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Fan Speed / Noise

post #1 of 19
1/7/05 at 2:11am
Thread Starter 
Hey all,

I've had my Sentia since the beginning of September, and this hasn't really been bothering me until now. For some reason, from the moment I turn my computer on, to when I turn it off, the fan runs at Full speed, and is very very loud. It is starting to get to me - it is louder then any other laptop I've ever heard, and even louder then my desktop. Is this normal? Is the laptop just running extremely hot? Could it be a problem with something internal?

BTW - I just updated the BIOS to 1.06 with no luck solving my problem.

Thanks for any help.

-Jay
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post #2 of 19
1/7/05 at 7:34am
thats definately abnormal, check the heat sink airway and make sure it isnt clocked by dust, also check that you have speedstep enabled in bios.
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post #3 of 19
1/7/05 at 9:44pm
Centrino does not run that hot requiring full time fan. Mine comes on only when I play games or when I run heavier programs. If you suspect that it is running hot, feel the air exiting the exhaust and see if it is hot air coming out.
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post #4 of 19
1/8/05 at 12:53am
Thread Starter 
The bottom of the laptop is very hot, but the air coming out seems to be cool. There isn't a single time when the fan just shuts off...it is always on...I guess I should call Alienware up and see what they have to say, yet I really don't want to send this out knowing how long they take...
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post #5 of 19
1/8/05 at 8:30am
Pull up the Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) and see if any of the processes are running near 99% cpu usage. I had one app that would get stuck on 99% cpu usage causing the fan to turn on becasue the processor was getting warm from the constant use.

-BoX
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post #6 of 19
1/8/05 at 3:10pm
Thread Starter 
Nothing like that except for the System Idle Process. I'm pretty confident that this isn't due to a Virus or Spyware either.
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post #7 of 19
1/8/05 at 9:26pm
that means you have no programs causing this, maybe the heat sink or thermal paste is applied wrong?

edit: goto http://www.cpuid.com/ and download their clocking program, when you are idling make sure your processor is at 600mhz and the multiplier is at 6x.
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post #8 of 19
1/9/05 at 4:35am
Sounds like its gonna require a trip to depot.

Mine got turned around in under two weeks from shipping it to them to getting it back.

-BoX
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post #9 of 19
1/12/05 at 2:28am
Thread Starter 
Has anyone ever had luck with getting Alienware to do the onsite service? It is pretty much impossible for me to send the machine out, but I really want to have this fixed.
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post #10 of 19
1/12/05 at 11:55pm
AW will have to be the ones who decides that. They pretty much have to have a solid diagnosis from their tech support of the exact problem before they send someone to your location. The person who comes isn't going to do any troubleshooting, they are just going to install whatever part AW sent to you/them.

-BoX
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post #11 of 19
1/13/05 at 3:42am
Thread Starter 
Think there is any chance there is an OS problem? I think I'll try reformatting to be sure...even though there are no processes that are taking up any CPU usage (except the idle process.) I've noticed performance problems, programs taking a long time to load, sometimes some locking up which makes me think it may all be OS related. Also, when I boot into "P" mode, the fan stops. If I do reformat, what is the best way to do it keeping the disk partitioned properly for the "P" button and whatnot? Thanks again.

Edit: Never mind - I take back what I said - P mode the fan goes at full speed also - might have just been a one-time thing when I tried it. I'll be calling Alienware in the morning.
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post #12 of 19
1/15/05 at 2:18am
Thread Starter 
Would it be bad if I just disconnected the fan altogether? Or could that potentially harm something?
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post #13 of 19
1/15/05 at 2:49am
Dont disconnect the Fan. Bad things will happen. Actually your Sentia should shut itself off before it overheats, which will be very soon once the fan is gone.

-Box
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post #14 of 19
1/15/05 at 3:56am
Thread Starter 
What triggers the fan to go on/off? I noticed when opening up the case, and taking the fan out to blow some air on it in case dust was building up, the fan and heatsink is one assembly, only plugged in by a power jumper...does this mean that the mechanism to turn the fan on is controlled by something internal to that assembly? If so, is it possible that what I have just malfunctioned and that if Alienware sent me a new one, it would fix the issue?
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post #15 of 19
2/6/05 at 9:14am
I loaded SETIathome tonight and noticed the fan issue. Sure enough as previously recommended in this thread I checked the CPU usage. Damn that thing is sucking some serious processor power. I have the 1.8ghz processor and 1mb ram. I have a athlon xp 3200 at home and it runs the SETI program without even being able to tell. Interesting. I shut off the SETI program and the fan shuts almost off.....
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post #16 of 19
2/23/05 at 9:02pm
Did we find a solution to this problem or not?, I seem to be having the same problem whit my Sentia, the fan is constantly running, and if I try to run a game like WoW, AO or BF Vietnam it will shut down after about 10 minutes.

If I hit the "P" button however, the fan will decrease in speed..
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post #17 of 19
2/23/05 at 10:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by IceEd
Did we find a solution to this problem or not?, I seem to be having the same problem whit my Sentia, the fan is constantly running, and if I try to run a game like WoW, AO or BF Vietnam it will shut down after about 10 minutes.

If I hit the "P" button however, the fan will decrease in speed..
The P button is battery mode or w/e. The Sentia runs at 600mhz when it is pressed and the fan runs at a slower speed. I believe it's to save battery power. As for it shutting down, it's probably an overheating issue, but I'm not certain.
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post #18 of 19
3/5/05 at 9:27am

Finaly got my fan speed to slow

I have put up with the noisy fan for about 4 months and after reading this threed decided to look into it. Basicly by changeing the bios from Enable Performance Mode to disabled my fan speed has droped back dramaticly and is now usable again. CPUZ still showing x 20 multiplier but seems to be about right sound wise.
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post #19 of 19
5/26/05 at 10:08pm
Thread Starter 
OK since I'm finally home from school for the summer, after dealing with this all year, I'm finally putting an end to this problem. Here's the update: I just had them send me a replacement fan - that didn't solve the problem, but seemed to help a bit (this one isn't quite as loud for some reason.) After reading through these forums, I noticed someone mentioned that in the Bios if you turn off Performance mode, it greatly reduces fan usage. When I did that, it did reduce it, and actually turned it off. But now I'm faced with this problem: it turns on every 2 minutes for 15 seconds, and then shuts off. It might be more annoying then the thing staying on all the time. What I noticed now was that every time Speedstep brings the CPU to 2.0GHz, the fan kicks in, but when bringing it back down to 600MHz, it shuts off. That tells me this: the fan isn't kicking on when a temperature change is being sensed, it is kicking on when the CPU is going to its Max. Question is, why does it keep going to the max every 2 minutes, and why does this always trigger the fan? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I can't deal with these Alienware techs anymore, and REALLY don't want to send the machine out.
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