All of the sudden: low temps + fan always on!

I've owned my M1330 for a few months now, and have been very happy with it. But today, all of the sudden, things changed. I understand that a fan speeds up when a laptop gets hot, but this is not the case here.

All of the sudden today, this started happening: The fan is always on (around 3000rpm). However, the temperatures are usually low (CPU:38-50 , GPU:47-49). The laptop doesn't even get hot.

This really puzzles me What could be the problem?? Thank you so much!


PS. I've already cleaned the dust out of the the fans/vents, just in case.
PS2. My bios is the one that came with the laptop: A09

 

What temps does it give you for ACPI TZ?

Try updating to A11

 

Good if you don't care about the fan, and bad if you need battery life. I would like to know also how you get such low temps. In my cold room, with a laptop fan, my lowest is 58 degrees. Maybe 57 idle.

 

ACPI TZ? What is that, how can I find that out?

Here I have more temps, just in case:
Memory temp: 46-48
Chipset temp: 57-62
HD temp: 37-39

I thought about upgrading. But it used to work ok all these months on A09, so it's really weird what's going on.

 

Well, I just have a couple of things open, that may be why. I also have Win XP now, instead of Vista, so maybe that helps. But then, it becomes even weirder that my fan is always on around 3000rpm in such a case!

 

Ok, I downloaded the HWMonitor from CPUID and it says that the ACPI temp ranges: 42-46

 

I have updated my BIOS to A12.. but still same problem.

Anyone?

 

Talk with Dell technical support man! You pay for it so use it!

 

On the other hand, while your battery is dying, at least it probably runs cooler than the majority of M1330 units purchased by others.

 

Yeah, I talked with Dell. The told me to install the new Bios (went from A09 to A12). And also to take the adapter/battery off, and hold power button for 20 secs (to refresh motherboard capacitors). But still, same problem. I think it may be a problem with my video driver maybe?

 

i would contact dell, there is a good chance (for what ever reason) your temp. sensor is busted, that could cause this issue.

sure its working to keep your system cool now but what if that changes?

and tha'ts amusing its actually keeping it cool...

 

Temp sensor busted?! wow, that's a possibility.. but still, I touch the laptop, and the vents, and it's not hot at all.. So it "seems" it's reading correctly and the laptop is cool.

I talked with Dell, and they said that the only thing they can do, in such hardware problems, is send a technician to replace board, heat sink, and fan.. with refurbished parts. Now, in my casem I see that a bit on the extreme side.

 

refurbished... blah... if you wanted to buy something used you would have gone to a pawn shop.

 

I know, oh well

 

So, it seems it ended up being a graphics card problem, and the motherboard needs to be replaced! I will post more info on the Display Issue thread ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=204772)