I just picked up a P4 Pro a couple weeks ago and I immediately noticed the fan noise. If it was just a loud fan, I'd leave it at that and call it a day. But there was an additional noise that sounded more like a vibration. With these types of fans (the kind you find inside computers but smaller), it's typically something going wrong in the fan's bearing that causes the additional, unwanted noise. But it can also be how the fan assembly is mounted to a surface that causes the noise. I had a hunch it was the latter in this case. I decided to investigate as I knew the noise wasn't normal for a fan and it was annoyingly loud most of the time.
Long story short (hope it's not too late), the fan is mounted to a fitted piece of plastic that follows the curvature of the underside of the body. That plastic is right up against the body's plastic with no insulating material and secured in only 2 of the 4 corners. So, the plastic that the fan is mounted on was vibrating against the plastic of the P4 Pro's body (the gray plastic on the 'belly' of the P4), most likely in one or both of the unsecured corners. I removed the 1 accessible screw on this curved piece of plastic, gently lifted it slightly, and placed a strip of 3M double-sided adhesive foam tape on each side between it and the P4's body. That did it! The fan now just sounds like a normal fan, still a little on the loud side, but without the additional whine.
It's not too terribly difficult to get to it. Simply remove the 8 screws that secure the gray plastic underbelly to the white upper body. Remove the two screws (tiny Phillips head) that hold a retaining strip of metal over the one ribbon cable (be careful removing this strip as it may be a little springy and eject one of the screws to who knows where). Remove the ribbon cable. You now have the lower assembly separated from the upper body. Locate the fan and remove the one accessible screw that secures the fitted fan mount to the gray plastic (there are 2 screws, removing the other one requires a fair amount of additional disassembly, which isn't really required). Cut two small strips of double-sided foam tape (about 3/4" long by 1/8" wide), gently lift the fan mount fitted plastic away from the gray plastic (remember one screw is still attached so don't lift it too high), and insert the foam tape (one strip on each side). Secure the fan screw and reassemble!
This may be more trouble than most are willing to go through just to reduce some noise that isn't harming anything. But I'm one of those people who would just always be bothered with it so it was worth the 15-20 minutes for me. I hope that helps anyone else wanting to fix it or helps by just letting you know what the cause is and it's nothing to be concerned about in terms of normal operation.
Best,
Danny
Long story short (hope it's not too late), the fan is mounted to a fitted piece of plastic that follows the curvature of the underside of the body. That plastic is right up against the body's plastic with no insulating material and secured in only 2 of the 4 corners. So, the plastic that the fan is mounted on was vibrating against the plastic of the P4 Pro's body (the gray plastic on the 'belly' of the P4), most likely in one or both of the unsecured corners. I removed the 1 accessible screw on this curved piece of plastic, gently lifted it slightly, and placed a strip of 3M double-sided adhesive foam tape on each side between it and the P4's body. That did it! The fan now just sounds like a normal fan, still a little on the loud side, but without the additional whine.
It's not too terribly difficult to get to it. Simply remove the 8 screws that secure the gray plastic underbelly to the white upper body. Remove the two screws (tiny Phillips head) that hold a retaining strip of metal over the one ribbon cable (be careful removing this strip as it may be a little springy and eject one of the screws to who knows where). Remove the ribbon cable. You now have the lower assembly separated from the upper body. Locate the fan and remove the one accessible screw that secures the fitted fan mount to the gray plastic (there are 2 screws, removing the other one requires a fair amount of additional disassembly, which isn't really required). Cut two small strips of double-sided foam tape (about 3/4" long by 1/8" wide), gently lift the fan mount fitted plastic away from the gray plastic (remember one screw is still attached so don't lift it too high), and insert the foam tape (one strip on each side). Secure the fan screw and reassemble!
This may be more trouble than most are willing to go through just to reduce some noise that isn't harming anything. But I'm one of those people who would just always be bothered with it so it was worth the 15-20 minutes for me. I hope that helps anyone else wanting to fix it or helps by just letting you know what the cause is and it's nothing to be concerned about in terms of normal operation.
Best,
Danny
