Laptop cooling system

[bronxy]

Recently, I've been hearing a weird noise coming from my fan. I thought I would just ignore it.

Well, today when I got home I had a message on my computer that said:

System Warning:
A problem with the cooling system has been detected.
Please turn off the computer immediately and return for service.

It's a Toshiba Laptop. I could return it to them. I don't have a warranty on it anymore, and it would cost like $500.

Does anyone know if there is any cheap place, to just got a new cooling system? I've only had the laptop for 2 years, it's so odd that this would happen. Maybe I also need a better cooling pad underneath my laptop.

Any help is appreciated,
Thank you

[Spike]

Two questions: Does the fan still run at all, and where does that message pop up, in Windows?

[bronxy]

It runs for a few seconds (while making a really odd noise)
the message popped up in windows, on my desktop.

[Jon8RFC]

If it were me, I'd open up the laptop and pull out the bad fan and see if it's fixable. If not, look for some serial numbers and measure the width of it using millimeters. If you have the measurement, you can google or check ebay for a fan that size and you might find a replacement.