Just got my nw8240 on the 17th, and one of the first things I was concerned about was a continuously running fan situation that a couple of reviewers had pointed out.
Well, to my surprise, I couldn't even hear my fan, even after extendend periods of play (8hrs), the rig just doesn't get really hot or make much noise at all.
Well going through my usual driver check to see what needs to be updated on a new system, I ran across the reason why those who brought the earlier last year were experiencing those situations. HP has released a bios update, that fixes the issue and has revised thermal tables to control the fan.
HPQFlash for HP Notebook System BIOS (68DTV) version F.0F (15 Sep 05)
* Fixes issue where the local hard drive is not detected when the External USB hard drive is used to "Ghost" image.
* Improves thermal tables to minimize fan activity. Changes the F10 Setup utility "Fan Always On on AC" option to run the fan at 20 percent power instead of 40 percent power. (Recommended setting for this option is "Enable.") This slows down the fan Power-On and Power-Off to reduce fan noise during a rapid temperature increase.
* Adds support for Computrace from Absolute Software.
* Adds "Wake on LAN (WOL) from OFF State" option in the F10 Setup utility.
* Adds the ability for the administrator to remove the Power-On password.
Well, to my surprise, I couldn't even hear my fan, even after extendend periods of play (8hrs), the rig just doesn't get really hot or make much noise at all.
Well going through my usual driver check to see what needs to be updated on a new system, I ran across the reason why those who brought the earlier last year were experiencing those situations. HP has released a bios update, that fixes the issue and has revised thermal tables to control the fan.
HPQFlash for HP Notebook System BIOS (68DTV) version F.0F (15 Sep 05)
* Fixes issue where the local hard drive is not detected when the External USB hard drive is used to "Ghost" image.
* Improves thermal tables to minimize fan activity. Changes the F10 Setup utility "Fan Always On on AC" option to run the fan at 20 percent power instead of 40 percent power. (Recommended setting for this option is "Enable.") This slows down the fan Power-On and Power-Off to reduce fan noise during a rapid temperature increase.
* Adds support for Computrace from Absolute Software.
* Adds "Wake on LAN (WOL) from OFF State" option in the F10 Setup utility.
* Adds the ability for the administrator to remove the Power-On password.
