Why is my laptop fan on 24/7?

RoachycaL

RoachycaL

RoachycaL

Soldato
Joined
2 Jan 2006
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Newcastle Upon Tyne
Hi guys,

I recently brought home an Acer Travelmate 283XC from my mum's school which had been lying there for about a year "broken". Basically it did not power up and the technician gave up with it. I took it home, opened it up - put it back together and it worked. The bottom does get pretty hot although when I first got the laptop it was REALLY hot underneath. When the laptop first powers up - the fan is on full speed for about 5 seconds in the BIOS screen then it stops until it has booted into windows and I have been using it for 5 minutes or so. The fan then churns into action not on full speed but it is loud and it just stays on after that for the whole time I use the laptop. The fan does go off when it goes into standby but comes on again soon after and again it just stays on.

Can someone tell me why this is happening and if I can actually control the fan myself? The heat comming out the back is only slightly warm so I dont think anything is overheating.

Thanks for the help,

RoachycaL
 
You can try a program like Speedfan or Everest Home Edition to see what the CPU temp is, that might explain why the fan is always on.
 
It could be that theres more than one fan in the machine and that one may have failed, hence the slow running speeds and the heat, maybe throttling. The only way to find out is to open the machine up and take a look. If your comfortable with doing that obviously.

Speedfan could be a good way of finding out, but every laptop i've installed it on has refused to give me any readings. :o
 
Ive opened it up loads since it was broken in the first place. I am only aware of the one fan as Ive had the whole thing to pieces. The fan isnt dusty either - I'll get speedfan on it tomorrow and let you guys know whats going on
 
it sounds like a temperature control issue as it comes on after a boot into windows and then comes on when it goes into standby this maybe because the fan is expelling all the hot air from the case, does the fan stay on over 2 minutes or does it just stay on permanatly.
 
The fan operation as you see it is exactly how that laptop is supposed to operate.

You can try cleaning and applying fresh thermal compound to the cup/heatsink but I doubt it will make much difference. Just keep the underneath fan intake clear to allow a half decent air flow.
 
Hi guys, well I installed speedfan and I didnt get much more info.

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/373/alligetne1.png

THats after having the laptop on for 15 minutes or so this morning.
I can tell you that when I did pull it apart for other reason that I took the whole CPU-heatsink-fan and everything off and cleaned it (yes the fan was still on 24/7 before that) so I really cant think of what it is? Could it be something overheating? Ive had problems where it would suddenly crash and the screen would go crazy and random colours appear everywhere on the screen but I managed to get rid of that by using a different set of drivers to the ones provided. If it does crash again I'll be sure to take a pic becuase I cant really explain what happens.

The battery is also knackered but I dont think that has anything to do with it?

Thx for the help so far,

RoachycaL
 
my laptop fans on all the time really just at different speeds. Is the fan noisy? tried oiling it?
 
If you haven't formatted it and re-installed Windows, that'd probably be my first suggestion. Could also try downloading the newer drivers, utilities and BIOS from the Acer website too, see if that helps.
 
Yea the fan is really noisey, more noisey than the pc Im sitting at now infact. I have reinstalled windows so its nothing to do with that either.
 
RoachycaL said:
I could give it a go, the laptops been on since 10 this morning and the CPU temp is climbing slowley. The bottom of the laptop is also now red hot and all Im doing is reading the Big Brother forums! :P

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/7008/51111xb6.png
Click to expand...

Its punishing you for not just reading the big brother forums, but for reading gay related material :eek: :p


EDIT : Reseat cpu cooler with AS5 ?
 
LOL! :D I knew someone would say something along those lines, people thing Pete is gay now. Anyway, I might reseat it if I can phyc myself up to open the thing up again (its a nightmare). Also where would I get another fan for it? A silent one? Laptop fans are tiny
 
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