Need help with older Alienware (M5500)

So I'm posting this from my brothers M5500. He got this laptop September of 2006, right when the Core 2 duo chips were released...

Anyway, he's been having problems with it for a while so ive gone ahead and reformatted it for him, updated all drivers and bios, etc.

Now I'd hoped that the new bios would fix the loud fan problem, but it persists. Does anyone here own one of these or previously owned one, and knows if this loud fan is common with the M5500 or is this just specific to my brothers laptop?

The laptop now runs cooler after i updated the bios, but the fan continues to run loud.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Hmm I'm assuming youre talking about the M55 50 as I don't think the M5500 had the Core 2 Duo processors. You might want to try taking off the back panel and cleaning all the dust out of there if you haven't. If the fan issues persist, I'd say just go with it as I would rather have loud fans than a GPU that is overheating (M5500/M5550's have had a lot of hot GPU issues).

 

The fan on the m5550 is known for it's loudness. Mine was pretty loud as well. This is perfectly normal. As long as the temps keep cool, I'd say you are in good shape.

 

okay well thanks.

if anyone has anything else to add please do so...

 

You could try "Stealth mode" the (fan looking like button at the top) This will drop your CPU and GPU clocks, and keep the lappy cooler, and the fan will come on less often.

 

1) Are the fans loud when the lappy is not running a game?

2) What is the GPU temp when the fans are loud and not gaming?

3) Did you try cleaning the fans with an air blower?

 

1. Yes

2. Unsure right now. Gave it back to him

3. Yes.

Funny, the copper from the heatsink began melting onto the inside of the case due to the heat.

 

As I said the M5500/M5550 had a LOT of cooling problems. My friends M5500 runs at 105C when he games on it (he doesn't anymore as he got a desktop) and my M5550 got to 96 - 100C.

By the way: When I say C I mean Celsius, aka my friends GPU as above boiling point 0_0

 

Your brother bought his around the same time I bought both of my m5550's. Look on the bottom of the laptop and see if it says m5500i R3. If it does then it's not a m5500, it's an m5550.

Is it still under warranty? If so, he needs to call AW to have it fixed for free (including shipping).

If not, he should still call and see how much it would cost to get it fixed. He would need to pay shipping both ways as well as the cost of the repair. Then he could weigh the decision on whether or not it's worth fixing.

The only problem I've had was one of them started pixelating. I sent it to AW and they replaced the video card. Received the system back in less than a week!

I've never encountered an overheating problem on these 2 units ... ever. That's not to say others haven't. Obviously they have.

 

yeh my brothers laptop clearly overheated a bunch of times. he says that if its kept on too long it'll just shut itself off.

he called alienware about this a few times a year ago, and all they did was made him run CPU stress tests over the phone.

anyway, as stone has already said, his M5550 did get loud when he owned one. do your M5550s get loud linuxguy, despite not having heating issues?

 

The only time I hear the fan running is when playing games. It is audible but not loud as far as I'm concerned.

 

I would consider a cooling pad with dual fans that blow upwards. Keeps it cooler thus extending the life of the internal components.