A2D cooling fan non-stop running

I've had my A2D laptop for couple weeks now, and I can't help it but this machine's cooling fan is getting really on my nerves!

Cooling fan runs all the time when AC is connected (Power4 Gear running and Game profile selected) and stops (if stops) when I unplug AC (Power4 Gear changes power profile to e-mail/office).

Well, I noticed that fan turns off when I kill Power4 Gear and use XP's power control laptop settings. Even with AC plugged. But, it doesn't work properly, fan starts again if I listen mp3's with Winamp. And it usually won't stop. It shouldn't be running so hot that fan must all continually.

Now I'm running with battery and MobileMeter shows that temperatures are CPU 32C and HD 40C. And that fan is still running!![ !]

There must be some driver crashing or something else wrong, because it doesn't turn cooling fan off even with low temps. And with battery fan should definitely NOT run all the time.

A2D-series fan is quite loud (running 3000rpm). My old PackardBell laptop is sooo quiet compared to this new Asus. Pity, this computer is otherwise quite nice.

Anyone else suffering same problem? Any advice how to get it fixed? I've been searching software which could adjust fan speed, but no luck so far.

 

This is the eternal question about asus notebooks! I begin to think that these notebooks may have some problem with the power management, or the sensors, that monitor the cpu temperature! I also had an A2D notebook, and the fan was relatively loud. It used to stop for a while sometimes, but sometimes when it turned on, it stopped only after restart. I changed this laptop with an asus M6R, but now the fan NEVER stops. I wrote an e-mail to the asus support center, and they told me that the asus policy was that the fan would stop when the cpu temperature is below 40 degrees celcius, but it doesn't! I still can't figure out what is causing that!!! When I have some more answers, i'll post them here!

M6R:: entium M 1.5 Ghz 2048 L2 cache:::512 DDR 333mhz:::mobility Radeon 9100 IGP 128 MB max:::15.4" WXGA:::40 GB @ 4200:::

 

I kicked Power4 Gear software out from my startup program list and I'm using XP's power management. It works much better, what comes to that annoying fan noise.

Now that fan doesn't run constantly, which is nice. [ ]
(It still starts for few seconds every now and then, but it's better than constant noise.)

 

maybe it's just that model? what processors? P4's? I have a m3np with a pentium-m 1.5ghz and the only time i hear its fan is when i first turn on the laptop (for about 1 second) and that's it. I've never heard the fan kick in EVER, other than that time. I even ran Prime95 for a couple hours to test its stability. I guess with the copper heatsinks, pentium-m processor, and arctic silver 5 silver thermal compound, i doesn't get hot enough. My core temp is around 35 degree celcius (that's typically 10 degrees hotter than a diode mounted on/near the heatsink).

 

yea, my M3Np doesnt get very hot either... but the fan does go on when u got it plugged in.... but hardly ever when its on battery...

Vince
-----
i can solve a rubik's cube. yes i am a nerd. i also have an Asus M3Np and i love it.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Bruised_Lee

 

around 40+ degrees celsius the fan starts kickin in...

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Bruised_Lee

 

That's odd. My temps are around 60ish most of the time... and the fan never kicks in.
This is on a M6800Ne
I've only seen the fan kick in once at 75 degrees... only at 3000 RPM
Either ASUS Probe is wrong.. or my notebook has a weird thermal policy.
I do enjoy the extra silence though ... even if the bottom of my notebook gets a little hot

 

yea... its from the ASUS probe...

[?] that's weird.. it seems like everyone's got different issues with their temperature and fan kickin in... I wonder what Asus has to say about this, and what it's suppose to be...

Vince
-----
i can solve a rubik's cube. yes i am a nerd. i also have an Asus M3Np and i love it.

 

I actually e-mailed them about it... and for my issue, they said that it's normal, and "the thermal policy of this notebook is considering many components"
or something like that[B)]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by AuroraS

 

My exact model is A2542DC-UH which means AMD Athlon XP-M (M for Mobile?) 2800+ processor.

See how Asus is bragging about this A2D-series intelligent cooling technology...[ ]
http://uk.asus.com/products/notebook/a2series/a2000d/a2000d_overview.htm

"ADTD II (ASUS Dynamic Thermal Dissipation Technology II)"
Sounds great, huh? [:0]

"The ADTDII technology together with the unique fan design of A2000D Series resolve the thermal problems ...."
Yeah, there really can't be any thermal problems when cooling is ALLWAYS ON. [} ]

They sure have some problems with their thermal control stuff. I just dont understand why it's have to keep cooling at ~35 celcius, and never stops until next reboot. [xx(]

 

Hi,

Your problems were caused by Power4 Gear, which is kind of crap. XP has builtin power management, no additional software is required (not even SpeedswitchXP).

Bad news is that there *IS* a problem with Asus A2D notebooks in that the fan, under some circumstances, really does not turn itself off. You WILL probably experience this problem even though the fan behavior seems normal to you.

Read this thread carefully:

http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4527&SearchTerms=a2500d,fan

Which version of the BIOS are you using?

 

If you go here

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/nb/A2D/

you will notice that there is a recent BIOS for the A2D.

A2D0208A.zip

This file is dated Oct 9th 2003 but the BIOS date is really July 1st 2004.

You can check your BIOS version with Asus Probe or enter setup when you boot your machine.

 

Hi escape707!

I'm kinda glad to see that I'm not alone with this problem. (Maybe I should try that search option at this forum sometime..)

I contacted Asus technical support and here is what I got:

Dear Customer :

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

My name is Linus, and I would be assisting you today.

Sorry for replying you late, in our design, the cpu fan of A2D will start at about 55 degree C, and it will turn off at 40 degree C, please check.


Thank you for using ASUS products and services!

If you have any problem about our products, you can visit our support site below to search the solution at the first time!

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/support.aspx

Linus

ASUS Customer Service Center (Beijing, China)


That's about it, they are not helping really.

"Please check". Check what? I just told them that fan is rolling even at below 35C temperatures. And you can't do nothing for it, unless Asus gives us a tool which can adjust fan speed and temps. And I'm sure that they can't do nothing for that matter at service either. They'd just keep my computer away from me few weeks and that's it. Waste of time, money and nerves.

I have this latest BIOS 07/01/04.

I'm starting to seriously consider that thermal grease thing. But, I think that I have to say goodbye to 2 years warranty if I open the case and play littlebit with thermal grease. My A2D is 1 month old, and one reason for buying this was that good warranty....

 

it says 35 degrees?! hmm, i'm assuming that's on die. I got something for you to try. Get Prime95 and run a torture test on your computer and let us know what kind of temperature you get for the CPU after 10-60 minutes. If it's up in the 70's then the temperature is reading as on die... so 35 degrees is VERY GOOD. In that case it's DEFINITLY a BIOS problem and DO NOT pull it apart and apply thermal grease.

However, if the probe is on teh heatsink or something, then your temperature won't really break 50-55, so then you're likely having bad heat transfer.

Try it out and let us know what you get as temperature. I wouldn't want you to void your warranty for nothing.

 

Check my resolution at:

http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=4527&REPLY_ID=29848

Regards,

Peacerist

 

Hi Hyde,

I got a similar answer in August, the (same) guy named Linus actually asked me to reinstall guess what... the video driver. Pathetic.

I'm not sure to understand what your problem is now, and why you'd consider applying thermal grease. Do you still have power management problems? Active cooling is needed. Don't be obsessed with it unless there is really a problem.

As I was pointing out, just ensure the fan does not REMAIN active for a long period for no reason, eg. when the computer activity is low.

I repeat that the bug I am talking about is that the fan can under some (rather rare, but still) circumstances REMAIN on FOREVER, for absolutely no reason. Windows XP cannot be taken responsible in this case. The issue can be:

- a hardware problem
- a BIOS problem
- a ACPI driver problem.

I'm 99% sure it cannot be a CPU driver problem (amdk7.sys). The CPU driver controls the frequency of the CPU itself, not the way the hardware fan is activated depending on the charge, which is a BIOS issue or, less likely, a ACPI driver issue.

For the 3 reasons mentionned above, the problem can only be fixed by Asus. A fan that remains on all the time is a very serious issue, I hope Asus is aware of that.



<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Hyde

 

My headache still is that fan is not working properly (IMO). I've another notebook and I've been using few notebooks at work etc. Asus is only notebook which has this kind of fan operation. My two years old Packard Bell (AMD Athlon XP 1400+) starts it's fan quite rarely, actually never when in light use (writing, surfing).

Sometimes it just doesn't turn off at all until reboot. And one very curious feature is that 1-3 seconds fan swirl. It just starts and stops right after couple seconds. So there is too little hysteresis. It would be better that when fan starts, it should run little longer and cool CPU down, let's say to ~40C. This kind of functionality would be better, and fan doesn't saw between that on/off edge.

As I mentioned earlier, I've MobileMeter software runnig for monitoring purposes. It shows HD & CPU temps and processor frequency. Now I have CPU ~53 C and HD steady 51 C. CPU is running 400MHz. It seems that fan starts somewhere between 54-55 degrees, it spins few seconds until CPU temp shows ~50 C. OK, I can accept that, that is the way it should work.

But when it doesn't turn off at all, it gets really annoying. There is major malfunction with thermal control when it does that.

I had similar problems with my other notebook when I played with Linux. Fan kept running all the time, because I didn't install ACPI drivers. After finding out the reason (ACPI), problem was gone. So, that might be buggy ACPI driver causing these problems with XP. Asus has it's own ACPI drivers, right?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Hyde

 

I've SP2 installed few days ago, but fan problem is still there.
Sometimes fan doesn't stop at all and needs reboot or stand by mode to recover correct behaviour.

 

Hyde, stop keeping an eye on your temperatures. There is truly a malfunction with thermal control on this notebook. When the fan runs for hours and CPU activity is low, you'll see that the air that goes out of the notebook is clearly cold.
For some reason the notebook BIOS and/or ACPI driver does not detect that active cooling has done is job and no further cooling is needed.

I'd bet Asus has this problem for other notebooks as well.

Potential Asus notebook buyers, TAKE CARE! You might be stuck with a particularly annoying fan problem that will be very difficult to identify by after-sales services, since occuring randomly.

 

The fact that the fan is on for a couple of seconds then goes off is normal. If it stays on for an extended period of time with a low CPU activity - eg. when you aren't doing anything special - there is a problem.

As I said I suspect there IS a problem with the BIOS or the ACPI driver of the Asus A2D notebook series (the ACPI driver being the ATK* package you see on the support web site).

To investigate the problem, I would first immediately uninstall Power4 Gear which is nothing but crap software. You simply do not need this utility, as Windows XP has full support for Athlon XP-M processors.

If you are really, really fed up with the fan and use mostly office applications, you can consider installing SpeedswitchXP and use the "Max Battery" setting: this will force the CPU to run at 400 Mhz regardless of your power needs, eg. the charge of the CPU. This will NOT solve in any way the fact that the fan stays sometimes on.

In this case, you HAVE TO KNOW that the presence of SpeedswitchXP will complicate everything in case you still have a problem. I can confirm fan problems do remain when this utility is running.

What is really worrying is that people having bought this notebook might encounter the problem and/or really wake up months after the purchase.

 

I think I have the opposite problem on my M6Ne... because my fan never turns on.
Only when my CPU reaches ~75 degrees (according to ASUS Probe) does the fan come on...
the back of the notebook feels REALLY hot sometimes

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, ASUS Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

OK, now I'm interested how common is this problem with Asus notebooks?

It is obvious that A2D and M6N-series has these problems with thermal control .

Are ours notebooks just few bad individuals, or are EVERY piece of these models faulty? Asus should do something to this issue. It seems that Asus is making excuses like "it should run at 45 degrees, re-install your videocard driver" etc. At least they should be telling to their customers what causes the problem and can it be fixed? I'm not going to give recommendations to buy Asus notebook to anybody, if this issue can't be solved...[ !]

Maybe we should make a public questoning here to A2D and M6N-series owners about this cooling issue? How many owner thinks that it's not working properly?

I bet that someone from Asus is reading this forum.... Maybe our fellow "Linus" from Beijing [ ]

 

I have sent a message to Linus yesterday (tsd AT asus.com.tw). I mentionned the fact that their BIOS have no release notes. I also mentionned this forum, with a URL.

Guess what happens today? Still no answer from Asus, but there ARE now some release notes on their support site.

Indeed.

You can nearly be sure Asus is reading this newsgroup.

 

They are pulling our leg.

The release notes of the 2.08A version of the BIOS are:

Support M9 VGA BIOS
FIx "Internal Numeric Pad Lock" Item of setup is invalid

and you have exactly the same release notes for BIOS 2.05A.

 

Hyde,

If we find a way to reproduce this problem (and preferably when no third-party software like Power4 Gear or Speedswitch is installed), we will certainly receive help.

Unfortunately for us, the problem does not appear straight away after booting.

 

Have you tried putting in a Banias CPU? Perhaps the M3Np is not fully compatible with Dothan, which causes weird fan issues.
Just a thought.

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, ASUS Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

I've tried to reproduce this fault this afternoon & evening. I don't have Power4 Gear or Speedswitch running, only Asus Probe v.2.10 to montior temperature.

First attempt:
I used Exact Audio Copy (EAC) (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) program and ripped one CD. Perfect, fan jammed and did not turn off at all after turning few songs to mp3's. I rebooted and tried to do it again.

2nd attempt:
Again, only Asus Probe running, started EAC again and started to rip couple CD's. This time no luck, fan is working as it should. I ripped three whole cd's, and fan starts and stops fine. Temperature range is 50-64 C. Mp3 coding is nice way to tease processor, load is suddenly rising and then load goes off while reading new track from cd. Asus Probe draws nice heatcurves.

I quit EAC and start surfing and listening few mp3's with Winamp. And yes, here it comes again. While surfing on the net, fan starts and does not turn off at all. Asus Probe shows that temp is now 33C, fan running.

It seems that it is VERY hard to reproduce. I don't know if there is any pattern for that fan failure? Sometimes all I have to do is start Winamp and listen few songs, and fan kicks in and stays on. I think that it has nothing to do with processor load, ACPI or something else is just crashing after undefined time period. Tonight it run fine several hours, yesterday it needed only 10 minutes.[?]

 

I can be contacted at this email address:

a2dfanissues .AT. maxnet .DOT. co .DOT. nz

 

What if we could control cpu fan's rpm using a software?

I did a search and found a software called Speedfan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php .
It does not yet give full support to A2D's fan but i have sent a report to the programmer about A2D.

BTW, program gives 3 temp result: 1. remote temp (cpu temp) 2.local temp and 3. HD temp. I don't know what local temp refers to, but possibly it is the motherboard chip's temp. Temprature for local temp changes between 50-56 C and it does not activate fan for cooling.

 

Just Bought an M6BNE20,with bios 205 installed.
I've got he exact same temperature as AuroraS though my CPU is a 2ghz Dothan.

fan is kickin' in 3000RPM @75°c, and 4000RPM @90°c
the 90°c limit has never been breached, the system always manage to stay under this limit.

to sum up, this notebook is both silent and hot.
since I've uninstalled power4gear and speed switch (tried both), set the bios settings from "auto" to "max performance", things tend to cool down a little bit ( 64°c as I type).

My guess is WinXP SP2 is doing a better job managing temperature than those 3rd party softwares.

Btw does anyone know how to read CPU frequency in real time ?
I'e tried MBM5, but it's stuck @ 2000mhz or 599mhz no matter the cpu load.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by peacerist

 

I agree... I think the fan needs to kick in sooner.
The fan kicking in at 75 degrees is good for the ears, but not good for the CPU in the long run..
I am wanting to open up the notebook and apply Arctic Silver to the Dothan, but I don't want to void any warranty [xx(]
A good way to see the CPU frequency in real time is to download CPU-Z... it can be downloaded at www.cpuid.com


ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, ASUS Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

maybe it's time to give speedfan a try, even though I'm always reluctant to mess with fan control.
one wrong setting and you've got a fried CPU.

btw mobilmeter is a nice little monitering program to read realtime cpu frequency.

 

I have given Speedfan a try before... the fan does not show up. In fact, the only thing that does show up is the hard drive temperature.
no CPU temperature is listed... nor is the CPU fan.

pixie, if you run your computer at 2.0 GHz all the time, aka "high performance", does your CPU always run up to 75 degrees... then then fan comes on... cools it back down to 69, then the CPU goes back up to 75... then the fan...etc.?

That's what my notebook does when I run it on high perf. mode.
For that reason, I always run it on "Dynamic Switching"... or "Portable/Laptop" under WinXP. This keeps my temperatures around 60ish while typing. My notebook simply runs too hot when I keep it at 1.5 GHz.

I'm quite disappointed with the heat produced both the the M6Ne and the Dothan...

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, ASUS Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

well...that's pretty much it.
but even with the bios set to max performance, I still have the benefit of dynamic cpu frequency.
i.e the cpu runs at 600mhz when idle, and switches to 2ghz when cpu load increase.
under cpu load, the fan behavior is exactly what you described in your last post.

 

Perhaps Dothan CPUs produce more heat...?
I'm really curious as to why the temperatures are so high.

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, ASUS Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

I have a A2D and i havent been using power4 gear for awhile now. it was starting to get abit hot so i just decided to start it up. and my cpu dropped from the 65 mark to around 50 according to asus probe, after 1 or 2 seconds. so according to that power4 gear is working better than this "build in" power management in XP, is there anyway to get to the setup for that in XP???

 

which profile do you use with Power4Gear?
Try setting the XP power profile to "Max Battery"

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, ASUS Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

Hi.Also I have A2D and I use win2000 pro. I have also same fan problem. For 33 C fan is still working.

 

I tried emailing the Asus support tech about the issue. I wish I didn't, I had the lamest answer possible :


Dear Friend :
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
My name is Leon and I would be assisting you today.
It is normal my friend,in 35C the FAN isn't stop ,the FAN will stop when the temperature below 30C,please don't worry about it .
If having any problems, please don't hesitate to let me know. Let's discuss this issue together.
Thank you for using ASUS products and enjoying ASUS services!

Leon_gong
ASUS Customer Service Center (Shanghai , China)
If you have any suggestion or complaints about our tech support service, please send your valuable info to [email protected] , we will arrange specilists to handle relative issue, your s! uggestion may give us more elicitation to serve our customers much better.

[ !]

 

Very interesting indeed.... here is what I had for answer...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Customer :

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

My name is Linus, and I would be assisting you today.

Sorry for replying you late, in our design, the cpu fan of A2D will start at about 55 degree C, and it will turn off at 40 degree C, please check.


Thank you for using ASUS products and services!

If you have any problem about our products, you can visit our support site below to search the solution at the first time!

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/support.aspx

Linus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I see a little difference in given temperatures....
They really don't have a clue what is going on with their products.
Veeeeery professional....[ )]

 

From my own experience I would say that it should turn on at 55, and off at 45, but that doesn't help you guys and also highlights the lack of interest/concern from ASUS in fixing the problem. Guess they figure that new models are on the way and the A2D is now on its way out thus no longer requires support?
a



ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 1Gb RAM

 

found this thread through google.

My Qosmio F10 has exactly the same problem. Fan kicks in after 15 minutes and stays on until I shut down, blowing cold air. Nothing running. Clean Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 install. Newest Bios.
This is my second Qosmio F10, the first one had the same problem ! I contacted customer support, they said it´s a hardware defect. Come on, on 2 machines in a row.

I tried all drivers.

I reckon this is a SIMPLE Bios setting, I started a thread there:
http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5958
Maybe someone wants to join in.

BTW : this is a 2500 bucks machine. [} ]

 

If I use the Game setting of Power4Launch then the fan only blows when I really stress the machine, when I surf a little bit or work with Word? No Problem!

So for the time being: set it to Game settings.... but I would like to know how to upgrade be able to set the fan-on and fan-off temperatures!

 

You will see that, sometimes, even though you are on the Game settings, the fan does actually not turn off. Sometimes this happens after 5 minutes, sometimes after several hours.

If you do experience this problem, which is more than likely, let us know in this forum.

---
a2dfanissues at maxnet dot co.nz

 

I've had even couple days (!) without fan issues on XP. That means that my A2D was on several hours (~6-8 hours) and it was fine. That has happend only once or twice, I'm not sure.

So, you lucky Danish, it WILL happen to you sooner or later.
If not, then you have faulty A2D! You should deliver it to Asus service center. [ ]