What to Do if Your Laptop Fan Won't Come On

Video Transcript

"I'm Jonathan Ayres with Networked for Success and today we're going to talk about what to do when your laptop fan won't come on. Well, first of all, you'd have to ask yourself, how do you know your laptop fan isn't coming on, but you know there are an awful lot of people that know when that fan comes on, because they hear it, and of course, the fan comes on when the computer gets hot, and the computer gets hot when you make it work. And how do you make a computer work? Show a video on it; that's the easiest way. Anytime you play a movie on a laptop, it's going to get very hot. So, if you run a video on your laptop and you find out the fan isn't working or you just know that it's not working, what can you actually do to fix it? Well, I would suggest to most people that this is probably way too difficult for any individual to take on their own, and I've got a laptop right here in front of me to show you an example. This laptop, which is a modern Dell laptop, if I wanted to pull the fan off of this one, I would have to take it apart by starting with removing this screen up here. But, wait a minute. There aren't any screws anywhere, so how do you know where to take things apart if there aren't any screws? Well, the fact of the matter is that you have to be an expert to know how to pull this bezel off. And this bezel has little rubber pads all the way around it, and when you pull those little rubber pads off, if you don't do it correctly, when they come off, you'll never get them back on again, because they have adhesive on them and they only come off once and they don't go back on again. Once you do that, when you get behind here, there are only two areas where you're going to be able to take screws off, but if someone doesn't tell you where they are, you're not going to know this or you're going to have to look. Folks, this is just the starting difficulty with taking a laptop apart. I've done it myself and believe me, it's very complicated, even for someone who has the tools and the techniques. It's not easy. It doesn't just come apart like you think it should, and along the way, there are a lot of pitfalls. You could actually cause static to touch some part inside of the computer and cause it to be damaged and you don't want to do that. My recommendation, any time you think you have a problem that is mechanical with your laptop, is take it to an authorized repair center, and it's best to do that. An authorized repair center, as opposed to an independent, would be the way to go. So if you have an Apple or Macintosh computer, please take it to an authorized Apple or Macintosh repair station. And the same thing with PCs; if you've got a Dell, call Dell and ask them where to get it fixed. Don't do it on your own; don't take any chances."