Asus M50SA Bios 205 problem

I was running Bios 203, and my computer would often overheat. The fan would often run at full speed. I thought I would check if there was a BIOS update that may help, and sure enough there was BIOS 205 for Update Thermal Policy. I assumed this was some fix to the overheating issue, so I applied the BIOS update.

The update itself went fine, but now the fan NEVER turns on. Always at 0 RPM. I attempted to install fan control software "SpeedFan" but I guess it doesn't work with most asus products.

The computer overheats while playing solitaire. What can I do??

 

If you can open the thing up... there's a panel on the back you can open easily.. I think? Then check that the heatsink isn't stuck at an angle, and that the connector to the fan is connected. Remove some dust, etc. Try again, but don't push it if the fan isn't working. Then you need to fix it/replace the fan, and maybe change the cooling goop, etc.

What happens is that these were.. expensive laptops when they came out. So they will have "proper" heatsinks, and the parts operate on pretty high temps. I think it's the same processor as in a desktop, just with lower timing. So if the heatsink stops working, or the cooling goop bakes after the heatsink slides a bit, then it just overheats really fast.

So be careful about letting this kind of laptop run if it starts getting hot. I'd guess the update is just lowering the limit before the laptop shuts down, after support has had too many people turning up with chips looking like they've been grilled.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but the fan was working 100% fine, I flashed the BIOS, and the fan is no longer working. This was a 3 minute span of time. As a man of logic, I can't entertain the possibility the fan failed physically, or dust is the problem.

The BIOS is the problem. I want the fan running at 100% at all times the laptop has power. Is this possible?

 

Logic is useful when you have all the data, right.. Otherwise, it's just conjecture with a fancy name anyway. ..No, I mean, since you had overheats before, and the fan was still blowing while you had overheats, this means the heatsink is not working properly. So a guess: misaligned heatsink. Possibly across the connector pins to the fan.

Was strange that the fan just stopped working after the flash, though, agree with that. Really can't figure out some sort of circumstance that might actually happen in. Other than.. I don't know.. the lower rpm it starts up on not being fast enough to start rotating the kilo of dust, something like that. It's a magnetic fan, you know. Really awesome.. sexy (and it was expensive as hell ).

Anyway, would be easy to check if the connector is falling off, and so on, by removing the back panel. A couple of screws on the panel itself. Doesn't break the warranty seal.. or create a new crack in the side of the seam, or something like that..
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/260993-asus-m50sv-disassemble-guide.html

 

I took it apart, no major dust issues. I couldn't fire up the air gun as it was late at night. Will do tonight.

I decided to cut the blue and yellow wire. Now the fan only has black and red connected to the mobo. I read that this should force the fan to run at 100% RPM at all times. This did not happen to my fan.

I also applied an older mobo BIOS version, and still the fan does not turn.


I do not have another laptop fan or laptop mobo to cross test the fan/mobo pins. The fan pin header is tiny and doesn't appear it will fit in my PC case.


have a feeling I'll be ordering a new fan with re-appling thermal paste.

 

What rotten luck. Really never heard of one of those fans actually burning out, though. It used to be something like the fan becoming misaligned in the housing, or something like that. But I didn't think that should be a problem with the newer designs..

 

Well I got home from work, and the fan is now running at 100% as I intended. Not sure why it didn't run the day prior when I booted it up. The temps are much better and have not overheated yet, playing Diablo 3 with low-med settings.

The problem is really that the GPU and CPU share one fan.. yet the fan speed control is dictated by the CPU temp..so if the GPU heats up and CPU stays normal, the fan won't kick on high enough. This is why I wanted the fan to run at 100% at all times. I may invest in some PWM mod/switches, but right now I just want to play it!