XPS fan/temp question

While playing games, I noticed the temperature got really high (mid 80s). The fan would kick on, I would feel the hot air coming out, but wouldnt hear the fan running. I just installed a fan control program. When I put the fan on high, i can definitely hear the fan running. I have a few questions

1. Is this temp (btw its the cpu temp) normal while playing games (americas army)? I have the integrated graphics card, which plays AA perfectly fine.

2. Is something wrong with my fan, or is it never supposed to be audible? With the fan control on, I can definitely hear it.

3. Is it bad for the comp to manually control the fan? the program says its for inspiron/latitude/precision notebooks, is it okay to run on my m1210? It works.. So i would assume so.

 

Where do you put your notebook while working.
A small notebook always has the issue of getting REAL hot like my W3J.

 

What program are you using with your M1210 to control the fan speed?
My M1210 with Nvidia 7400 heats up so much while playing Battlefield 2.
I can feel all the heat coming out, but I don't really hear the fan much, so I wonder if the fan speed is too low.
Playing Battlefield 2 for over 10 minutes would often result in a total system freeze. I'm thinking it's because of over heating.

 

Its on a desk. The heat doesnt really make my laptop hot at all, just the air coming from the fan is very hot.

Im using i8kfangui. It doesnt have full functionality, and sometimes doesnt work for my side fan, but creating a "policy" works great, I can have the fan on high while gaming, and temp never gets too high. Sometimes when just using the normal control, it will turn fan on for a few seconds then stop, but the policy works perfect.

 

why not get one of those cooling pads?

 

I plan on it, i was just wonderin if these temps were normal

 

You dont need to worry. I play HL2 on totally top specs for hours on my 1210. Yeah it gets hot, and if you hold your hand infornt of the vent for a while it will burn you. I call it the built in hand warmer But Ive found that the fan is extreamly quiet. I have heard it at 100% before (HL2 for 4 solid hours), and its quieter then my DVD drive while burning a DVD/CD, so yeah its really quiet. I guess a notebook cooler wouldnt hurt, cooler is always better, but your system will shut down before it heats up to a dangerous level.

 

just want to add on to this...

if you let your computer get hot enough for this to happen over and over again, your notebook will die a very early death.

 

Your Dell BIOS will handle your game temp control fine. Why have another program running to steal CPU cycles?

I use I8kfan, second fan on low, for day to day stuff. This keeps my OC 7900around 50-52C. If I don't use it, the GPU will creep up to 79C!
BTW, you have to add 8C to I8kfan or you get lower than true readings.

IMHO, I would never try to use a third party fan controler to over ride the BIOS fan high temp trips when gaming. AFAIK, I8kfan is smart enough to bow out when the BIOS kicks fans on low or high as needed during gaming.

 

exactly, the root of many electrical failures is heat...

 

Don't forget dust. Dust screwed up my dad's computer when I was adding memory to it.

 

...and static electricity! Probably the biggest short and long term killer of memory chips. In the past, dealers used to enclose disposable 3M wrist straps, very handy in colder dryer climates.

 

Im not advocating letting your system get hot enough so it shuts down to stop damage on a regular basis. What im saying is if this ever happens you know you need an additional cooling solution, or else you system will meet an early demise.