Laptop Fan Speed

[GeeBee2002]

I bought my wife the Gateway P7811FX. It's an incredible machine. I have a question about the laptop fan speed.

The speed of the fan often isn't constant after boot up, like it is for my desktop. Nothing is obstructing the fan vent and the laptop sits on a flat surface. Is this variable fan speed normal? The best I can describe is the fan kind of pulsates, but not at constant intervals. No strange noises, and it would seem normal, but I'm not 100% confident.

 

[theworminator]

It pulsates? Not just cycling into a faster RPM to cool down your laptop right? If you want, use HWMonitor to check your temps, or Rivatuner or something, see if the fan is spinning up in response to heat.

Either that or it pulsates. Weird. Though I've seen a laptop with that sound before, and it pissed me off

 

[GeeBee2002]

Not pulsates, per se. The speed pulsates from fast to slow. Like I said - no strange noises. This happens very soon after boot up, so I wouldn't expect it to be in response to an overly warm environment.

 

[theworminator]

Hm...I'm not sure...maybe try Speedfan and create some fan profiles, see if you can force a steady fan? As far as I know, this isn't normal behaviour....though I haven't had experience with the Gateway FX series.

 

[dwellman]

Irregular pulsing is fine (fans being temperature controlled and all) regular pulsing means there an inductor or something similar (on the mainboard) loose or about to fail.

 

[UmbrellaCorporation_com]

Hello,

I got the same laptop Gateway P-7811FX. I used SpeedFan and it did not recognized my CPU fan. Then, RivaTuner will only adjust the GPU fan not the CPU. The computer comes with a 9800M GTS, I am not sure if it comes with a fan but the NVIDIA System Tool Utility does not give access to the fan.

The Bios on this computer is not help at all, it does not give access to fan control. I am trying to look for a Bios update utility or a place were I can download it.

Please, if you have any information about how we can fix this, please let me know.

Thank you,


UmbCorp

 

[theworminator]

Well, laptop graphics cards are just chips, they don't have fans attached in the way desktops do. I haven't yet found of a way to alter the fan speeds on a laptop. Most programs that can alter fan speeds were made to do so on the desktop components.

 

[dj_pirtu]

I have Packard Bell iPOWER GX (which is same chassis than Gateway) and the problem is same. Pulsating GPU fan which makes me crazy. CPU fan is nice and quiet but GPU fan pulsates very often and you notice it all the time. Very annoying.

 

[Guest]

Exactly, same here i have the same iPower GX, and infact anyone that has seen my laptop will always tell me ' dude your laptop keeps making weird noises with the fan' its actually doing it right now lol like a car revving its engine, its only about 45c?

 

[H4wkman]

I have the same problem with my fan, its really annoying and my laptop will overheat and powerdown after an hour or so of use unless I prop it up to allow the air to flow more freely from underneith it. I have a gateway m-series. I'm gonna try taking it out and cleaning and oiling it, but I have a feeling its a driver issue.