Is it safe to use a laptop if the CPU fan is failing?

Question

I'm having problems with my fan which went from being annoyingly loud to sometimes completely stopping and failing to dissipate the heat form my laptop.

I'm in the process of replacing it, however, I was wondering if I could continue using my laptop normally.

I've been monitoring the CPU temperatures, and when there is some load on the CPU, it goes up to 98 celsius degrees.

Considering I have my system (Windows, which can sometimes have its antimalware service or other processes put randomly a lot of load on the CPU) and a VM running alongside, I know that my CPU may be under a lot of charge for long period of times.

My question is, if I continue using my laptop as is, waiting for the replacement fan, what's the worst that I can expect: only spontaneous emergency shutdowns over a certain temperature (which could be annoying but not that much of a big deal, and has not happened yet), or actually overheating and breaking one of my components?

Solution 1

Will it work? Sure. Is it "safe"? Maybe

Modern CPUs, especially mobile ones, feature thermal throttling in order to protect them from extreme temperatures. What this means is that if a fan fails while the system is in operation then the CPU will limit itself in order to prevent damage caused by overheating. Your system performance can be severely hampered by this throttling.

While this can ensure that a system is likely to be protected from a failure you shouldn't count on it as a permanent saviour. Electronic components don't like being at their maximum limits for extended periods. Extreme hot/cold cycles can cause mechanical stress and lead to components breaking prematurely.

The fan heatsink may be connected to the CPU, but by keeping the CPU cool it also allows other components (such as power converters and interface chips) to shed heat easier.

I would only use such a system lightly and with caution. It will not be working at peak performance and will be at risk of further damage due to high temperatures around sensitive components.

Solution 2

No, this is not safe. Stop using your computer right now.

Maybe, just maybe, the CPU will protect itself from immediate death by thermal throttling or emergency shutdown.

However, the fan in a laptop does not only cool the CPU, it also cools other components in the system. Anything in your system may break including irreparable damages to main board, memory, or your disk and thus permanent loss of data. Even a emergency thermal shutdown can easily corrupt your data or file system.

If you value your hardware or data, you should not use the system until it is properly cooled again.

Solution 3

You're taking a risk, but I don't think it's as clear cut as other people are saying.

I have a 12yo Core 1 Duo laptop that I've been torturing with distributed computing just to see how long it'll last (from a perf/watt standpoint it's well past when it should've been retired). This basically consists of running at 100% load 24/7/365.

During that time I've killed its fan several times. And generally only discovered that I had done so after it began spontaneously shutting down due to overheating and after it happened several times I took a closer look and discovered the fan wasn't running (and IIRC the CPU was running well below normal speed). Since it wasn't shutting down immediately after the restarts prior to my discovering the bad fan's it has been running at max CPU temperature for a number of cumulative days/weeks.

You might not have as much luck as I have; and would be taking a risk but you've got a solid chance of coming out of it with nothing more than a few unexpected crashes.

If you want to do this, I'd recommend running a CPU temperature monitor to make sure your temps aren't hitting limits; and if you can't afford to replace the system if your luck does fail you probably should take the advice of the other answers and not tempt fate.

If you do this, I'd also suggest seeing if you can find a faster delivering source for the fan. In my experience, the cheapest Ebay/Amazon fan sellers have always been several week shipping direct from China vendors; but for a few extra dollars I could always find a seller in the US/UK that could get something to me in a fraction of the time.

Solution 4

No, at least not in the way that you describe.

You can in principle, and temporarily continue using your laptop "reasonably safe" because the overwhelming majority of things one does at a computer leaves it at 3-5% or less CPU usage. Which, luckily, means that the CPU isn't getting all that hot and the cooler fan is barely needed.
So, if you are aware that you need to replace the fan (and you will do it eventually, soon-ish) but you still need to write a few letters, or take notes for uni, or whatever, and you just don't have another computer... you will most probably be fine. The risk that bad things will happen is quite low.

However, running malware scans and virtual machines are not things that play in the "3-5% CPU" ballpark. Running such heavy tasks with a failing/failed cooler fan is outright insane. In the best case, you will greatly reduce the lifetime of your processor. In the worst case it will fail catastrophically.

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Comments

[Admin]

You can periodically blow in through the grills where the air from a laptop extractor fan would come out, and watch the cpu temp go down. Perhaps slight risk with that is that the air from your mouth may be a bit humid and you don't want water in your laptop, but I cooled a laptop manually like that for a while without an issue. You can also get various laptop coolers eg some will plug into usb and do its thing (blow or suck)

[Admin]

its definitely not good for your CPU to let it overheat. A question is, would it break the CPU completely in one fell swoop, and beyond that, e.g. if the CPU cuts out, then the next question is . is it a fire hazard.. .And if it's not a fire hazard, then granted , it's not good for the CPU but is it bad for other components too. Hopefully some can chip in (and based on their experience rather than guess work).

[Admin]

I would say avoid using your laptop until your fan is fixed. That is, if you're not prepared to buy a whole new laptop. I had a similar issue with my laptop until one day it stopped booting at all. I bought a new one. For me it was an easy decision as my laptop already served for ~5 years.

[Admin]

Years ago I was swapping parts in a desktop machine, and I forgot to attach the cpu heatsink before I turned it on. It was pretty much instantly fried. Not quite the same situation as here, I just thought I'd share my pain.

[Admin]

If possible I would go into your BIOS and disable some of your cores. 98C is crazy hot for a CPU.

[Admin]

Do you have a valid current backup of data on the device, elsewhere ?

[Admin]

Please don't use the laptop on a plane if I'm on the same plane.

[Admin]

@cybernard Wouldn't disabling cores put more strain on the remaining ones?

[Admin]

@Feathercrown Yes, but it has a limited effect say you have 8 cores. The TDP considers all 8 at max. So even if 1 core runs at 100% it uses 1/8 the TDP.

[Admin]

98°C (roughly 205°F) is nearly hot enough to boil water! I wouldn't recommend using it as a lap top. I wouldn't put it on anything else that I was concerned about either!

[Admin]

I think it's pretty safe: it's rather unlikely it will catch fire, unless the battery overheats and explodes.

[Admin]

@Jerrad years ago (about 5) I forgot to plug in the CPU cooler. I only noticed it when I launched Counter Strike and encountered extremely low performance - the CPU was throttled.

[Admin]

Simple solution: Get a small external fan and have it blow through (or pull from) the laptop exhaust grill. Use some paper and tape to direct all the air through the grill. You can harvest one from an old computer (look on Craigslist if you don't have one you can take a fan from). Use an old USB wire, and cut off the end to power the fan (red to red and black to black).

[Admin]

As others are saying, I had a laptop with shocking cooling. Hit temps of ~ 90 degrees. Got a 'Cooling Pad' which is basically a laptop stand with like 6 fans on the bottom. It was really quiet actually and did a really good job. Was sitting at like 50-60 degrees which was a big decrease.

[PoutchiPatch]

Would you consider the 3 weeks that I would be using my laptop before I can replace the fan as too long of a period to put my system under such stress? Considering I would be careful about my usage and monitoring temperatures

[Mokubai]

I personally would prefer less time, but I've known systems that have blocked cooling vents (similar effect) that have worked longer. I'd be very wary but so long as you keep an eye on things you may well be okay. It is hard to give a definitive answer.

[PoutchiPatch]

Thank you for this insight. I will accept your answer as I feel it explains correctly what are the risks

[Baldrickk]

To add to this answer, if it goes above the thermal cutout temperature, even with underclocking - that's it - the power is cut and you can't use your PC until its cooled. My advice would be to open the case and clear and blockage (laptops are notorious for buildup of "fluf") and if that doesn't allow the fan to spin again (dead and not just blocked) then use an external fan

[adfaklsdjf]

This is a good answer. I want to add that whether it's reasonable for you to continue using the machine depends a lot of value judgments, e.g. how bad would it be for you if the laptop died, vs how bad it would be to go without using it. How much remaining usable life does it have--which depends in part on how often you can financially afford to upgrade... and so on... I think continuing to use it will probably shorten the lifespan of some of the components and there is a small but non-negligible risk of hardware failure before the new fan arrives. My $0.02

[David Schwartz]

This is the problem. Many components have thermal throttling that will allow them to protect themselves. But with those smart components all at the highest temperature they're allowed to tolerate, other "dumb" components will likely be above the maximums they can tolerate.

[George M Reinstate Monica]

Let's just say that a hot day and not enough ventilation are what did in my last laptop.. It came back up, it was never the same. Eventually it died

[Nye]

This is just totally wrong. Baseless ignorant fear-mongering.

[Zulan]

@Nye feel free to present your empirical evidence to the contrary. Until then I may point out that supporting continued use based on anecdotal "It worked for me" evidence is not a good course of action.