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    Is there a way to manually control the fan to make it run sooner? laptop gets too hot

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by ericyp, Dec 26, 2011.

  1. ericyp

    ericyp Notebook Consultant

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    Fan seems to run at a middle speed no matter how hot the laptop gets. When starting up from sleep, the fan will go to the fastest setting for a few seconds, even though it's not that high, but just because there is high CPU use. When playing games, the GPU is in high gear and heat the laptop very hot, always at least upper 80's, has seen 95 degrees during long gaming sessions. But the fan doesn't run at the fastest settings unless there is high CPU usage. Is there a way to change this myself?

    Asus n61 btw.
     
    ericyp, Dec 26, 2011
    #1
  2. Deks

    Deks Notebook Prophet

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    How old is the laptop in question?
    When was the last time you cleaned out the machine from dust?
    If it's been a while, I suggest you open the back panel, or disassemble the laptop in order to clean out the air vent, fan and the place in between those two from possible dust buildup.

    upper 80ies are not that bad for gaming, but 95 degrees C is worrying.
    My first idea goes to the dust buildup.

    While you are inside the laptop, you might as well see if both the gpu and the cpu have the cooling paste on it.
    If one is lacking, then get a quality past and apply it in no more than a grain of rice quantity.
     
    Deks, Dec 27, 2011
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  3. lidowxx

    lidowxx Notebook Deity

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    What Deks said. Give your laptop a thorough cleanup with compressed air.

    If it still overheats, repaste both your CPU and GPU, also consider getting a good notebook cooler.
     
    lidowxx, Dec 27, 2011
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  4. farsang

    farsang Notebook Consultant

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    Try to check BIOS for fan settings.
     
    farsang, Dec 27, 2011
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  5. too456

    too456 Resident Angry Bird

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    Asus does not allow you to control the fan settings. No such option in bios and no program can control it as far as I know for N61.
     
    too456, Dec 27, 2011
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  6. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

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    Afaik, no one has been able to manually control the fans on an Asus laptop, if it is getting that hot, there is a problem somewhere else: dust in the heatsinks or degraded thermal compound.
     
    tijo, Dec 27, 2011
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  7. funky monk

    funky monk Notebook Deity

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    You could put a switch on the PWM wire if you're desperate. If you disconnect the PWM wire from the fan then it'll run at max speed. When you game you simply flick the switch and then you're all good.
     
    funky monk, Dec 27, 2011
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  8. ericyp

    ericyp Notebook Consultant

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    It's clean from dust, laptop is about a year old. Sucks about Asus and fan control. If I take off the panel, it exposes the RAM, CPU, GPU, and the heat sinks, and makes it run much cooler. It drops it 15-20 degrees. Guess I'll run it that way for a while when I am gaming. I may look into reapplying thermal compound... would it have degraded this fast? It's only a year or so old.
     
    ericyp, Dec 28, 2011
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  9. too456

    too456 Resident Angry Bird

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    Yes it could, since the stock thermal paste (for my N43SL anyway) was too thick and had already started to dry and become very hard after about a month's use. Repasting does wonders for temperatures.
     
    too456, Dec 28, 2011
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