help, help, help please

  • Thread starter Thread starter AkiraTenshi
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AkiraTenshi

I know absolutely nothing about computer hardware, and desperatly need some
advice for my sony vaio pcv-rx650. About a month ago I booted up my computer
and a message stating "hardware manager found a problem" appeared. I went
into setup and looked at the hardware manager, the speed for my power fan was
in red and said it was around 1400 rpm. My problem is that Sony has a
horrible tech support line, and I am terrified to purchase yet another
upgrade to fix a computer that may not be worth it. Please if anyone has any
advice it would be greatly appreciated.
 
I know absolutely nothing about computer hardware, and desperatly need some
advice for my sony vaio pcv-rx650. About a month ago I booted up my computer
and a message stating "hardware manager found a problem" appeared. I went
into setup and looked at the hardware manager, the speed for my power fan was
in red and said it was around 1400 rpm. My problem is that Sony has a
horrible tech support line, and I am terrified to purchase yet another
upgrade to fix a computer that may not be worth it. Please if anyone has any
advice it would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...


Well... what is the system worth to you? Fans usually
aren't very expensive, but it might cost a lot more to buy
it from Sony than someplace else.

I don't know what that fan's speed is supposed to be, but if
it had been fine and suddenly signaling that the RPM were
too low, odds are it is correct, that you need to buy a fan
for it... or if it is a sleeve bearing fan, peel back the
label, take out the rubber plug, put in a drop or two of
thick oil then seal it back up. Relubing a fan can
sometimes work very well but other times the fan will still
fail eventually (sooner rather than years later), depending
on the particular fan and how worn it is.

Most fans are fairly standard. Open the system and see
which fan, what size it is. Measure the diameter, the
thickness, and the current rating (it would help to just
write down all the information on the fan label).

A typical fan might be something like 80mm diameter but
that's a fairly small system, it could be 60mm or something
else (Sony more than many manufacturers, likes to use
proprietary non-standard parts). It might be around 10, 15,
20 or 25mm thick.

It could even be that the only fan is in the power supply,
and it might be that you can't even see the label on the fan
without opening the power supply (but do so carefully, be
sure to unplug the AC power from it for several minutes
beforehand, and since you "know absolutely nothing about
computer hardware", if you have a friend that is more
experienced, you might enlist their aid in this.

If it's a standard fan, that's about $5 USD plus shipping
cost. No need to buy the fan from Sony unless it's unusual
in some way. The label and dimensions on the fan should
allow us to determine if it's unusual.
 
Thanks so much! I really do want to save the comp, I have a lot on it that I
really can't see losing. I have measured everything, written down the
figures on the fan it self , and have compared it to several I have found
online. Thanks again for the advice, I feel more confident knowing that it
sounds like I've looked into it as much as possible.
I know absolutely nothing about computer hardware, and desperatly need some
advice for my sony vaio pcv-rx650. About a month ago I booted up my computer
Click to expand...
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
upgrade to fix a computer that may not be worth it. Please if anyone has any
advice it would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Well... what is the system worth to you? Fans usually
aren't very expensive, but it might cost a lot more to buy
it from Sony than someplace else.

I don't know what that fan's speed is supposed to be, but if
it had been fine and suddenly signaling that the RPM were
too low, odds are it is correct, that you need to buy a fan
for it... or if it is a sleeve bearing fan, peel back the
label, take out the rubber plug, put in a drop or two of
thick oil then seal it back up. Relubing a fan can
sometimes work very well but other times the fan will still
fail eventually (sooner rather than years later), depending
on the particular fan and how worn it is.

Most fans are fairly standard. Open the system and see
which fan, what size it is. Measure the diameter, the
thickness, and the current rating (it would help to just
write down all the information on the fan label).

A typical fan might be something like 80mm diameter but
that's a fairly small system, it could be 60mm or something
else (Sony more than many manufacturers, likes to use
proprietary non-standard parts). It might be around 10, 15,
20 or 25mm thick.

It could even be that the only fan is in the power supply,
and it might be that you can't even see the label on the fan
without opening the power supply (but do so carefully, be
sure to unplug the AC power from it for several minutes
beforehand, and since you "know absolutely nothing about
computer hardware", if you have a friend that is more
experienced, you might enlist their aid in this.

If it's a standard fan, that's about $5 USD plus shipping
cost. No need to buy the fan from Sony unless it's unusual
in some way. The label and dimensions on the fan should
allow us to determine if it's unusual.
Click to expand...
 
AkiraTenshi said:
Thanks so much! I really do want to save the comp, I have a lot on it that
I
really can't see losing. I have measured everything, written down the
figures on the fan it self , and have compared it to several I have found
online. Thanks again for the advice, I feel more confident knowing that
it
sounds like I've looked into it as much as possible.
Click to expand...

If you have data on the computer that you don't want to lose back it up
asap. The hard-drive of a single machine should not be considered safe long
term storage for important data...
 
"Dave" said:
If you have data on the computer that you don't want to lose back it up
asap. The hard-drive of a single machine should not be considered safe long
term storage for important data...
Click to expand...

That is sound advice. Back up all the data on the hard drive, then
take the laptop to a repair shop. It could be, that the fan is
just filled with dust, and needs to be cleaned. The fan might
not be broken or worn out. But before you take any computer to
a shop, _always_ copy the important data from the disk drive,
to another disk drive. That spare disk drive can be placed in a
USB enclosure for example. The reason I suggest that, is many
repair shops reformat the hard drive when they are not supposed
to, wiping out all your data.

Paul
 
That is sound advice. Back up all the data on the hard drive, then
take the laptop to a repair shop. It could be, that the fan is
just filled with dust, and needs to be cleaned. The fan might
not be broken or worn out. But before you take any computer to
a shop, _always_ copy the important data from the disk drive,
to another disk drive. That spare disk drive can be placed in a
USB enclosure for example. The reason I suggest that, is many
repair shops reformat the hard drive when they are not supposed
to, wiping out all your data.

Paul
Click to expand...


I might've made a mistake, but I don't think this is a
laptop.

Even so, the advice is still good. I would never trust a
shop to retain/preserve/etc, any data, would always back it
up first.
 
Its a desktop computer. I have taken the fan out and cleaned it out with a
vacuum. My biggest concern is making sure I buy a fan with enough rpm. That
has been really difficult to find anywhere. I found a fan on geeks.com that
was the same size, had the same connectors, and ran at 2500 rpm, which is
1100 faster then what it is currently blowing. I just hope thats fast enough.


Its a pentium 4, running xp, 80G harddrive, 512 mb ram. The only upgrade
I've done is a new video card (GeForce FX5600 256MB) I'm not sure if these
specs make a differance or not. Most of the fans I've found run around the
same speed, I bought the highest speed I could find.

I do usually make a habit of backing up files with jump drives, cd's etc,
unfortunately I haven't for a few months and now I can't get into windows to
do so, hopefully when I put in the new fan it will be fine

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to help out. Sony Tech support is
really a waste a time, and I really appreciate all the help! This forum has
saved me from ALOT of stress.
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
Paul
Click to expand...

I might've made a mistake, but I don't think this is a
laptop.

Even so, the advice is still good. I would never trust a
shop to retain/preserve/etc, any data, would always back it
up first.
Click to expand...
 
Its a desktop computer. I have taken the fan out and cleaned it out with a
vacuum. My biggest concern is making sure I buy a fan with enough rpm. That
has been really difficult to find anywhere. I found a fan on geeks.com that
was the same size, had the same connectors, and ran at 2500 rpm, which is
1100 faster then what it is currently blowing. I just hope thats fast enough.
Click to expand...


By checking the specs on the old fan you can ascertain what
it's original RPM was supposed to be. For example, a 0.12A
fan tends to be about 2500 RPM. However, some OEM systems
deliberately use a fan with a much higher default (at 12V)
RPM rating, because the fan is connected to a system fan
controller that always runs that fan slower than it's max
possible RPM, and varies the speed based upon a temperature
reading. IF your system uses such a method of fan control,
a 2500RPM fan will likely be too slow. It could be all the
more important to select a fan with similar RPM.

Its a pentium 4, running xp, 80G harddrive, 512 mb ram. The only upgrade
I've done is a new video card (GeForce FX5600 256MB) I'm not sure if these
specs make a differance or not. Most of the fans I've found run around the
same speed, I bought the highest speed I could find.
Click to expand...

It can depend on the chassis design, fan size, fan control
(or lack thereof), and other variables. We can't see your
system so the label on your fan is the primary source of
information... information that a Sony CSR might not even
have.
 
The fan I bought did work, sadly the computer is still screwed up so I'm
going to take it into the geek squad I think. The only slightly useful thing
that Sony did tell me was that it could be either the motherboard or the fan.
So obviously the fan broke, overheated my motherboard, and now I'm back
where I started
 
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