Laptop cooling fan constantly on

[areid]

I have a problem with the processor-cooling fan on my laptop computer - it's on all the time from boot-up and it is very annoying. This has only happened in the last week or so, and there have been no recent hardware or software changes that I can think of. I have checked the task manager and the processor usage is always around 0%.

I have removed all non-essential start-up programs, services and USB/network connections - it makes no difference. I have done a virus, Adaware and Spybot checks and no problems were reported.

Fortunately I can switch the fan off via a fan on/off button on my laptop and the fan will stop, but this is not something I want to do manually every time I start the pc - I would rather find-out what is causing the problem in the first place.

Am I doing any harm by stopping the fan? Without it, all programs seem to be operating fine. The area around the processor becomes a little warm, but not enough for the fan to kick-in. It still comes on when when the processor is operating at more than around 80% (which is rare), what bugs me is why it comes on permanently when the processor is relatively cold.

Any help would be appreciated. The fan is not too noisy, but it is very annoying when you are used to a virtually silent laptop.


Many thanks,
Alan Harris-Reid


Other info. that may be useful:
Date of mfr.: June 2005
Processor: Intel Centrino 1.8GHz
RAM: 512Mb
OS: Windows XP SP2

Serial no. 7071230-003
Product code: NNB-273
Order No: SO/2297766

[mark574020]

To be honest mate i think this is normal mine is on all the time as well but i could be wrong

[areid]

Hi Mark574020, thanks for the reply.


To be honest mate i think this is normal mine is on all the time as well but i could be wrong

Really! I must have been lucky then, because the fan has been mostly silent since I bought the laptop about 9 months ago, and that includes using some 'heavy memory' programs (SQL Server, Visual Foxpro, etc).

Having been used to a quiet machine, it would be nice to get back to that state.

Regards,
Alan Harris-Reid

[novanick]

My dell is really loud i was on the phone to my freind while sitting by my laptop and he said i can hear the fridge!!!

[Atheros]

Does the fan constantly operate when the unit is on battery power also? if so check your power settings in windows and in the bios.

possibly the fan is dirty/clogged with dust (the biggest killer of electronics), maybe an idea to give it a clean.

[Nox]

yeah, bios is a good place to look, some laptops at work have a 'fan always on on ac power' setting, could not tell you about yours though - could also be worth considering a bios update, the always on could be a fault that has since been fixed in later revision - look through the release notes.

Nox