Weird electrical vibration on left side of laptop.

[lilhasselhoffer]

Thank you so much for the very detailed and in-depth reply. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.
Will increasing the power draw when adding the tape cause any issues or is the extra power negligable?
In the second solution, where would you add the rubber washers?
Finally which one of the two do you think is better?
I have also attached a picture of the fan in case it helps you.

My apologies on the late reply.

The extra power draw will be on startup, and the relatively limited input required to keep it spinning. This is because you are effectively upping the mass of the fan, but it's not like a small weight is going to cause a huge increase in power draw. Just be very judicious in tape placement, and experiment.

I see two screws attached to the immediate fan shroud body. I'd add thin rubber washers there, and maybe do a visual inspect of where the fan shroud contacts the mobo. A tiny bit of double sided tape between the shroud and motherboard will prevent oscillation (and thus noise). Just make sure not to add a lot and not to cover any electronic components.

Tape and damping of the shroud is probably your best bet. It's likely that the amount of tape you'd add to the fan itself is going to be a problem long term, based on your fan being a lot of hub and not a lot of blade. That said, you are going to have to play with it. This is...probably more of a balance issue than a "it can be fixed" issue. By that I mean you're probably going to have to put up with some noise, because laptops don't exactly have entirely rigid items everywhere. This is by design, so you may have to put up with some noise no matter what.

 

[CaramelDonut]

My apologies on the late reply.

The extra power draw will be on startup, and the relatively limited input required to keep it spinning. This is because you are effectively upping the mass of the fan, but it's not like a small weight is going to cause a huge increase in power draw. Just be very judicious in tape placement, and experiment.

I see two screws attached to the immediate fan shroud body. I'd add thin rubber washers there, and maybe do a visual inspect of where the fan shroud contacts the mobo. A tiny bit of double sided tape between the shroud and motherboard will prevent oscillation (and thus noise). Just make sure not to add a lot and not to cover any electronic components.

Tape and damping of the shroud is probably your best bet. It's likely that the amount of tape you'd add to the fan itself is going to be a problem long term, based on your fan being a lot of hub and not a lot of blade. That said, you are going to have to play with it. This is...probably more of a balance issue than a "it can be fixed" issue. By that I mean you're probably going to have to put up with some noise, because laptops don't exactly have entirely rigid items everywhere. This is by design, so you may have to put up with some noise no matter what.

No need to apologize. Thank you for the help and very indepth reply.

I've put foam pad under the fan, similar to the placement in the picture, except that I cut it into 4 small pieces and placed them more symmetrically. This so far has helped reduce the vibrations although it has not completely alleviated the issue. Do you think the foam is sufficient or do i have to use double sides tape instead?

I will additionally add the tape to the center and the rubber washers to the screws as you instructed. I also had a question: is it possible the vibration could be caused by the small plastic flaps connected to the heatsink which stay under the fan? I don't know if you can tell in the second picture, but the cutouts in the flaps should be aligned with the metal bumps on the body (as they are on the right) which causes them to not "sit" correctly. If so what can I do to fix it? Can I just cut them a bit so they fit better?

I tried putting on the tape as you said, I experimented with multiple amounts but there was no real change unfortunately. I will get some ruber washers to put on the screws and hopefully it helps but I am not optimistic. At this point I think the problem might be electrial somehow (maybe something similar to a grounding issue), but idk if that makes sense since it happens even while on battery.

 

[CaramelDonut]

Putting the rubber washers on the screws also did not seem to help. At this point the only thing I can think that could be causing it is either an electrical issue as I said, or the misalignment of the flaps under the fan.

Could anyone tell me if they really could be the cause, and if it would be safe/worth it to cut them a bit so they fit better? I have added a picture where I circled the points I am talking about in case it wasn't clear enough in the original picture I sent.