Dell Inspiron 17R SE 7720 - Fan Not Functioning

About a week ago, with no warning, the CPU fan (and I think the only fan in the laptop) started making abnormal, loud noises. It was an unhealthy whirring sound with some squeaking. Perhaps it was hitting a wire. I wanted to avoid opening the laptop, so first I updated the BIOS from A15 to A16, hoping it might do something helpful. Now, however, the fan does not work at all. It hasn't turned on a single time in a couple days.

I'm not sure if the total loss of function coincided with the BIOS update. I feel like I remember the noise still being there after flashing the BIOS, but since it would go in and out and wasn't always present, it was hard to tell in a noisy office environment. Since there were problems with the fan before the BIOS flash, I'm inclined to think the loss of function is related to the former, not the latter.

So does anyone have any helpful suggestions? I would just submit a support ticket, but I cannot for the life of me find a link to do so on this entire website. If someone could link me to that page, that'd be great.

Also, does it void my warranty if I open up the laptop and try to fix the fan myself? If it really is just a wire that got in the way, that would be incredibly easy to fix and save me a lot of hassle.