S6240 Fan

Hi all,

I had my S6240 for about 2 months, and one thing that I noticed is that the fan is almost always on, say around 80% of my time. Even when I am just doing word processing, with a few windows opened tho...but that's normal i think. Is something wrong with my notebook? If it is then I wanna send it back in b4 the warranty expires. Any thoughts?

 

If this is happening when it is plugged in, I think it is normal. If you have your BIOS or windows power scheme set to run at max cpu speed when plugged in, the fan will run more due to the heat generated by the cpu.

My S6231 does this when plugged in, running at 1.6 ghz.

 

I checked the BIOS, and you're right. However, I also checked that if battery power was used, then it would be in battery optimized mode. My fan still kicks in most of the time even when I am on battery. Would this be a problem?

 

I'm not really sure- I'd wait for some more input here (from other members) before calling Fijitsu support.

 

when i first got it was very quiet

not after a month the fan is usually on
with aim word and mozilla.

I must say i am dissapointed bc i got this instead of the s2000 bc the fan would be on less

even in battery mode its goin on all

it happened i think after when my computer crashed and i put in the
windows recovery cd to fix it

oh well at least its not loud
like the keyboard.....

 

UPDATE!

i have been using the computer for an hour with and without the ac adapter
the fan turned on with in 5 minutes.
I only had two explorer windows open and aim with an away messege
why is this happening??? and when I press control alt deleate the computer
percentage usage is always 50 or higher

is something wrong with this thing????

 

Sounds like there is some background process that is hogging your processor time. which then would increase the heat, which in turn would turn the fan on. Browse through your processes to see what is using that 50% of the cpu. Then, if the process name is not an easy one, just google it.

 

Have you tried NHC/CHC (Centrino hardware control)?

I think it will help a bit if you use "dynamic switching" which throttles down the CPU if you are not doing CPU-intensive tasks.

 

I have a similar problem with my Lifebook E8020D model. It takes a little longer than 5 minutes for the fan to go on but then it won't go off anymore. There are definitely no CPU intensive background processes, I checked that.

NHC didn't help. I am afraid that the problem is not the CPU alone but that the threshold values that are set for the fan to turn off again are too high.

In another forum I read about Sonoma based Thinkpads with fan problems:
"It probably has to do with the increased power of the sonoma processors, and the fact that IBM decided to use a single fan to cool the cpu, gpu, ram, etc, which leads to the fan being pretty far away from the cpu. So, the processor is warm, which triggers the fan...but, the fan is far away, so it doesn't cool the cpu enough to bring it down to the 'fan off' temp. Thus, you get loud fan and hot computer. Or, perhaps the fan is designed to run all the time, since it cools everything important."

I suppose this might also be the case for the Sonoma based FSC Lifebooks with fan problems. Or in case of the FSC laptops I think it's the other way around: the fan is too far away from the GPU, the RAM or whatever, and doesn't allow them to be cooled down enough for the fan to turn off. I was told that FSC Lifebooks have more than one thermal sensor and the running of the fan does not only depend on the CPU temperature.

 

even when my computer percentage usage is < 10% the fan still kicks in....and im running on battery..., i only have MSN and firefox on.

???

 

Have you felt the bottom side of your laptop? Does it feel hot and if yes, where?

 

little heat from harddrive..nhc saids 41C after 1.5 hrs.
most of the heat is from where the ram is..

 

The same as with my laptop. The hottest area is where the RAM and the WLAN module is located (even though it is switched off). Maybe there are other components in that same area that produce a lot of heat too but these are the ones that are easily visible without disassembling the laptop. The area around the CPU is not very hot.

I really think this is a hardware problem, not a software/configuration problem. There may be something wrong with a secondary thermal monitor in the latop.

Unfortunately, for my model and obviously yours NHC does not give any other temperatures than the one for the harddrive. My harddrive temperature usually is around 38 °C after longer use of the laptop.

 

Have you already contacted technical support about your problem?

I did (by email) but haven't gotten an answer yet.

 

no i havn't. maybe i should.

 

I would recommend you do so because computer hardware manufacturers often tend to ignore certain problems until many people start complaining.

This is especially true for fan problems which are not a defect in the sense of the laptop not being usable - but it is still a defect to me.

 

I have the same problem with my Amilo A1667G - my original post is somewhere around yours. I would try another brand/configuration if I know it can be better.

But I heard some notebooks of colleagues and I know that there are better fans - quiet, so you don't care if it runs or not.

 

Centrino laptop with a Pentium mobile CPU normally do not require the fan to run permanently or frequently unless you stress your laptop by performing certain operations such as running CPU- or GPU-intensive applications or copying/moving huge amounts of data.

I personally do not mind louder fans as long as they hardly ever run, which is the case with properly working Centrino notebooks. A very quiet fan that is permanently running may be an acceptable compromise but I would still prefer a laptop with a somewhat louder fan that only runs for a minute or so every hour or more.

Just as you know colleagues owning laptops with very quiet fans, I have seen/heard laptops with fans that do not run at all unless the laptop is stressed or only run every hour or so, and this is what I expect from a Centrino laptop.

 

Ticktack> If I consider Centrino, is it better to stay with lower GHz like 1.73 and lower or this doesn't matter so much ? I mean if 1.6, 1.73 and 1.83 (not saying 2.00) are noticeably different or it is mainly architecture and nominal frequency doesn't matter so much ... As I do not care about power so much I can stay with lower GHz .....

 

As far as heat production is concerned there won?t be much of a difference between a 1.6, 1.73 and 1.83 GHz processor. The overall architecture and processor type matter a lot more.
Besides, modern Centrino laptop processors have something called Intel Enhanced SpeedStep Technology integrated that clocks down the processor anyway when it is idle (usually to 800 MHz).

 

Great to know, then I would go 1.73 or 1.83 which is also easier to get these days. I thought AMD has something similar because I can lock my Turion on 350Mhz by hardware button. Pity is that this makes only small difference and fan goes on anyway.
Finally I think I am going to return the Fujitsu and wait for Toshiba M70 hoping for price smaller than M60's price tag.
Thank you for comments, Ticktack.