XPS m1330 fans turning on a lot

My m1330 fans have recently been turning themselves on a LOT - even when the computer is still cold and I'm not doing anything except browsing. It never used to do this... however I did have the motherboard replaced (under warranty - the old one died) and I could be mistaken but I've only noticed it after that.

It has been summer so I can understand it partly, but even today for example I just turned it on, printed a page out of a PDF and on went the fans - it hadn't even been on for 5 minutes before they started up. I've got a 9 cell battery in so it even has good ventilation!

I remember hearing somewhere constant fans are a sign of the computer dying or something... but it hasn't given me any trouble (other than AVI files freezing randomly in the middle 3 or 4 times) so I'm not sure what could be wrong? Are the fans just dirty inside? should I get a can of compressed air and blow them out? (though they seem pretty clean to me from the bottom) Or is it possible the new motherboard affects them differently? (I'm also running the latest A15 bios.)

 

I would say that your best bet in that case would be to call Dell and arrange another motherboard replacement. It sounds like either the new motherboard is fubar, the fan isn't plugged in or seated correctly, or your cooling system isn't doing its job. So go ahead and call Dell and see if they can't get you another mobo.

 

Ugh... seriously? That's unfortunate lol. To add to my first post, after the fans started up, the computer did start getting warm, so I guess the cooling system was trying to preempt that. It does seem like the computer's been running kind of hot since the mobo replacement too.

Thanks, guess I'll talk to Dell and see what they say.

edit: called Dell, they had me reflash the BIOS again. I'm running i8kfangui just to see what it reports and:

CPU 45 C
GPU 45 C
First fan: Slow, 3754 RPM

When I clicked 'display second fan speed' it simply said 'cannot read status of second fan'. In the display it shows '---' where the first fan shows 'slow', and 922 RPM (how is it showing this if it's not reading the second fan status?) Screenshot below.

Is it normal not to be able to read the status of the second fan...? is the fan dead, or does it simply not exist?

Secondly, should the first fan ALWAYS be on 'slow' - even when I have a cooling pad running full blast underneath? or should it sometimes say 'off'?

 

The 1330 only has a single fan. Check your vent for dust. Also by default Dell uses a very crappy thermal pad on the CPU and 8400GS. If you can get your hands on a copper shim for the GPU and then buy some thermal paste, it will make a big difference. Search this forum for a guide. Also you can get Rightmark cpu utility to under volt and lock your laptop at a low speed and voltage and crack it up only when you need it.

 

Thanks, will do.

Should the fan be always on (even at lowest rpm) or should it actually turn off sometime or other?

 

Depends on the system. On my Studio 14z the fan is always on, but on very low speed and very quiet. Only when it gets warmer, the fan kicks in on higher speeds.

 

Bumping this for a bit. I blew out the fan system (there seemed to be no dust) but my system is still running pretty hot and the fans are still on a lot - once they go up high they just don't stop. Bad motherboard? Time to call Dell? any thoughts...?

 

45C° Is not hot at all.
Just disable the fan in i8kfangui if it bothers you.
You can change the temperatur when the fan is supposed to start spinning too.

In my vostro 1500 i set it to 49C° to turn on and to 39C° to turn off.
So it would just start spinning every 10 minutes for a couple of seconds.

Same with my new notebook. Its at 33C° now, the fan turned itself off and will start spinning around 45C° again.

You shouldnt worry about those temperatures or a little fan spin.

Its completely normal for a notebook to have a fan spinning. You dont have a passive cooled notebook, if that is what you wanted you should not have purchased your system.

Cheers

 

How do you guys achieve such a low temperature??? After I had my mobo replaced on my 1330, the fan is running constantly and temps are really high. What's the issue here??? Besides, the laptop is getting really hot, and I mean hot, i.e. after couple of minutes, it gets too hot for me to have it on my laps...

 

Every moving object like the system fan and optical drive reduces the battery life and in our case(Nvidia GPUs) the life of our notebooks in general as a defective GPU which causes the fan run constantly (I mean every fcuking second when the notebook is on!).

I bought my XPSm1330 in April 2008 and they had to change whole mainboard a month ago. What's going to happen when my warranty is not void anymore and it repeats the same problem? How many people out there suffered from the same problem? Thousands...

Not every notebook is like these ones; my HP nx7010 notebook is extremely cool and quiet! The system fan starts veeeery rarely and when it's necessary!

Btw I see the following temperature readings with I8kfanGUI v3.1:

I've applied the copper mod recently and I use A15.
38-39° C CPU (T9300)
46° C GPU (8400M GS)
3000rpm Fan Speed

 

Thats not warm at all. You should really stop worrying.

Oh and HP Sucks hard core balls by the way. A friend of mine had a HP. It was almost boiling 90C° hot.

Cheers

 

Yeah it's not warm - but the fans are on incessantly! And as soon as I play a bit of music it heats up like anything. It seriously never did this before, which is why I'm confused.

I'm sitting in class right now (nothing open except Word and my browser) and the fans have kicked in - they definitely never used to do this before because I could never hear them in class. AND the computer's still very cool. Going to give Dell a call and see what they say...

 

The fans turn on because that's Dell's "fix" for the overheating. I believe the Bios update made the fans turn on early.

 

ah, well that explains that, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. still heating up like CRAZY. we'll see if they end up replacing my fan/mobo or something. thanks for all the help