My laptop fan is spinning briefly and then stops, yet the computer still turns on normally?
My laptop fan is spinning briefly and then stops, yet the computer still turns on normally?
Hey, I bought an old Lenovo 3000 N200 laptop back when it was brand new. It hasn't been used in four or five years. After turning it on, everything worked fine until suddenly the screen went black and the computer shut down all by itself. I started looking around for clues and noticed that the fan wasn't spinning at all. So it looks like the laptop had gotten too hot inside.
I took the case apart to check what was wrong. Every time I plug it in, the fan spins up just for a split second right after turning on, but then immediately stops. It never gets back into gear again. For a while, I tried changing the operating system, but that didn't fix anything either. Then I bought a replacement part for the fan, and again, it would spin once and stop dead. Finally, I updated the BIOS settings, which did nothing either.
The laptop works perfectly fine in every other way though. I've booted up different operating systems like Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, I've installed all kinds of cool programs, and everything functions normally. The only part that is broken is the fan, and that's causing the computer to overheat. Just to be sure, I have to say that the battery is dead too, so I unplugged it from my wall outlet and tested the laptop on external power. It still works fine then.
I am totally stumped here. If this was a problem with the motherboard chip itself, I would expect it to cause way more issues than just stopping the fan. The fact that the fan is receiving electricity but not spinning suggests the connection wire or socket might be bad. What do you guys think I should check next? Thanks so much!
I use these a lot. They are good laptops for Linux computers. If you want to see how hot your machine is on Windows, try using something like Core Temp or CPU ID HW Monitor. My fans start going when it gets over 40C. It takes some time from when I turn the computer off and on again until the temperature goes above that mark. You won't find anything about fan settings inside the BIOS menu.