No computer for a month. Healthy for me.
The cooling fan on my 2015 HP laptop got louder and louder. Last Friday, I backed up all photos, documents, music, videos, etc. on a separate hard drive. I backup once a month.
The next day the laptop showed a warning, essentially: "The cooling fan has malfunctioned. Continued use will damage your computer. You can't use your computer. You are locked out until you get it replaced or repaired."
Two years ago, my boyfriend Gregg messed with my laptop and screwed it up. He paid for a new fast, powerful hard drive. "Will you please blow out the fan?" I asked.
Yesterday I took my laptop to a computer repair shop. The technician Tim was delightful. He's a left-handed musician like me.
Tim said he will search online for a new fan. Cost: $30 for the fan plus $75 for labor. Two jobs are ahead of me.
"We have a bunch of used HP laptops in the back," Tim said. "I could harvest a cooling fan, test it and install it in your computer. That would be quicker. It should last for 2-3 years."
I'm leaning toward a new HP cooling fan. The original fan lasted eight years. Hope HP improved the cooling fan. Laptop fans are notorious for burning out.
For one day I felt lost without my computer.
The upside:
I spend entirely too much time on my computer. It will be healthy for me to take a break.
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6 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I had a fan start to fail, took it to the repair shop and they wanted like 200 bucks, I told him that it was ridiculous and asked how much for just the fan. 80 bucks was the answer, and again, I said NO WAY. I left, went back a week and a half later, showed him the computer worked just fine and told him it was 20 bucks including shipping, and flounced back out of the store with it. It took me all of 5 minutes to change out.
Larimar
Level 8
Jan 24, 2023
1
Since your computer is from 2015, I'd have the technician install a used fan, if it were me, and search for a newer computer for when that ones gives out.
I just replaced my 2014 laptop (mac book pro) a few months ago, since it was showing signs of giving out soon. I still have it as a backup, while I'm happily using my new one!
I have to work several hours a day using my computer, but I admit to wasting toooooo much time doing non-work related stuff. My goal is to decrease my screen time and and focus on non tech passtimes. 
Julie808
Level 8
Jan 24, 2023
1
@Julie808, @Gwendolyn2018, @GrooshStar, @DenoPenno
For Christmas Coby, the girl I'm mentoring, got a new, extremely small Apple laptop from her mother to take to college.
I felt appalled that her new tiny laptop has NO ports to plug-in a printer, flash drive, external hard drive, etc.
This would require buying all new expensive equipment.
"Why don't you buy a wireless printer?" Coby asked.
"Because I don't want one!" I replied. "My printer is a workhorse. It copies, scans and prints. I love it. Plus wireless printers got terrible reviews."
"Sondra has the same problem," my ex-husband Terry said about his girlfriend. "It's driving her nuts."
"Internet service is sketchy where I live close to the Cascade mountain foothills," I told Coby. "I've tried three internet providers. Calls get dropped in the kitchen and living room. The PUD did not extend underground internet wires this far."
@LiterateHiker My newest Mac Book Pro has lots of ports, but sadly not a regular old style USB port, so I simply bought some adapters to fit my old USB hardware into the new USBc ports. Not too much of a problem.
I have a great printer (HP) that does everything I want, scans, copies, prints, etc., and I can use it wirelessly or with the cable. I often like to use my computer in a different room than my printer, and it still works just fine over my wireless internet. (I have very slow internet, but I make do.)
I used my old computer as long as I dared, and when I saw a good deal on a new one, I took it. My daughter uses the Mac Book Air and loves it. Mine is too big and heavy for her tastes - She likes the smaller one which does everything my big one does, but I guess I still like to feel that I'm using a computer rather than a tiny device hardly heavier than a Frisbee!
I don't even own a computer. Everything I do online I do with my phone.
GrooshStar
Level 7
Jan 24, 2023
2
I feel for you and I hear you. I retired my laptop and now have 3 desktop computers. Two of these are re-furbed HP's and the last one , my newest one, is an Acer that I bought for $2 and worked the bugs out of. An HP fan should work for you. I've had both of my HP's for close to 5 years now and I never turn them off. They sleep. A few years back I bought a re-furbed computer from Tiger Direct. It worked for me for 10 years with sleeping only and not turning it off. After 10 years the mother board went bad. I suppose hibernate would work just as well for this.
DenoPenno
Level 9
Jan 24, 2023
1
I search Amazon for cheap, compatible components, then fit them myself.
Petter
Level 9
Jan 24, 2023
3
Wow! Very impressive.
@LiterateHiker Ta.
I purchased my first desktop computer, running on CP/M in 1982. I did my first "surgery" on a desktop machine in 1982.
I specified and built my first MS desktop computer in 1988.
Over the holidays, I was diagnosed with blood clots in my right leg, and the doctor asked me if I'd taken any long drives recently. Yes, I took a couple long road trips to New England last fall, but a fair amount of hiking was done on the longer one, at least. I think the more logical reason I got the clots is the amount of time I spend on my computer, something I'm now trying to change. So in the process of doing that, I agree -- I'm finding the time away from it is healthier in all respects.
DharmaBum50
Level 8
Jan 24, 2023
3
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