How often does your notebooks fans cycle?

I know this is a rather useless question, but I am curious.

I want to better understand how laptop fans differentiate, this question is aimed at people who have dust free cooling systems.

mine power up every 10-20 seconds and the machine's CPU is listed at running around 49-53oc

this machine is new so its definitly not down to dust build up, can the fans being on this much shorten my laptops lifespan?

 

If the fan is coming on more than usual and you are not loading the unit more than usual, then there is a concern. If the fan was not coming on (when required) then the life would be shortened. How is it compared to your old Sony, assuming they are of similar build?

 

well my Sony Vaio FW runs in virtual silence aside from the occasional blow out every couple minutes or so.

the fans on this laptop seem to cycle every 10-20 seconds or so when using programmes like firefox, msn and perhaps some other light programme. they are not extraordinarily loud but you can hear them pretty clearly.

the new laptop uses the AMD Athon Dual Core while the FW uses the core 2 duo.

 

AMD chips will run warmer than Intel - they will cause the fans to come on frequently. If they did NOT come out then heat would be an issue and will shorten the life span of the laptop.
Worked a bit on a friend's computer (same as yours) - the fans cycled frequently - did not verify at the frequency you describe, but the fans were running.

 

would you say the fans will wear out quicker than most laptops?
will this be a problem in the future?

 

Doubt it - still have my old HP laptop with an Athlon chip (from 2004) - original fan and still churns out the heat - that things throws out heat just viewing web pages.
Keep it clean and you'll be fine.

 

Thank you. I just wanted to make sure of stuff.

 

Yah AMD chips run hot... have heard horror stories about them... i wouldn't be suprsied if fans are blowing every few minutes... They won't burn out or anything so don't worry.

Panther214

 

The only time I've actually seen a fan burn out was on a family member's ThinkPad X300. But then again, I find the X300 to be one of the most obnoxious machines when it comes to fan activity, so I'm not totally surprised.

I've handled tons of far older machines with heavily clogged vents and perfectly functional fans...

 

how did they burn out?
how often did they run and how loud?

 

It wasn't my machine so I can't really get specific, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say it was running most of the time the machine was powered. It wasn't that loud per se, but spun up and spun down in rapid enough succession such that it was annoying.

And then one day there was a fan error and we had the replace the thing.

 

thats what mine is doing :/

 

Ghost, I would check it into a shop which is a Sony ASP and have that checked out. Fan/heatsinks are a common thing that are replaced (especially with HPs)

 

AW M17X cycles from low to medum about every 6 min. normally
Elitebook 8740W .... about the same but is pretty quiet
CF-30 .... well it doesnt have a fan to cycle so never.
MBP 15 and 17" ... when I run em hard sounds like a jet engine continually, but normally every 3 mins for me.
DV2000 - about every 10 minutes but it acts as my web browsing and HTPC remote when im at home

 

My laptop fan never cycles. It always stay on low. CPU temps are between 27-32. Sony SR with Core 2 Duo p8700 undervolted.

On low though, the fan is audible if the room is completely silent; otherwise I usually do not hear it.

 

I laughed hard at this!

 

, its not so funny when you have to listen to that high pitched scream for an hour . and thought My old Aurora 9750 was loud

 

My Asus, when it's just turned on, cycles every minute or so between fan on extremely low and then low. After it warms up a little bit, it tends to get less frequent until the fan is constantly on low. It then sits at a nice toasty 48C on the GPU.

As for Toshiba...pretty much never cycles. Maybe if it's only really cold at the time, like 13C. But generally the fan sits on low, and the GPU kind of dabbles around the 42C mark on idle.

 

My Vostro 1500 fan doesn't go into overload until running Prime95 or games. Although everything is repasted and undervolted..

Latitude 13 fan doesn't kick in until extreme load, very whisper quiet.

 

my laptop cycles every 20-30 seconds, I've spoken to a Sony Rep and he claims its normal. I've noticed this laptop doesn't like it when the temperature goes above 51oc and takes it down to 49oc, it only spins up when the temp exceeds those few degrees.

I have no way to configure the fan through bios or any power options, seems sony wanted it this way.

its kind of annoying but not that loud, my concern is how much of this can the fans take?

its like a fairly gentle humming sound and it never goes to town, it can be irritating in a silent room.

 

lol a Sony rep wouldn't be able to tell you if an apocalypse was coming if an asteroid the size of the sun was about to hit the Earth.

Are you still within the return policy of your Sony?

 

I like this about Sony reps, mot are too dumb to breathe.

We all forgot ONE little thing... whats our ambiant temperature for me im hovering about 22C there is a good chance many other people here are in a much warmer climate. Was thinking of this when I was working outdoors today and my CPU sensor said 4C and my HDD said 11C

 

I just don't see how this is a problem, Sony have disabled all forms of fan control on this laptop, once your CPU temp goes over 50oc the fans will come on medium until they go down again, after prolonged use the fans will stay on the same pretty much.

my major concern is can a laptops fan work almost constantly for its lifetime before burning out?

 

Well I'm no expert on fans, but it seem to me, that if you extrapolate from fans in general--and considering their simplicity--you'd realized that fans can run almost continuously for years before failing.

In fact, if you take all the devices you can thinks of with fans in them i.e., computers, cars, refrigerators, A/C units, even fans in general, the fan is one of the least likely items to fail (provided it's not a very cheap fan; and that you don't overtax the motor by restricting the air flow).

I think your laptop will be long obsolete before you have to worry about the fan failing.