Alienware 17 Laptop Fan Activity

Hi everyone!

Sorry in advance for what may be silly questions. I just purchased my first alienware laptop, and it arrived yesterday. I had a couple questions about the fan noise, and I was hoping someone might be able to tell me if it is normal, or abnormal... I was quite happy to get away from the incredibly loud fan noise my Falcon Northwest had, even when just sitting idle or browsing the internet. But it is doing a couple of things that are irking me.

The first thing is, when idle or only on the internet, it runs practically undetectable, accept for every 60 seconds or so, a fan will come on in the back left. This fan runs and goes up and down in pitch repeatedly for a brief time, then goes off, then 60 seconds or so later does the same thing over and over and over... It isn't a loud fan, but it is very noticeable, and i find it rather annoying how the pitch wavers up and down which makes it more noticeable. Each pitch change only lasts a second or two, and it is very frequent. Again, it's not loud, and doesn't have any strange noises. It's just varying up and down.

The second thing is, after running a game, the fan never goes back to it's idle state. It gets much quieter, obviously, than when I'm in a game, but I have waited for hours for it to cool down, and it never gets back to the point it was before I started a game. And then if I go to start a game back up, I click on the icon to start the game and the fan goes off to where it was before I started the game in the first place(when it was idle) and stays that way if I never enter the game again. Strange...

Basically, I am just trying to figure out if these things are normal. I'm perfectly happy with things running the way they are if every other one of these laptops runs the same way. I just don't want to put up with, or get stuck with a laptop that is doing something or acting in a way it shouldn't.

Thank you in advance for reading and for any info/insight!!

 

What are your system specifications? You're probably hearing is the CPU fan. Are you blocking the vents with anything?

It is normal for it to kick on and off, but you can download programs to adjust this so it stays on about 10%-20% the entire time - a known program for this would be SpeedFan. I suggest downloading HWMonitor to keep an eye on the temperatures to see where they are at. You should also put something beneath the system to lift it off the table to allow more airflow beneath the system. (i.e. bottle caps, cooling pad).

As for the fan speeds never going back to 'idle' state, that is somewhat unusual, but could be a result of a bad paste job from the factory. I would be willing to bet your temperatures are quite high. Download that HWMonitor program (above) and let us know what temperatures you're seeing.

 

Thank you for the reply! My system specifications are below.

16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5
256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA
4th Generation Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4800MQ processor (6GB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/Intel(R) Turbo Boost)

So it is also normal that when the CPU fan comes on, it wavers in pitch like that?

I am going to download the program you suggested and check out the temperatures. I don't have anything blocking the fans. Also what concerns me is how double clicking the game icon to start it back up makes the fan(s) stop to where they were when idle.

Be back a little later to report on the temperatures! Thanks so much for the help!

P. S. Happy Halloween! Love your signature.

So, I downloaded the temperature program, and ran my game for a little while.

When Idle, the temps are fluctuating in the mid 40s range. When in my game, they are in the 50s, sometimes getting to low 60s. I'm not raiding or doing something like that that I would assume would be more taxing, game-wise.

 

What about your CPU?

 

I'm looking at four core temperatures, with package temperature below it. Are there other temps I should be looking at?

 

You're only seeing low 60's when gaming? That's low for a CPU. You playing PacMan?

I think your system is fine. It will turn on and off depending on the range of temperatures.

 

LOL! Nope... LOTRO. I know probably nothing compared to today's game releases lol...but still!

Thanks so much for all of the help! I really appreciate it.

 

60C seems fine to me, LOTRO is a cool game, I used to play it

 

Haha, cool!

 

sounds good to me, and the fan speeds will ramp up occasionally to keep the cpu below a certain temp and then when it cools off enough they turn back off. Its just a cycle.

 

And if it becomes more of an annoyance for you, I recommend a re-paste. After I re-pasted my system, it idles in the mid to high 30's and the fan literally never kicks on while writing a paper or something. It's almost completely silent...

This is what I'm seeing with an "extreme edition" CPU that actually runs warmer than the QM series:

Spoiler

As you can see, it idles quite low, especially if I'm not doing anything and it's just sitting there. While watching movies and such, it gets up to the 50's.

Another tip: When in "Balanced" and unplugged, just set the maximum CPU usage to like 90% and the fan will not kick on nearly as much. You can adjust this in the power settings. I do this if I'm at school or in a room with peers or colleagues and I don't want any more distractions from an already distracting Alienware.

 

Very interesting. Wow, that is running very cool! Thank you for all of the info and ideas!

Thanks so much for the reply!

I am still concerned about the fact that after I have been gaming for a couple hours, the fan never goes silent like it was before I started my game. However, when just out of my game, if I were to start up the game again, going to the game log-in window (not actually starting the game) makes the fan go off. Then, if I X out of the window, it stays like that, not running the fan.

Seems strange to me. If it doesn't need the fan, why wouldn't it go off on it's own after it cools down after gaming? Why does it take me going to the game log-in window for it to reach the state it was in with minimal fan before I started gaming? I did wait for hour for it to cool down. It's not like I gave it 10 minutes.

Is this something to worry about? Or does anyone else see this same kind of behavior? I'm trying to decide if I want to return this laptop and try for another one. But I'm just not sure if they all do the same thing or not. I'm going to have it for a long time, and I don't want to start with the fans not working properly.

 

Guys, I have the same problem.

I have a 1-month old AW17 with 780M, and I've noticed the problem with the right fan (gpu fan) not stopping after I quit a game with every title I've played so far with the exception of FIFA14 (Max Payne 3, Sleeping Dogs and now BF3). It just goes on forever.

With Max Payne and Sleeping Dogs I thought it might depend on some tweaking I did with Nvidia Inspector to solve stuttering/screen tearing. But I haven't done anything with BF3 and I've had this issue both times I played it so far.

Now, I read the discussion and I know you're going to say it's because of high temps, but I don't think so. The system is very cool, and even while the fan is spinning the air coming out is cold. Plus, and this might be the important thing, there is a way in which I can stop it. All I have to do is run any program dealing with the GPU, apparently. The fan instantly stops when I launch Nvidia Inspector, HWInfo, HWMonitor or even the Nvidia Control Panel.

Any idea what I could do? My drivers are up to date (I have the second most recent version, the latest one is the BF4 release), and the performances I'm seeing are completely fine, I think. It seems to me it's not a reaction to heat generated from the system. It just seems like something's gone wrong with fan management and it gets stuck after gaming. Do you guys agree?