PC Fan on and off

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msparks

msparks

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Jun 11, 2002
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Clarksville, Tennessee
Okay, this is driving me crazy. The last 2-3 days my computer fan (I have a Compaq Presario with an intel centrino chip) it will come on for a few seconds then go off, on and off on and off and so on.

This fan rarely came on before, which leads me to believe either the stupid BIOS is messed up or there are some process running that is causing the chipset to get hot.

I frigged around with it yeserday morning, ran some scans and whatnot and didn't come on. Now I fired it up this AM and it's doing it again.

On and off, On and Off, On and Off, On and Off. You see how crazy something like this makes me!!!!!! I'm going insane from it!!!

Yes I've had too much coffee this AM too, which doesn't help
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I assume it's a laptop, right? I think laptop fans do not run constantly and only run when needed. At least that is the way my Asus Centrino laptop is.

Centrino systems make use of Pentium-M processors. They generate lower heat and have lower power comsumption. I'm sure the fan is set only to run at a certain temperature to conserve power.

Maybe something is wrong with the fan itself or the temp sensor that is causing to run so much. Have you checked the support site?
 
Yes it's a laptop.

I have not checked with compaq or anything. I'll try to do that, it's frustrating though.

Prior to 3 days ago I don't think the fan came on at all even running muliple processes like music, internet, and stuff. I only have IE open and that is it.
 
Two things. Check your air inlet opening for dust. Then check your settings for cooling. I use "high performance cooling" settings on my Toshiba. I have three or four settings ..one of them being "silent" ..which is a low speed constant cooling mode. The system (I believe/reason) then regulates temp via slowing the processor to keep a lid on it.

The only thing that makes me say check for dust is that you didn't appear to want this to happen by changing any settings. Mine I started noticing that the frequency and duration of the high speed fan cyles got longer and more often. Cleaned out the inlet ..back to normal.
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quote:
Originally posted by Gary Allan:
Two things. Check your air inlet opening for dust.
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It was clean as a whistle back there, though I blew it out just for giggles.

Still doing it. Thing is it starts immediately when you turn on the computer. There is no way the processor is heating up that fast. I'm thinking it's something screwy with the configuration.
 
Does it do it both plugged in and running on batteries? How about plugged in but not charging?

Any new PCMCIA cards or networking?

Do you have any funky Compaq auto-update utilities? I know the system BIOS used to be a pain to update but they may have taken the pain out by now.

Might be time for spybot or adaware.
 
sometimes the laptop will need to be disassembled and the area between the heatsink and processor cleaned.

you can either use a new thermal pad or artic silver 5 grease.

or something could be dying.
 
quote:
Originally posted by eljefino:
Does it do it both plugged in and running on batteries? How about plugged in but not charging?

Any new PCMCIA cards or networking?

Do you have any funky Compaq auto-update utilities? I know the system BIOS used to be a pain to update but they may have taken the pain out by now.

Might be time for spybot or adaware.
Click to expand...
I unplugged it and it's seems to have quit.

Did adaware yesterday and spybot this am. It was still doing it after. I'm going to try discharging the batteries all the way.

Who knows. It has done it for a couple of hours not. I have about 1 hr left on the battery.
 
I'm about 2 minutes from a smashed up Laptop.


Jeez, if I go to msconfig and don't load any startup programs, it will not do it. Otherwise it's doing it.

Has nothing to do with temperature as it starts right away when I turn it on, and the cpu is cold.

I'm either going to have to "format c" or figure out something else.

also when I power down, I get a non responsive program called "sample" like *** is that now. never heard of it!!!
 
quote:
Originally posted by msparks:
I'm about 2 minutes from a smashed up Laptop.


Jeez, if I go to msconfig and don't load any startup programs, it will not do it. Otherwise it's doing it.

Has nothing to do with temperature as it starts right away when I turn it on, and the cpu is cold.

I'm either going to have to "format c" or figure out something else.

also when I power down, I get a non responsive program called "sample" like *** is that now. never heard of it!!!
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1) go to the website and download the latest BIOS, even if it is the same as you have.

2) look for any Firmware updates and download them. All of them and do them in sequence until you are current with the latest one.

3) If nothing loads and it doesn't turn on the fan, that just may be a clue (!)....try loading one program or utility at a time and see if one does it. Then delete/reload just that program.

But....14 years of manufacturing laptops says it isn't software related. But I've seen stranger thing happen.
 
My fan ran all the time (old laptop), then it stopped. Here is how I fixed it: Thread. Probably won't help you fix yours, but I couldn't help plugging this thread in here.
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But I do find it hard to believe a laptop would have a fan that doesn't run constantly. Everything is very tight and surely will heat up without constant cooling.
 
Errr...Sparks ....have you tried to find your cooling settings????
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I really think you have some options ..at least every laptop owner I've known has.
 
My hunch is that Uncle Bill's virus/worm incubator, also known as the Microsoft Operating System, might of gotten contaminated. You might need a MS OS guru to help you disinfect it. If that doesn't do it, you might have a genuine hardware problem.
 
Does the fan come on at all? Even after the laptop has been running for awhile. It's got to come on eventually or you'll burn out the lap top.

Whimsey
 
Did you check the task manager to see what processes were running and using the CPU? Look up those processes to see what they are? You can also run performance monitoring and check various items like the paging file and CPU time and see if there is a correlation between that and the fan speed. Since the fan responds to increased heat it would make sense to find out what is causing the increase.

What programs did you turn off in MSCONFIG?
 
quote:
Originally posted by michaelc80:
Did you check the task manager to see what processes were running and using the CPU?
What programs did you turn off in MSCONFIG?
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I'm running over 40 processes. It's quite confusing though. I think I'll have to google each one to see if I need it then figure out how to permanatly stop them. What a Pain the rear.

On the MSconfig.
I stopped:
AGRSMMSG
CPQSET
ituneshelper
mmtask
qttask
drgtodsc
engutil
 
We have a newer Dell laptop and the fan goes on and off as needed. The wife bought an auxiliary base that has fans in it so now the the lap top never gets hot and it's now a true laptop without being a toaster
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. If you want the name of it PM me and I'll get it when the wife gets back tonight with the lap top. It seems to work well.

Whimsey
 
Are you running Windows 9X or ME? I thought mmtask was a Windows 9X process for multitasking multimedia. I would turn it off only for testing purposes. A couple of those also sound like they are for Roxio. A couple others sound like they are for Quicktime?

It would be interesting to stop Roxio from starting up when the system starts and see if you still have the problem. Then do the same thing for Quicktime. I suspect one of those is the culprit.
 
If you have Windows XP hit ctrl-alt-del to start task manager. From that you can tell what applications are running and how much processor power each is using. I think it's normal for the fan to run when you first boot up, processor load is high at boot up.
 
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