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    Fans never seem to come on?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by Pollen, Oct 19, 2011.

  1. Pollen

    Pollen Notebook Enthusiast

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    Okay people i've had my Alienware M15x for over a year now but i've noticed the fans hardly ever come on at all. The only time they do seem to come on is when i boot up and they stay on for a couple of minutes then that's it. Obviously they work.

    Doesn't matter if i'm gaming or browsing the net or whatever, they just never seem to come on.

    I live in England and it's not exactly hot over here, is this normal, or is there something disabled in fan settings or something?

    Thanks.

    Also, i managed to literally burn out my GTX 260m but the fans never ran.

    This was a display model in PC world (got it for £590 which was an amazing price) so maybe they disabled the fans so the noise wouldn't put people off?

    One last thing, my 460m should be coming tomorrow, does anyone know if this thing runs hot at all?

    Thanks again.

    Specs are i7 720qm - Nvidia 240m (for now but like i said fans never came on with 260m either) Corsair SSD
     
    Pollen, Oct 19, 2011
    #1
  2. JohnnyFlash

    JohnnyFlash Notebook Virtuoso

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    Which BIOS version are you running?
     
    JohnnyFlash, Oct 19, 2011
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  3. Pollen

    Pollen Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm running a09.
     
    Pollen, Oct 19, 2011
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  4. khetik

    khetik Notebook Deity

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    The gtx 460m is suppose to run fairly cool. Download hwinfo32/64 if you don't already have it. It'll show your fan speeds and it also lets you adjust your fan speeds. You can set it to start with your computer so you don't have to keep manually setting it.

    Initially check if it shows your fan speeds, and if so what rpm its running at during idle/normal use/gaming. Post back on that, then we can take it from there to see what's going on.
     
    khetik, Oct 19, 2011
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  5. Pollen

    Pollen Notebook Enthusiast

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    Pollen, Oct 19, 2011
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  6. Mexic00ls

    Mexic00ls Notebook Deity

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    lol no name calling here just a bit of guidance given, click on sensors, which takes u to the system temps and at the bottom of the sensors window there is a fan icon, click on it to bring up the manual fan settings
     
    Mexic00ls, Oct 19, 2011
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  7. khetik

    khetik Notebook Deity

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    Do as Mexic says in regards to the manual fan settings. I believe you can set it to a certain percentage of the maximum that you want the fans to run at in accordance with temp of the cpu and gpu respectively.

    And naturally no name calling, we were all poo at one stage :p
     
    khetik, Oct 19, 2011
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  8. Pollen

    Pollen Notebook Enthusiast

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    Pollen, Oct 19, 2011
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  9. dutchess63

    dutchess63 Notebook Consultant

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    I suggest using Throttlestop and run one of its benchmark tests. If you want to really stress it take the 1024k run.

    That should - at least - make your fans run at full speed, power & noise.
     
    dutchess63, Oct 19, 2011
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  10. khetik

    khetik Notebook Deity

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    your fans are working, but i'm guessing they aren't going past your lowest fan speed. the max column shows no change even with several programs running. your temps are fine, but not sure why your second core is at 96% usage while the rest are relatively low.

    have you attempted to manually change your fan speed?
     
    khetik, Oct 19, 2011
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  11. Pollen

    Pollen Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for your help again ladies and gents.

    Khetik i haven't tried changing the fan speed, i wouldn't know what would be best either. I have no idea how to do it but i'll look into it, don't want to burn out my 460m!
     
    Pollen, Oct 19, 2011
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  12. khetik

    khetik Notebook Deity

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    Go to this thread (it pertains to the 6970m) but it still shows you how to do fan control irrespective of your gpu/cpu:

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/571445-m15x-6970m-what-you-need-know-upgrading-problems-solutions.html

    Scroll down within the first post to the area in bold "fan control". It shows you how to do it. You won't be burning out your 460m this way because all you're really doing is changing your fan speed settings and not stressing your gpu. This will at least let you know if your fan speeds are able to be increased, and if they can, we can look for a possible reason/solution towards correcting your issue.
     
    khetik, Oct 20, 2011
    #12