HDX-18. Trying to figure fan out.

I've got a HDX-18, (X18-1374ca) Centrino Q9000 cpu, 4GB RAM, Windows 7 64bit. F.24 BIOS from factory. Had it for two months. I use this as a desktop replacement, no gaming, plugged in all the time. I have Power Options set to Balanced.

Out of the box the BIOS has the cooling fan set to run all the time. I had it that way for two months, the fan runs on what I'd say medium speed all day, never changes speed or anything all day even when the screens off and gone in to standby for ages....the fan still spins same speed, same sound. Its not annoying or loud. But I wonder how many years it will last (not as easy to change as a desktop cooling fan).
So in the BIOS I now turned the fan to always off. So its off when I am not at the laptop. But just browsing the net and typing this the fan goes off then comes on full blast for a minute and then off...and on and off, and so on. The trouble with that is the noise! The full speed fan is quite noisy, distracting. I am not complaining as I know it has to now run fast since it was off the cpu heated up.

My question is what you all have set up? The only place I can see to do anything else with the fan is Power Options in Control Panel, in Advanced power options, under Processor power management I can set the System cooling policy to Active or Passive....what ever that does, it doesn't make any differences.

I am curious what other people might have done. I am only trying to get it so the fan runs medium, quietly, when I am at the laptop and goes off when its in standby. It doesn't sleep, I have sleep disabled, just standby, HDDs still On.

I have a older DV9774ca and its fan comes on slow or medium speed and even off as I use the laptop, not full speed unless I have some intense graphics or video going. If I am only browsing the net the fan on that would even turn completely off, no spinning (I looked). Admitting it is s different cpu and laptop, thats the sort of behaviour I am looking for for this one.

Thanks

 

I have mine set to always on because I rather have mine run at a constant temperature than to have it get to a higher one, have the fan turn off, and cool it back down, then turn off.

I find the "Always On" setting is quieter than if you turn the option off, and have the fan turn on to cool the GPU/CPU. I believe that it will turn on when the GPU hits 60c (or something like that), but if set to Always on, It will only speed up when the processor runs past 60c, and again if either passes 80c.

I've had mine since August 2009. If it ever "dies" you could always try putting oil in it and see if that gets it spinning again. Also try getting some compressed air and cleaning out the vents, if you haven't. Leaving it on constantly builds up dust rather fast, I dust mine out every week (because I'm paranoid), but every 2-3 weeks should be enough.

 

Yeh well I switched it back to Always On yesterday because I was sick of the fan coming on full speed and noisier for a minute and then off for a minute, exactly like you said too. So now its on constant at about medium speed, its audible but livable. Yes I'd rather have it keep a constant cooler temp than let the cpu/gpu heat all the way up before the fan comes on.

When I had the fan Always Off yesterday I monitored the temps with Speedfan and the cpu and gpu would hit about 64 degrees and the fan would kick in full speed for a minute and bring them all down to around 53 before it went off again. This was during internet use only. So I'll leave it always on.