Bad batterly life due to fan always on? dv6000

I can't figure out what the problem is with my laptop.

First of all, the fan is on nearly all of the time. I sprayed it and some dust came out. I tried to open the back of the laptop but it became very difficult to open just the back without taking off nearly everything so I sprayed it again from some different angles while it was open and put it back together.

My battery life is terrible... maybe 1/2 hour on a full charge

I know this isn't right because my gf has the same laptop and hers lasts 3x as long as mine does and her fan isn't on nearly as much.

What should I do to narrow down the problem?

 

sometimes the battery does go bad so you can try run the battery check from the total care advisor. You can also do a BIOS update, the newest one fixes something with the fan. 1/2 hour is really short for that notebook so if that battery check fails then call them and if your in warranty then you get a free new battery.

 

Tips how to improve battery life:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/0c661ed0-102f-49f2-a30f-0bd99a2dc3e61033.mspx

Good advice Caveman

 

I just downloaded Total Care Advisor and ran the battery check and it told me that there is a problem with my battery. I'll try to figure out what I can do about it.

I did do the BIOS update last night and it has seemed to significantly decrease the amount of time my fan goes on. Thanks for the heads up

 

you can also undervolt the processor. runs cooler with no performance loss which means less fan time.
i would assume so at least.

 

How old is your laptop and battery?
If the laptop is still under warranty, HP should cover the battery as well (this is something I don't know 100% because I've never had this happen to me), you will have to call them and ask. It is possible though that the battery is bad and thus giving you a very short charge.

Follow the tips the other people posted on how to test and maximize your battery, but give HP a call as well and see if the battery is still under warranty.

 

***FIXEDDDDD**** (for me anyways)

I started having this SAME problem just a week ago... i was verrry annoyed because the fan went from turning on only occasionally, to now always being on..

that bios update they offered in November seemed to be the culprit.. after updating the fan is always on.. so i reverted back to the old bios.. and everything is fine.. the new bios didnt really fix any issues i had so i dont think it hurt anything..
give it a try
** Bios updates are critical, so make sure u follow the steps properly and dont mess around with it while its updating

 

Check your CPU temp with a utility like Core Temp, and check Windows Task Manager to see what your CPU load is when you think it should be idle. Make sure the fan wasn't running because it needed to be.

 

>> was verrry annoyed because the fan went from turning on only occasionally, to now always being on..that bios update they offered in November seemed to be the culprit.. <<

It is supposed to do that. These laptops were running way too hot and the overheating was causing many of them to fail and meant that overall the life expectancy was going to be really short. Read all the posts about dead screens, three beeps, bad MBs, wireless problems, etc., on fairly new PCs.

Before the update, there seemed to be two fans speeds - fast and medium. Now the PC has a lower speed that is always on except in rare instances when things get hot and then the speed will increase for a short time. The battery life does not seem to be much different. I think this is because it is not constantly cycling up to high speed (high drain) like before when the PC core temps constantly cycled between 50 and 62.

On the other hand, my PC now runs much, much cooler. If your PC isn't idling in the mid to lower 30's, running mid-load in the lower 40's only only barely hit 50 occasionally under heavy load, you need to update the bios or not expect it to last very long.

 

Here is what i noticed. My DV6500 fan started being always on and the problem was with the nVidia driver. There was this file that was always consuming 30-40% CPU and also if left unchecked it went up to 900mb of RAM. Forced it to quit and the fan right away dropped.

 

great link blksnake thanks

 

and anybody knows where to find old version of bios?