HP Pavillion zv5000

I bought a Pavillion z5000 series Notebook 2 months ago. A month later I noticed that only one Cooling Fan works (there are 2 c/fans). Not knowing how they work I called Tech Support to verify, but the dude didn't know wosup. He made me download drivers but nothing happened, and still, ONLY one Cooling Fan was working. Eventually Support arranged for RMA so that it can go for service. I sent the Notebook to HP (Cali). About week later it came back with a Note saying "Failure was Duplicated and Repaired". They showed that the Modem/Lan was also not working but they fixed it.

But they did not clarify on whether the Cooling Fan is Fixed or how it supposed to operate.

The same day it arrived back I called the Support to say that the "faulty" Cooling Fan moved ONCE only when I switched the Notebook on then stopped, but the other fan continue to work properly.

The Tech guy this time said only one fan is supposed to work. He said: the second fan only works if the Notebook overheats. The question is why didn't the HP Support tell me in the first place I contacted HP? Sometimes I feel the notebook gets "too warm" and I would expect both Cooling Fans to work, but lo, it doesn't.

I am therefore asking all of you Pavillion zv5000 series owners to help me: does both cooling fans on your zv5000 work simultaneously since buying them, and up to now? Please tell me about it so that if they work I can SERIOUS take up with HP.

Thank you all in advance.

Lawrence[ ]

 

On mine, only 1 fan is used most of the time. I've only seen the second fan kick in when I max out the CPU for a sustained period. If I undervolt the CPU (Athlon 64) it never gets hot enough for the second fan to kick in. They aren't even including the second fan on Athlon XP-M machines (1.4V max core, vs. 1.5V on the Athlon 64).

 

Dregcol. I have a Zv5200z but I am not sure how to tell if both my fans are running or its just the one blowing through the other slots. How do I test them out. Or know if they are both going. Do I just look and see or can I check another way?
Mike.

 

Mike, if you just look underneath while the notebook is running you can tell which fan is working and which is not.

But according to Brainstretch, it seems that the second fan really does really kick in after overheating! It could have been nice to hear from more people.

regards

lawrence

 

Well, I must admit, I was shocked when I first read this, but lo and behold, you are correct. There's only one fan that runs constantly under normal operating mode. When the CPU is taxed, the second fan really does kick in (tust me - downloading, video rendering and playing a graphics-intensive game *will* make that puppy heat up!), in an effort to keep the system cooler.

I guess I will be looking at one of those under-the-notebook dual-fan coolers, just to be on the safe side. Does anyone here have one that they recommend?

 

Same compy, Athlon 64 3000+ processor. The fan is driving me crazy. Is there any tool i can use to maybe slow down the processor so that i can still use the computer but not be bothered by the fan?

I'll have this machine for a while, but I'm thinking my next one will probably have to be one which can run without a fan. oh and slim and light would be nice too.

seriously, though, for the time being, what can I do about the fan spinning constantly?

 

You can set any given clock speed and core voltage with ClockGen for nForce3 chipset motherboards, but that won't change the fan behavior. The BIOS is configured to always run the fan when 1.5V core CPUs (standard DTR-class Athlon 64 CPUs) are used. With 1.4V core CPUs (Athlon XP-M, Mobile-class Athlon 64), the BIOS turns the fan on when the CPU temp hits 55C and shuts it off at 50C. There is no technical reason that I can think of why this shouldn't be standard behavior for 1.5V core CPUs as well, given that the entire product line consumes about the same amount of power in PowerNOW! low-power mode, but HP didn't do things that way.

I swapped in a Mobile-class Athlon 64 CPU. This has the unfortunate side-effect of breaking PowerNOW!, forcing me to set the clock speed manually with ClockGen if I don't want to be stuck at 800MHz. Outside of that it works perfectly, and I'd rather use ClockGen anyhow so I can undervolt.

Newegg lists Mobile-class Athlon 64 3400+ CPUs for $250, but they're out of stock. You'll want a tube or Arctic Silver 5 too. More details on CPU swapping here.

 

Mine does the same. I have the zv5410us with the AMD Athlon 64 3000+. Only the fan closer to the center/back of the laptot is running constantly. I have my power on minimal utilization now, so I can't verify that the second one is definitely working, but it sounds like that's the case.