of people have quiet fans. I give that estimate because most people with working hardware are not likely to complain about it. 20% chance of getting a crappy fan is not that good.

There are a number of problems with the fan:
1) Poorly mechanical design - no fins attached to the base of the heatsink so the fan is basically pushing air against a flat aluminum surface
2) Poor fan control programming - this is somewhat related with the mechanical design as the internal fan seems to have no shutoff point unlike most normal notebooks but instead runs all the time at varying RPM speeds
3) The fan assembly is designed to be small and high RPM - high RPM = whiny, usually with a strong tonal pitch. If the fan were larger (which is hard to accomplish with such a small chassis), it could spin at a slower speed which would result in lower, less annoying resonant tones
4) Vibrational resonance - somewhere inside either the fan enclosure or the way it's attached to the chassis, the fan transmits a large amount of high frequency vibrations that ultimately lead to excess noise
5) The fan itself is a piece of crap

Modifications can fix problems 1-4. Nothing you can do about problem 5, which is probably the biggest contributor in most cases. There are some threads on the forum (i.e. Fanless Aspire) where some of these topics are further discussed.

My point then is that there are many things you can do to help the situation but replacing the fan is a bit of a crapshoot. You don't know if you will get something better or if the new fan will still have the same problems.

 

I vote for #5 - I think it comes down do being a crap fan.

It's truly the weak link of the AAO, at least for me. I love the machine, at least originally, but i hate the fan beyond belief. it just gets worse and worse as time goes on. tonight it suddenly did a strange loud slowdown like holding a fan into a handful of cards, then sped up to normal buzzy speed again. it was utterly bizarre.

Has anyone else notice how sensitive it is to movement also? if you hold the machine in front of you and twist and move the laptop around the fan sounds like it's grinding against the fan case. this leads me to believe it's either got very poor tolerances or something related. it's ridiculous.

I'm totally at a loss what to do now. I've done the "radical" thing of upgrading my memory and therefore killed my warranty as i understand, and now it's up to me to fix any flaws. It's quickly getting to a point that i feel like i'm abusing the machine just by having it on. I've got an ultra-portable machine that i'm embarrassed to use anywhere because it sounds like the worlds smallest weed wacker.

 

My fan was whisper quite when I first got my one but after a nasty drop it's made a light buzzing noise. I opened it up to inspect but everything appears to be inline. I don't see any contact points so it's not that. It's just noisier... it's not too loud but sounds chunky and annoying in a quite room. In the future I may look into a replacement but for now the linked fan control software is helping a little bit.

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=6063

At this moment I have two AAOs side by side and my machine is twice as loud. It has a more solid hum where the other is wispy.

 

Are you sure that this isn't the hdd making this sound?

 

This is the partnumber for the heatsink/fan : 60.S0207.005

I found a guy selling them on ebay (germany) but I am not sure if they are quiet or not

I post it here, maybe somebody is interested:
http://cgi.ebay.de/Original-Acer-Luefte ... 286.c0.m14

 

Defintely not...

An hdd would never grind into the side of the case with a little twisting motion, they're much sturdier than that. If they did, that would be the end of them right there. All the little metal grindings would be all over the inside of the hdd and it could no longer function. This noise is definitely the fan, no question.

I liked the AAO a lot, but the cooling fans are junk and when i questioned Acer they said they had no knowledge of bad fans on these units. This is my second AAO and the first had a loud fan as well. At this point I have no reason to believe that Acer is interested in fixing (or recognizing?) this problem so i'm returning my AAO and looking at other manfacturers now. The Samsung NC10 looks appealing to me, though it's a bit larger.

 

Ahoy,

I'd be up for a mass, target effort to file sane warranty claims. I do not know where to post... certainly, it is out there.

Hoo-rah.

So... uh... does the fan get better over time? Like fine wine?

*EDIT: In the course of surfing these forums, I had forgotten my fan was noisy. For future reference, I suggest AAO owners to use computer around 12 AM while extremely tired if they experience fan noise problems. Works wonders.

 

I've been waiting for someone in the AA1 enthusiast community to experiment with some third party fan replacements. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened yet. There's been the fan control software and some heatsink stuff, but it doesn't appear that anyone has reported on trying another kind of fan.

Mine is too loud to use in class, which is the precise application for which I purchased the AA1. I use the fan control software during class, all other times I let the fan run. Regardless of the reported temperature settings, when the fan is running - the air expelled is hot. Put the air vent under your nose, and it won't seem like it is ever a good idea to turn the fan off. The fan is my top gripe with the AA1. Aside from that, I have only minor gripes; the smudginess - and the touchpad being made of the same material as the case. I would prefer if the touchpad was made out of the usual touchpad material.

New netbooks are being announced so frequently - so I'm watching for one that is quiet, non-smudgy, and with a better touchpad. I've seen some videos of the NC10, but I can't tell if it is smudgy. But I'd keep my aspire one if this fan thing is resolved somehow - even if it means that I have to change the fan.

 

could some of these be the better heatsink/fan?
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Acer-Aspire-One ... .m20.l1116
http://cgi.ebay.com/Acer-Aspire-One-CPU ... .m20.l1116
those are what I see so far, I don't know if they are quiet or not

 

New Fan Noise on Startup

Thought I would add an update about my fan noise with an AAO 150.

When it was new (and up till now), the fan sound has been barely noticeable above the sound of the harddrive, but yesterday when I woke it, it started coughing like a cat with a hairball. It did this about 8 or 10 times while the fan was trying to spin up to speed.

This noise is most likely caused by dry/worn bushings in the fan/blower motor. Once it spins/warms up, the noise goes away. I'm probably going to try to re-lube the fan bushings and try improving the heat exchanger for better performance. I should be able to get by without using the fan much after that I hope.

 

A tech rep told me the fan is permanently attached to the motherboard. In your parusings, have you found this to be true?

 

afaik, the heatsink could be taken off by the three screws, and luckily, I didn't have screw glued to the chassis