# How Do You Know When Your Computer Fan Quits Working?



## How Do I

How do you know when the fan quits working on your computer? I haven't had this problem before so I'm just wondering out loud. Is there some sort of built in warning on your computer that lets you know when it stops working? :shrug:


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## Nevada

The symptoms vary with severity. First, the system will become slow as heat builds. You will see CPU usage in the Task Manager pegged at 100% for minor tasks like opening a web browser, and have it take several minutes to open. You will likely see the blue screen from time to time, and if your system has overtemp protection it will shutdown without warning.

It usually comes with some warning though. More often than not the fan bearings will moan, indicating that the fan is about to go out.

I've heard of processor chips getting fried from running without a fan, but in practice I've seen processor chips take an amazing amount of heat punishment and turn out fine after the fan is replaced.


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## HermitJohn

There are components that let you put together a completely fanless computer. I know some low end computers use to only have a fan in the power supply, the processor just had huge heat sink and no fan. Back then it was cost cutting strategy. But now you can find fanless power supplies I think and huge heat sinks to eliminate processor fan. And its not to save money, there is demand for quiet computers and low power consumption computers. 

Personally I'd love a silent no moving parts computer, but not willing to pay super huge amount to eliminate that last little bit of noise. Havent looked for some time, maybe more affordable now.


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## How Do I

Good info. I was thinking it would put some serious strain on the computer. My current OEM fan is so quiet that I'm not so sure I'd know if it wasn't working. My old computer fan sounded like a hair blow dryer. Would be hard to miss that one failing. Just one other quick question, if I may. 

How often do you clean your fan and heat sink? I clean mine about every six months. The tower sits on the desk, so it doesn't get too bad. But it is located in a busy area so there's always a source of dust versus maybe someone that has theirs located in a back room that is rarely used.


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## defenestrate

It's pretty rare for a CPU to be damaged by heat these days, but overall system overheat is common enough. Agreed that failing fans will often make some racket. That or the fan will sometimes just stop turning which is likely to sound different but may or may not be easily noticeable.

If you find the computer running okay but shutting off, possibly making a loud beeping noise while it does, heat could be an issue. Hard drives can be rather susceptible to heat so disk errors, blue screens, and performance issues happening when your computer has run for a while are all potential symptoms.

If you are comfortable opening your computer to blow dust out of it, you can safely power it up to verify visually that fans are spinning. Some fans only run when temperature reaches a certain point but most fans will spin at some speed while the machine is on, most likely. Depending on the computer you may be able to get software that monitors system temp and fan speeds, or load that info on bootup but that is beyond the scope of this response.

Is there something specific worrying you or are you just curious?


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## How Do I

More curiosity than anything. Thanks.


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