The fan is making a grinding noise that definitely wasn’t there when the laptop was new. The original sound it was making, I didn’t find that irritating and I got used to it. However, it now sounds like a geiger counter when simply sitting on the Windows desktop.
After taking the cover off and cleaning the fan, I didn’t get much of an improvement, so I opted to replace it. It’s out of stock on Framework’s official site, with no ETA on restock. But, the bigger problem is I can’t find a compatible replacement! Even if I search for “framework parts” in several different search engines, I can’t find any supplier that carries the fan - even someone other than Framework that does have an ETA on restocking!
I do have HWINFO64 setup to warn me of the “core critical temperature” status flag popping up, thus I would know if the fan was actually going bad in terms of airflow capacity (and, most importantly I would then know to save my work and shut down “properly” ASAP)