Hi,

Here I have a Toshiba Satellite A15S127, with a FAN that is dying. It makes extrange sounds and I got messages asking to send it to support service. I asked and to fix it would cost 400 euros, which for the moment is totally out of budget.

Now, I've found some "external FANs" or "cooling systems" (like this one: http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/NBC-1000-USB.htm, for instance). Do you thing something like that would be a good choice? Do you have any other advice for the situation?

I'll really appreciate any feedback. Thank you in advance!!

Not really a linux question.

An external fan is not going to do much for a laptop unless you remove some portion of the casing.

If you are feeling cheap and brave, you should be able to identify the fan and order a replacement online.

It's just a fan.

It might also just be dust. You should get a can of compressed air and see if you can clean your laptop out.

Well, it's true that it is not a linux question, but Linux users are (and I like to think I'm one) very supportive so I decided to ask, anyway.

I opened the case. Cleaned and everything, but the problem continues. What is worst is that here, in France, the support is very bad and, as I mentioned, expensive! I would have no problems replacing a desktop fan, but with a notebook it is not easy to get a fan that fits

Thank you anyway

Hate to repeat what you've already heard, but an external fan will do little. Can you buy an internal fan and replace it yourself at a lower cost? I know this was suggested earlier, but if you Google this, I've no doubt you'll find all the answers you need!

I have bought an external cooling system once when I had a Packardbell Easynote with a amd XP 2600+ which is very hot.

And the cooling system really helped but I had the fan of the cpu still working sometimes. So I cannot tell you that your notebook won't burn out...

I thing it will be easier if you could just buy a fan by yourself. Like those on graphical boards. If you could do this I'm sure that with adding an external cooling system too, your pc would be fine. But it all depends on your cpu. If it's an old one, maybe the external cooling system would be enough

Forget about getting one from Toshiba. Original spareparts are ridiculously high-priced.

In stead, extract the dying fan, gather dimensions, wiring and voltages, then get a replacement fan from RS (http://www.rs-components.com/) or Farnell (http://www.farnell.com/) or the like.

I believe your problem can be reduced to finding a fan supplier, and unless you live in a VERY rural area, one is bound to have a shop nearby. Again, forget Toshiba...

Look in the yellow pages for 'Elecronics', 'components' or similar. 'Jean-Luc l'electricien' lives just round the corner - you just haven't noticed...

You could also read the brand name on your dying fan and track down their local distributor - even in france they have distributors...

Another way to approach the problem is to recondition the fan a bit - i've done this several times with a crappy chipset-fan. Those things are usually fitted with a label on the propeller, under which a hole can be found where you can apply a teeny-weeny drop of very thin oil. If - like in my case - your fan whines and run very slowly, this may do the trick! Be prepared though to repeat the procedure on a regular basis, as the fan is obviously not new anymore.

Remember to hold on to the fan propeller while compressed-air-cleaning the heat sink inside your machine. Not only does the puny little motor inside the fan unit dislike being forced to do 50.000+ revs per minute, it may also start working as a dynamo and kick back something ugly into the motherboard electronics.

You should be able to order a replacement fan from newegg or any of 100 other parts suppliers online dirt cheap. If you just pay attention to what you're doing, replacing the fan is a breeze. (Pun intended)

Well, I'm not afraid to install a new fan by my own. I had removed and cleaned the one I have a couple of times.

About looking for a replacement, it doesn't look so easy here, honestly. Maybe in Paris would be simpler. Anyway, I haven't taken the fan with me to a shop for asking. I'll try that qhen I get the time.

Just want to thank you guys, for your tips and recommendations.

This could be a Linux question though. I had an old Dell Inspiron 7000, which the disk did finally go bad on (i am now using a sony vaio), but I ran linux on it and after about an hour of no use, the fan would just stop working and the only way to get it moving again was to restart the computer.

The reason I think it was linux, is I could leave it running for several days on windows and the fan would keep working, but only after an hour or two of no use on linux, the fan would just stop working.

Sorry that this was a little off topic, but just wanted to give my input.

Derek