laptop fan not running

[Jeff]

The fan on my laptop has stopped running and my SMART monitor is telling me
that the HD is running very hot. Is this usually a problem with the fan
itself being defective or something else that is not triggering the fan to
go on? How do I find out where the problem runs.

--

Jeff Williams
Email address deliberately false to avoid spam
jeff@phony.com

[Michael Hawes]

"Jeff" <jeff@falsepart.com> wrote in message
news:%HYhd.7905$Ae.290@newsread1.dllstx09.us.to.verio.net... The fan on my laptop has stopped running and my SMART monitor is telling
me that the HD is running very hot. Is this usually a problem with the fan itself being defective or something else that is not triggering the fan to go on? How do I find out where the problem runs. -- Jeff Williams Email address deliberately false to avoid spam jeff@phony.com
Fan may be jammed with fluff. Try cleaning. If fan has failed, needs
replacing as CPU will be running too hot.
MIke.

[Jeff]

I think I solved the problem. The fans are OK. I tested them with the Dell
utilities provided and they did just fine. What I discovered is that Dell
has the BIOS of the Inspiron 8100 laptop to default to going on at 80 C (!).
Everything I read elsewhere is that such a high temp can ruin the HD but
apparently Dell feels it is safe enough to wait till 80 C before turning the
fans on. I hope my new HD (Samsung MP0402H) can tolerate it.

--

Jeff Williams
Email address deliberately false to avoid spam
jeff@phony.com



Michael Hawes wrote: "Jeff" <jeff@falsepart.com> wrote in message news:%HYhd.7905$Ae.290@newsread1.dllstx09.us.to.verio.net... The fan on my laptop has stopped running and my SMART monitor is telling me that the HD is running very hot. Is this usually a problem with the fan itself being defective or something else that is not triggering the fan to go on? How do I find out where the problem runs. -- Jeff Williams Email address deliberately false to avoid spam jeff@phony.com Fan may be jammed with fluff. Try cleaning. If fan has failed, needs replacing as CPU will be running too hot. MIke.

[Charles Howse]

Previously Jeff <jeff@falsepart.com> wrote: I think I solved the problem. The fans are OK. I tested them with the Dell utilities provided and they did just fine. What I discovered is that Dell has the BIOS of the Inspiron 8100 laptop to default to going on at 80 C (!). Everything I read elsewhere is that such a high temp can ruin the HD but apparently Dell feels it is safe enough to wait till 80 C before turning the fans on. I hope my new HD (Samsung MP0402H) can tolerate it.

This sounds like some sort of lifetime-limiting device (a.k.a. slow
self-destruct) to me! I had something similar with an inadequately
coolded chipset in a Sony Vaio notebook. Needless to say it died
after 2 years of light use.

Such a high temperature can actually ruin capacitors, semiconductors,
bearings in the fan and of course you HDD if it gets heated up
as well. It might not kill at once. But it will shorten lifespan
significantly.

Probably originally a design fault (lound fan running all the
time) turned into a product feature by a marketing decision...

Arno
--
For email address: lastname AT tik DOT ee DOT ethz DOT ch
GnuPG: ID:1E25338F FP:0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws" - Tacitus