Vostro owners please tell me if...

Two issues that I have seen at least mentioned elsewhere (but not so much discussed) are bothering me and I would like some quick input just to see if these are normal or if something is wrong on my end...

First off the cpu fan always running... on mine i8kfangui says fan 1 almost always runs at around 3000 RPM at normal idle temps. Does this happen to most people? I ask because most of my other laptops have only turned the fan on intermitantly unless they are under heavy use.

Secondly, I have my own copy of vista ultimate that I installed and wanted to keep AHCI turned on so I installed the intel matrix driver. However my media direct blue screens when loading (not the windows client, but the standalone one) and I believe it is because it suffers from the same issue (however I can't figure out how to add in the driver to solve it). So the second question is, have you successfully installed Media Direct with AHCI and Flash Cache turned on?

Thanks for taking the time to answer, it will help me decide whether to put more energy into these issues or not!

 

My fan is on a lot but it keeps it very cool. I have not felt it get very hot near the touchpad or keyboard at any point.

Only place it is warm is near the fan area where hot air is coming out.

 

My fan is off 90% of the time, unless I game or something...

 

Could someone clarify what do you mean with fan "on"?
My Vostro arrived yesterday and I always get (lukewarm/hot) air coming out from the left side. The fans are obviously always on, otherwise there won't be any air coming out, and yet they are veeeeery silent.
I could not conceive a system of this power without active cooling always on.

1. Do your fans stop to 0 rpm, at the point that no more air is forced out of the lateral opening?
2. Or by "on" you mean they are rotating much faster wrt the idle state to the point of becoming clearly audible?

Because my answer is "they are always on" if you answer yes to question #1, and "they are always off (at low speed)" if you answer yes to question #2.

 

I consider off to be no fan activity at all. That means in a totally silent room, you put your ear right agasint the laptop and hear no whiring that is fan related and you feel no air being pushed out from the left of the lappy.

I installed i8kfangui and it reports (I believe accurately) that fan 1 runs at around 3k almost all the time.


@ Jason could you maybe check with i8k and see what it says about your fann?

I could have sworn my fan was off most of the time the first day or so I had mine but it certainly is on almost all the time now.

 

Any more input on this? I am still not sure if what is happening to me is normal/acceptable...

From a cold boot where the sytem is literally cold the fan will usually stay off for about 10-15 minutes, after that it will run pretty much constantly even under light use in power saver mode.