Late 2008 15" MBP -- Buzzing noise from upper-left

[jasonbogd]

Hi all,

Since about yesterday, there has been a strange buzzing noise coming from the left side of the MBP. I purchased it in Late 2008 and it has had no hardware failures in its lifetime. It hasn't been damaged since yesterday, so I'm not sure where the noise is coming from. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[jbg232]

Likely fan or hard drive. One is bad, the other not so bad....

 

[jasonbogd]

How can I tell the difference?

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Actually, this is a little weird: If I press down on one of the keys near the left-side of the keyboard, the noise stops. But if I rest my hand to the left of the trackpad, it starts up again.

 

[Oxonian3]

Upper left is DEFINITELY WITHOUT A DOUBT THE FAN.I seriously consider either buying a new fan or just buying lubricant,taking the fan apart,applying lube and installing it.I had a fan problem with my '08 Mac.It was like it was running on only one fan and would get to 100C(212F) and killed my logic board.

 

[jasonbogd]

bump...

 

[killerrobot]

As others have stated it's probably the fan...
Things to do:
1. Install iStat (or smcfancontrol) and see if the fan is running normal with the left fan
2. If you don't believe it's the fan, run Disk Utility and see if there's any SMART problems with the HD
3. Run the Apple Hardware test and see if any errors come up - search for codes online
4. Take it to Apple/Certified Technician for repairs or buy parts and do it yourself.

 

[jasonbogd]

According to smcFanControl, the left and right fans are both running at ~2000 rpm. I'll run Disk Utility and the Apple Hardware Test too though.