Fans Constantly Turning On

[Jason]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Okay, I have a Gateway Solo 9500 laptop. It's 3 years old and is used
solely as a desktop plugged into wall power. When I first got it, the fans
were always going full bore, and they were LOUD. I disabled Speedstep and
the fan problem went away.

I've been running the laptop without hearing fans, except occasionally at
boot-up. Now, all of a sudden, the fans turn on every 5 minutes or so
while I'm using the computer. It drives me nuts!

I just bought a tilt stand, which gives a nice airgap beneath the computer.
I thought the increased air circulation would help the fan situation, but
it has not.

I've always used a CPU cooler, but for kicks, I tried turning it off. No
change.

Any ideas what is causing the fans to turn on so frequently? And what can
I do about it?

Any help would be appreciated.

--
Cheers,
jason

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

jason wrote:
> Okay, I have a Gateway Solo 9500 laptop. It's 3 years old and is used
> solely as a desktop plugged into wall power. When I first got it,
> the fans were always going full bore, and they were LOUD. I disabled
> Speedstep and the fan problem went away.
>
> I've been running the laptop without hearing fans, except
> occasionally at boot-up. Now, all of a sudden, the fans turn on
> every 5 minutes or so while I'm using the computer. It drives me
> nuts!
>
> I just bought a tilt stand, which gives a nice airgap beneath the
> computer. I thought the increased air circulation would help the fan
> situation, but it has not.
>
> I've always used a CPU cooler, but for kicks, I tried turning it off.
> No change.
>
> Any ideas what is causing the fans to turn on so frequently? And
> what can I do about it?
>
> Any help would be appreciated.

This laptop, AIRC, has a directly-cooled CPU like a mini-desktop fan and
heat sink sitting on the CPU itself. Given the age of the unit, it
might be that the heat sink and/or thermal pad between the CPU and the
heat sink are loose/debonded ( in addition to just plain dirty as
suggested by RAZO). Fixing the thermal pad is a matter of opening the
case, removing the heat sink and thermal pad, applying new thermal paste
or pad, and reassembling. Don't forget to clean out the dust.

Disabling CPU speed control is counterproductive to minimizing fan
noise. What you might have experienced is not the fan noise itself, but
the change in the fan noise as speed-stepping changed?

Q

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"jason" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:Xns9500A8DEB8B28zi42uwZoo@130.133.1.4...
| Okay, I have a Gateway Solo 9500 laptop. It's 3 years old and is used
| solely as a desktop plugged into wall power. When I first got it, the
fans
| were always going full bore, and they were LOUD. I disabled Speedstep and
| the fan problem went away.
|
| I've been running the laptop without hearing fans, except occasionally at
| boot-up. Now, all of a sudden, the fans turn on every 5 minutes or so
| while I'm using the computer. It drives me nuts!
|
| I just bought a tilt stand, which gives a nice airgap beneath the
computer.
| I thought the increased air circulation would help the fan situation, but
| it has not.
|
| I've always used a CPU cooler, but for kicks, I tried turning it off. No
| change.
|
| Any ideas what is causing the fans to turn on so frequently? And what can
| I do about it?
|
| Any help would be appreciated.
|
| --
| Cheers,
| jason

Perhaps...too much dust and hair in the system clogging up the whole thing?
Take it to someone to clean out the dust (just open it and blow it out)

 

[Jason]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Quaoar wrote:

>
> This laptop, AIRC, has a directly-cooled CPU like a mini-desktop fan
> and heat sink sitting on the CPU itself. Given the age of the unit,
> it might be that the heat sink and/or thermal pad between the CPU and
> the heat sink are loose/debonded ( in addition to just plain dirty as
> suggested by RAZO). Fixing the thermal pad is a matter of opening the
> case, removing the heat sink and thermal pad, applying new thermal
> paste or pad, and reassembling. Don't forget to clean out the dust.

Rats, I was hoping it was related to software or something.

Any ideas on where to have that kind of repair done? I took a look at
the case, and I'm not even sure how to open it. Plus, the manual warned
against opening it. I understand S/W, but I'm dangerous with H/W. There
used to be a Gateway store around where I live, but it went away. I
*might* still have protection under the 3-year limited parts warranty,
but I'm not sure I'd want to ship my computer out just to have such
minor repairs done. So any ideas about a generic (& inexpensive) place to
have minor laptop repairs done?

> Disabling CPU speed control is counterproductive to minimizing fan
> noise. What you might have experienced is not the fan noise itself,
> but the change in the fan noise as speed-stepping changed?

Al I know is the fans were constantly on when I had power-management
turned on, and presto, the problem went away when I turned speed-step
off. The fans are extremely loud and drive me nuts. So I pretty much
have zero-tolerance for hearing them at all.



--
Cheers,
jason

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

jason wrote:
> Quaoar wrote:
>
>>
>> This laptop, AIRC, has a directly-cooled CPU like a mini-desktop fan
>> and heat sink sitting on the CPU itself. Given the age of the unit,
>> it might be that the heat sink and/or thermal pad between the CPU and
>> the heat sink are loose/debonded ( in addition to just plain dirty as
>> suggested by RAZO). Fixing the thermal pad is a matter of opening
>> the case, removing the heat sink and thermal pad, applying new
>> thermal paste or pad, and reassembling. Don't forget to clean out
>> the dust.
>
> Rats, I was hoping it was related to software or something.
>
> Any ideas on where to have that kind of repair done? I took a look at
> the case, and I'm not even sure how to open it. Plus, the manual
> warned against opening it. I understand S/W, but I'm dangerous with
> H/W. There used to be a Gateway store around where I live, but it
> went away. I *might* still have protection under the 3-year limited
> parts warranty, but I'm not sure I'd want to ship my computer out
> just to have such minor repairs done. So any ideas about a generic (&
> inexpensive) place to have minor laptop repairs done?
>
>> Disabling CPU speed control is counterproductive to minimizing fan
>> noise. What you might have experienced is not the fan noise itself,
>> but the change in the fan noise as speed-stepping changed?
>
> Al I know is the fans were constantly on when I had power-management
> turned on, and presto, the problem went away when I turned speed-step
> off. The fans are extremely loud and drive me nuts. So I pretty much
> have zero-tolerance for hearing them at all.

Any local computer repair should be able to take care of the problem.
Unless there is an operability problem, the warranty service probably
won't accept it. What happens if you enable a battery mode? Does the
fan noise decrease? If so, can you enable the same mode on AC power? It
probably significantly steps down the CPU on battery mode. If this has
its own software power management (power panel) it is possible to
operate on AC using the battery mode settings.

Q

 

[Jason]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Quaoar wrote:

What happens if you enable a battery mode? Does the
> fan noise decrease? If so, can you enable the same mode on AC power? It
> probably significantly steps down the CPU on battery mode. If this has
> its own software power management (power panel) it is possible to
> operate on AC using the battery mode settings.

I've done a little bit of digging there. I do have power management, but
the options don't deal with the CPU, but rather when (after how many
minutes) to put the system in standby, turn off the hard disk and turn off
the monitor. I've got all those set to conserve power.

By disabling speedstep (I think that was a BIOS option), I reduce the CPU
speed (from 900 MHz to 700 MHz IIRC), but I did that the first day I bought
the machine. So there's nothing more for me to do there.

So unless I've overlooked something, I may be out of software options...

--
Cheers,
jason

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

jason wrote:
> Quaoar wrote:
>
> What happens if you enable a battery mode? Does the
>> fan noise decrease? If so, can you enable the same mode on AC power?
>> It probably significantly steps down the CPU on battery mode. If
>> this has its own software power management (power panel) it is
>> possible to operate on AC using the battery mode settings.
>
> I've done a little bit of digging there. I do have power management,
> but the options don't deal with the CPU, but rather when (after how
> many minutes) to put the system in standby, turn off the hard disk
> and turn off the monitor. I've got all those set to conserve power.
>
> By disabling speedstep (I think that was a BIOS option), I reduce the
> CPU speed (from 900 MHz to 700 MHz IIRC), but I did that the first
> day I bought the machine. So there's nothing more for me to do there.
>
> So unless I've overlooked something, I may be out of software
> options...

Probably.

Q