Laptop fan about to die, maybe(?)

[grs]

I have a Dell Latitude laptop. Within the last few days the fan has started to give a very quiet high pitch squeel, I think it might be the fan bearings It's not doing it the whole time but it has me worried. The laptop is 1 1/2 years old with a good deal of use. If it does go, can I get a replacement easily enough? Dell are the last people I want to go to with a technical problem!! lol
I'm sure it'll last for sometime still, I just wanted to check.

[Macaholic]

The guts of any laptop are packed into such a small, cramped space, that the cooling fan is absolutely critical. I don't get excited about noisy laptop fans, I had one in my PowerBook G4 that got squeaky within a year of my buying it and continued making noise for the next three years without failing. On the other hand, you don't want to wait until you get signs of excessive heat damage to replace the fan. If the fan gets increasingly loud over time or starts noisy (and slow) then quiets down as it picks up speed, I would recommend replacement at the first opportunity. Assuming you've owned the notebook for a decent time frame, you should be familiar with how long the fan usually takes to come on and how long it runs. A replacement laptop fan and heat pipe should cost well under $50, you may even get by with a generic fan replacement for a few bucks, but the job is fairly involved and differs from manufacturer to manufacturer.

[grs]

Thanks for that. I don't know much about laptop hardware, are parts made to size standards like with desktops? If so can you suggest a make/model of fan and somewhere that may stock it, just so I can get an idea of what to look for.
As for replacing it myself, I did come accross some Dell technical manuals for building/dismantling their machines sometime ago, So I do know there maybe a rough guide on how to get at it somewhere out there.

[Korndog]

the high pitch sound could just be because a lot of dust accumulated around or on the fan. if you have a good vacuum cleaner, try using the hose attachment to clean the fan/heatsink though the plastic grills. if that doesn't work, you might have to dismantle it and then clean it. if it still does that after you clean, my might want to look for a replacement, just encase.
they're not too costly on ebay..
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Latitude-D610-CPU-Fan-GB0506PGV1-8A-SUNON-MagLev_W0QQitemZ320086262273QQihZ011QQcategoryZ801 51QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
but you'll have to convince them to ship to Ireland :-/

[Macaholic]

I find it best to know what is inside first and then you can search for parts from there. You can build your own white box laptop from parts, but many times you will find slight variations in fans and sinks since everything is stuffed into such a small area. Check out the link here (http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_dell.html) for some disassembly guides.

[grs]

That website doesn't have a full manual for the Dell Latitude D610, I did find it here:-
http://www.geneseo.edu/~stratton/D610_ServManual/index.htm
As for Ebay, I have friends in the US who can foward packages for me ;)
Thanks for the help, now I know what to get and how to replace it.