The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Is your CPU and GPU fan always on?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by chillerman625, Jan 30, 2012.

  1. chillerman625

    chillerman625 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    23
    Messages:
    216
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Is your CPU and GPU fan always on? As in 24/7 continuously and never shutting off. It doesn't have to be full throttle; it can be spinning really slow but that would be spinning.

    My Gateway p7801u updated with the latest BIOS has the CPU fan is always on. Not that annoyingly so (think of your desk fan sound), but I think it strange to be always on when it wasn't with the previous BIOS. The problem is that most of the time, it blows out cold air so I think this is a huge waste of battery life.
     
    chillerman625, Jan 30, 2012
    #1
  2. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

    Reputations:
    2,962
    Messages:
    8,231
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Mostly fanless with x220 and x220t :D
     
    Commander Wolf, Jan 30, 2012
    #2
  3. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    At idle my M17xR2 fans don't really kick in, but opening anything will make the CPU fan start spinning. Of course full blast gaming makes an airport launch pad sound dead silent. :S
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Jan 30, 2012
    #3
  4. ExMM

    ExMM Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    185
    Messages:
    555
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    41
    Guess also dipends if your ventilation system is well built or not.

    Anyway, my fan doens't spin always.
     
    ExMM, Jan 30, 2012
    #4
  5. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    3,905
    Messages:
    6,116
    Likes Received:
    89
    Trophy Points:
    216
    My previous computer, a BenQ Joybook S42, was completely silent with no moving parts (fan was off) for web browsing and typing up stuff after I replaced the original hard drive with an SSD.

    My current VAIO Z1 unfortunately has an angry sounding fan that is always on and I've recently replaced the optical drive with a rotating 2.5" 1TB drive. :<
     
    namaiki, Jan 30, 2012
    #5
  6. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

    Reputations:
    7,588
    Messages:
    10,023
    Likes Received:
    1,077
    Trophy Points:
    581
    On battery, they are on and off, plugged in, they are always on, but barely audible. If there is one thing the Asus G series excels at is low noise levels even under load.
     
    tijo, Jan 30, 2012
    #6
  7. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    Time to replace that 1 TB rotational HDD for a 512 GB SSD. :D

    My ThinkPad fans (T60, Z61t's) are maxed out in tpfancontrol and it's quiet. Maybe I'm not bothered by it..
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Jan 30, 2012
    #7
  8. Kuu

    Kuu That Quiet Person

    Reputations:
    765
    Messages:
    968
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    31
    My HDX's fan is always running, battery or not; but it is an option to have it cycle on and off... but when it does turn on its quite annoying, moreso when it does it every half a minute.

    I rather just have the barely audible sound of air moving over quiet and noise every 30 seconds.
     
    Kuu, Jan 31, 2012
    #8
  9. DEagleson

    DEagleson Gamer extraordinaire

    Reputations:
    2,529
    Messages:
    3,107
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    116
    My Clevo fans keep running even at idle but my external WD hard drive makes more noise.
    But its to be expected, you cant keep a 2720QM and a HD 6970m fanless. xD
     
    DEagleson, Jan 31, 2012
    #9
  10. ramgen

    ramgen -- Morgan Stanley --

    Reputations:
    513
    Messages:
    1,322
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Yup, it is definitely not full throttle but constantly spinning. Doesn't bother me at all.

    BTW, mine has a single fan cooling T9900 and HD3650 (and the chipset). I think that explains why it should be on always.


    --
     
    ramgen, Jan 31, 2012
    #10
  11. 5482741

    5482741 5482741

    Reputations:
    712
    Messages:
    1,530
    Likes Received:
    17
    Trophy Points:
    56
    My laptop has one fan, and it is always on.
     
    5482741, Jan 31, 2012
    #11
  12. pengy_666

    pengy_666 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    312
    Messages:
    474
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    my acer (old and trusty) is on but very silently until gaming or using flash
     
    pengy_666, Jan 31, 2012
    #12
  13. Kallogan

    Kallogan Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    596
    Messages:
    1,096
    Likes Received:
    19
    Trophy Points:
    56
    When i'm just browsing the web or doing basic stuff, the fan turns on every 15 minutes during 30 seconds or so and then turn off. When completely idle, fan does not turn on.
     
    Kallogan, Jan 31, 2012
    #13
  14. 3Fees

    3Fees Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    541
    Messages:
    970
    Likes Received:
    136
    Trophy Points:
    56
    No it was , now fan cycles off and on and cpu runs cooler, if your fan is always on you might try cleaning the fan radiator mine collected a lot of dust after 2 years, a good vacuuming put everything back to normal.

    Cheers
    3Fees :)
     
    3Fees, Jan 31, 2012
    #14