L2000 Fan Cycling On-Off-On-Off...

Just received my L2000 direct from China as most here have. I've noticed once the unit is at operating temperature, the fan is constantly cycling on and off. It's most noticeable if the CPU is under any load at all. This seems to happen every few seconds. Has any other L2000 owners experienced this?

Thanks in advance!

Frank

 

Well it is a cycling themed laptop.

I did have similar issues with the AMD setup. Are you using the 12 or 6 cell battery, the 12 cell helped keep mine cooler, and less fan action.

 

Mine does the same thing - quite annoying to be honest, the 12 cell battery does keep the back up so it runs a little cooler but still, quite sad really. You would think they would have found a way to keep the fan from running quite so much. I am playing with undervolting mine and it seems to help a bit but still the fan runs a lot. This laptop may be going back, such a shame!

 

Mine even stopped in Paris, France to get his direct signature,

Stupid FedEx... would have made much more sense to send it via Anchorage, AK. Should be here Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, and hopefully by 10:30 AM as it should be...but you never know with them.

 

I don't have the L2000 but I did have briefly the DV1000 and the fan did the exact same thing. Extremely annoying. I returned it and I am awaiting for my Toshiba Tecra A5. HP's tech support suggested to me since I had the 6 cell battery that I prop the laptop up with a book to provide better air circulation. I don't think so. I was extremely dissapointed that HP does not provide any way of controlling the fan speed or even power management beyond windows.
Scott

 

I'm not seeing any of those fan issues on our L2000, in fact it really doesn't turn on very often.

 

everyone experiencing the fan problems should try this latest update from AMD and see if it does anything. someone commented and said that it reduced the amount of heat and how frequently the fan turned on ...

May 2005 Update

Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor Driver for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Version (exe) 1.2.2.2 - Allows the system to automatically adjust the CPU speed, voltage and power combination that match the instantaneous user performance need. Download this Setup Installation program (EXE) to automatically update all the files necessary for installation. This package is recommended for users whom desire a graphical user interface for installation. This .EXE driver is a user friendly localized software installation of the driver designed for end-users. This driver supports Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor on Windows 32 bit OS.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/amdcpu.exe

All the updates for mobile athlon 64 chips are here ...

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_12474,00.html

 

I really don't get all the hubbub about the fan. Mine doesn't come on any more or less than other laptops. It's there to save the laptop, and it's way quieter than a desktop.

And if you are listening to music or videos, you don't hear it.

Me think people doth protest too much for a $1,000 laptop.

The Sony S480 makes just as much fan noise, runs hotter, and costs over twice as much.

 

I also received my L2000 two days ago. Fan coming off and going is one issue but the left hand side armrest is getting really hot is a major issue. I have Dell Inspiron 8600 at work and that never heats up like this. All I have been doing with L2000 for the last two days were just browsing web. With simple browsing if the left side heats up, it will be really problem once I install my development environment. I really wanto to keep this machine but if I can't reduce the heat I need to return this beautiful machine.

Pushparaj

 

I've noticed the same fan/heat behavior as you
described. It's slightly better with 12 cell battery, but
not quiet enough. Why is it a big deal?

It's annoying to have fan on and notebook warming up
even with little or no activity. If you are in a meeting,
it's notieable. With both Intel and AMD harping about
the virtues of their so called low power tech., we should
expect more.

So far, the only notebook I've used that is ultra quiet
and cool is dell inspiron 2200...but it's dull and has
15" xga.

L2000 is dissappointing due to this fan/heat issue.
Mine is going back to HP. I may try Toshiba 14" that
just came out. It's supposedly cooler and quiet.

Imran

 

Imran,
i am waiting for my tecra a5 which is the business version of the M55/M50. If you'd like, I can give you some feedback when I recieve it.
Scott

 

the hubbub about the fan is that there are people who don't use a laptop just to listen to music or watch movies. we actually use them in environments where if you have a loud laptop it disturbs people. also $1200 to $1400 is not exactly cheap so, if i am spending that much money i do not want a product that i am unhappy with. in my case and many other peoples case fan noise is very important.

 

It's possible that the CPU heatsink thermal compound isn't being applied correctly in some of the machines. That would contribute to the CPU heating up faster than it should. That happened a few times to zv5000 users. I suppose this is the price we pay for HP using Chinese prison labor rather than American meth addicts (j/k) .

I can't think of anything else that could be wrong outside of user error (blocking the vents, etc). If the service manual is available (I haven't checked), cleaning off the old compound with Arctic Clean (or rubbing alcohol) and applying Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound may improve things... and annoy HP if they notice.

 

It seems to me that cold notebooks are still a $$ luxury and at the price HP asks, it's not natural to expect experience equivalent to the +$600 IBM notebook. (I have 2 HP and one IBM notebook and I can assure you, cold and fast notebooks don't come form HP). My T42 with Dothan 1.7 almost never turns fan on during normal use and remains totally cold, despite its very thin body and weight of only 4.9 lbs. This is what I call professional design! A similar processor makes HP's DV1000 quite warm, you see?

 

I have a T41 1.6 with 1.5 gig of ram and this beast is cool to the touch everywhere and is quiet as could be also. It is my work laptop and I need a personal one so I decided to give HP a whirl since my Mom has the DV1000 with the old chipset. She is very happy with it and I am very happy with her version. I can't say the same for the revised model I recieved (1.86). The fan would come on every 45 seconds for 5 to 10 seconds at a time. It did not matter what the laptop was doing. To loud for me. If the Toshiba isn't much better, I will be buying a thinkpad. You get what you pay for.
Scott

 

All the "hubbub" is that while $1000 is nothing to you, its alot of money to the rest of us. since you've got hundred dollar bills growing in the yard then maybe you should send $1000 to everyone with fan issues. making the laptop free is the only way i can agree that people should be quiet about the negatives on their purchase. many of us take paypal so this should be a quick fix for everyone.

i said it from the start with my l2000. the thing sounds like its breathing. 15 seconds of fan then 45 seconds silence then 15 fan 45 silence over and over. its not super loud but it is annoying since it feels like the laptop can't decide whether its hot or cold.

anyway, its obvious that you're just trying to defend your purchase with those silly answers. "its not too loud if youre constantly blasting music". "hey, at least its quieter than a desktop". that reasoning sounds a bit more like justifying a purchase than discussing an issue. i guess you can also add "its lighter than a 30" television" or "it smells better than a trash can" if you want. its great that you love your laptop, but its much more helpful to new and future buyers to acknowledge these issues than to tell people to just live with them.

 

I work in an environment where people expect quiet and the laptop is hardly loud.

And yes, $1,000 is cheap for what you are getting.

As for being unhappy, I agree you should be happy with what you get, but also realistic.

Let us know when you find the quiet laptop you are searching for at the right price.

 

I agree the IBM/Lenovo's are well engineered. And for nearly twice the price, they should be. It's all about tradeoffs.

 

Anon,

I can see you are a smartaleck. That's your perogative.

Buy as they say, SAND.

$1,000 is most definitely something to me. That is why I go with the best price/performance, which I found in the L2000.

Obviously, you must be about 13 years old, as you don't recall the days of $5,000 laptops....or two years ago a desktop replacement laptop was $3,600.
Today you get better performance from $1,000 laptop. So relatively, it is cheap. Now if you (the general you, not you specifically) are some slacker with no job, living at home with mommy and daddy, I can see how it might be a lot.

That said, I agree you should be happy, so go find something that does. HP made a choice to built the laptops they way they do - mass produced, consumer focused. Cough up an extra grand and get an IBM and you will be happier. (maybe).

I don't need to defend anything. I don't love it (at least not in the way you "love" the Jessica Alba cover of Rolling Stone). It has issues I do not like, but again, for the price, it's a good deal. And I like the look and feature set. (which I would be glad to eloborate on (both good and bad) if desired).

You seem like the type of guy who who go in McDonalds, order a Big Mac, anf then complain that it's not filet mignon.

 

mikec,

i have to agree with anonymouse on this one. $1000 is a heck of a lot of money (i'm a med school student) and this laptop has horrific heat management by ANY laptop standard.

i'm using the L2000 side by side with my 3 year old fujitsu s-series laptop (1ghz pIII-m) and the L2000 fan goes on/off A LOT in comparison. even as i'm typing on my fujitsu and leaving the L2000 alone, the fan is STILL turning on and off. also, the area to the left of the trackpad gets ridiculously hot. even after just 5 min of typing it becomes too uncomfortable. keep in mind that i have the L2000 on "max battery" so this is probably its COOLEST setting. i'm almost tempted to say that it's a defect or a design flaw! i'm pretty sure i'm going to be sending it back and getting something with a pentium M.

 

I agree, I definately think that HP needs to reconsider the cooling technique's used for the L2000 and the revised DV1000. Once they get it under control I might be tempted to give HP a whirl again but I am not holding my breath.
Scott

 

Nice attempt but you got it wrong. This is equivelent to finding a hair on that big mac. Sure, you can ignore it, eat right through it and life goes on without a hiccup. Or you can go get something that fits your expectations as a paying consumer. (A consumer with expectations? Back to Hades with you!)


The L2000 is a fantastic laptop that ive been balancing on whether to keep or return for the last week. Prior to purchase it was the holy grail to me because in my short 13 years on this planet then i thought i finally found the perfect laptop that had the perfect balance of size/specs/price. But unfortunately it does have a few flaws that shouldn't be hidden by turning your speakers up or installing an air conditioner on your desk. Im not sure why you take offense to people giving a heads up but honesty in threads like this are invaluable to potential and current owners.

As for price. Just because notebooks you used to pay $4000, years ago back when a chocolate malted cost 13 cents and you would sit around the victrola after a long day at the speakeasy doing the fox trot with a few flappers, doesnt mean that suddenly the sub-$1000 era should be more tolerant of flaws. Times change and its not unreasonable for consumers to be more nitpicky as more choices emerge in the market.


Anyway, $1000 is a good price on the L2000, but its not the best. Dell just had that huge deal for those 700m's or 6000's. And Best Buy has the V2311 for only $700 after rebate. If anyone has issue with the fan then a lower price for a less spec'd out machine may make that fan sound more bearable. Think of all those big mac mignons you can buy with the money you save.

Best Buy - V2311 $880-180 rebate = $700

Now its back listening to my rap mp3's while playing a few rounds on the nintendo or whatever it is us 13 year olds do.

 

yeah. im working here on my desktop with the laptop sitting idle next to me and its seriously feeling like its got breathing problems. it would be much less annoying if it could just decide to stay on or stay off rather then cycling the way it does.

as for heat. ive owned several cheapie laptops and a few good ones so i dont feel the heat is as unbearable as other notebooks. but with the proccessors out now then heat is something that really shouldnt be noticed if a notebook is designed right. i definitely am feeling heat whenever i use my L2000 and its distracting.

 

But if you are a med school student, you have those fat loans, so you can afford an IBM, right? ;-)

Yes, the fan goes off more compared to your other laptop. But the L2000 is also 3 times faster than that one, along with a nicer screen and more functionality.

The area to the left if the hard drive. I'd rather have it there than under the keyboard and subject to damage (ala Dell). The area gets warm (just like any other laptop with a HD there), but not "hot". I've been using it for three hours straight...no problem.

Design flaw? No, just operating as intended. AMD processors run hot. Plastic does not disperse heat as well as metal. I guess if you don't like it, return and get a different brand.

 

No, the analogy is spot on. Yours make no sense.

Whatever. I take no offense; you started with the mockery and insult. I am all in favor of sharing info, and all perspectives. Flaws? Eveything has them. You want REAL flaws? Look at Sony S series non-replaceable hard drives, or Dell non-powered USB 2.0 ports. Now those are flaws. The heat issue with the L2000 is minor by comparison.

As far as your flapper comments, I'm sure you gave wikipedia a workout looking up all those early 20th century terms.

As for a deal, if you want the fugly Compaq Silver and White, go for it. If I wanted an Powerbook, I'd buy one. That said, it is a good deal.

 

Could those of you having heat problems fire up MobileMeter and report what the HDD temp is and, ideally, identify the HDD (should be doable via Device Manager)? HP uses several different HDD brands, some of which run cooler than others. It may help explain why some people are reporting cool operation and some not-so-much. How close is the HDD to the CPU?

FWIW, the Hitachi 7200RPM drive in my zv5000z is at 44C right now in a 26C (78-80F) room, same fan behavior as the L2000 (55C on, 50C off).

 

Did anyone try the new drivers yet? (in this post I believe) If so, does it help the fan cycles? What about undervolting?

 

Guys, this is getting a little out of hand. Let me just say that the L2000 I got for my wife doesn't have a heat or fan problem. It seems a good number of peole here don't have problems either, especially with the 12-cell battery. If you do have a lot of heat, especially just browsing the web and such, it's within your rights to send it back for a replacement. Whether or not it's acceptable for $1000 isn't really the issue, we all have certain requirements or expectations and if the machine isn't fitting, that's a problem.

Side note, I'd like to here a response on the driver issue strat jsut brought up, the link is on page one of this thread. Since ours works, I'm relunctant to mess with it.

 

i tried the new amd drivers and they do nothing.

 

BrianStretch has a good point.

I noticed that my L2000 runs cool I watched DVD.

The harddisk is Samsung MP060H (60 gig, 52k rpm).
Temp: 48-49

Thanks

Imran

 

HD makes a lot of differemce.

- IBM T42 uses Hitachi Travelstar 40 MB 5400 rpm drive that at 25 oC warms to 36 oC. Incredibly fast and quite cold drive. Get one if you can. IBM knows what hardware to use...

- 4200 rpm Seagate HD that came with zv5000z runs at 33 oC.
Usual "in use" CPU temp is 37 oC (3700+ Athlon 64, you, "50 oC Turion" fans ) The only prob - fan is always on.

- Now I installed Samsung 5400 rpm 80G drive in place of the Seagate in my zv5000z.
HD temp = 44 oC (+11 oC!!)
CPU temp = 42 oC. (+5 oC)

Looks to me that some of you could shut their fans off by using HD that doesn't heat up, e.g. Seagate 4200 rpm drive (don't worry about speed, you wouldn't notice much) or Hitachi.


BTW, I think that larger size drives (80G) heat more than, say, 40G ones - is that true?

 

Okay, i just fired it up so my data may change. But its been sitting on the desk unused and here's what i got.

System Temp: 55-62C.
HDD Temp: 53C
Seagate Momentus 5400

There definitely does seem to be a split on who feels its too hot and who feels its acceptable. So its possible there are issues other than tolerance going on here. Hopefully more people post data to help the rest of us out.

And I tried the AMD drivers. They havent changed my fan cycling at all.

 

No YOURS makes no sense. (i believe thats how we 13 year olds say it, right?) I dont see anyone who said that they expected this $999 notebook to be the peak of notebook perfection. We know what we got into and we'll know our way out if theres no solution.

Anyway, my analogy was just a failed attempt to stay on the subject while yours just feeds your obsession to compare this laptop to everything other than itself. Its odd that you acuse people of expecting high end from a midrange system, yet you are the one who seems obsessed with comparing this to products that cost twice as much. (sounds like someone is justifying a purchase)

Acuse people of expecting filet mignons in their happy meals all you want, but the discussion is about dealing with the situation on hand. "Just accept it" may be your motto, but as consumers then i think its great that other people are trying to find actual solutions that dont involve drowning out the noise with more noise or justifying a purchase based on the prices of stuff we'd never waste our money on or notebook prices from a decade ago.

 

Brian (Site Admin),

Can you pls post the harddisk used in your wife's L2000?

Thanks

Imran

 

Processor: AMD ML-34 (1.8ghz) with power option set to "Laptap/Portable"
System Temp after waking up from standby: 39C
System Temp during 15 min of usage: avg of 55 with high of 62C

HDD Type: Fujitsu MHV2080AH (80gb 5400 rpm)
HDD Temp after waking up from standby: 38C
HDD Temp during 15 min of usage: avg of 44 with high of 46C

 

Look, all I am saying is there is a economic issue going on.

If you don't like it, send it back. That is what a "demanding customer" would do, and not wait around for a fix. That's what I do; hardly a "accept it" attitude.

Please tell us when you find a better replacement for the price.
I'm sure many people would like to know.

 

I bought my L2000 becoz I got tired of the annoying high pitch fan noise of my Gateway notebook.

I like the L2000... with exception to one problem.. The left palmrest is hot, and uncomfortable. As some have said here, it's the hardddisk area where the harddrive is located.

When I ran mobilemeter I found something interesting.

L2000 readings:
CPU: AMD ML-34 (1.8 Ghz)
CPU Temp 5 mins after power-on: 36C
CPU Temp 20 mins after: min=50C max=57C

HDD: Samsung MP0603H (60GB 5400 RPM)
HDD Temp 5 mins after power-up: 37C
HDD Temp 20 mins after: min=52C max=55C


Gateway 400SD4 readings:
CPU: Pentium 4 2.0Ghz
CPU Temp 5 mins after power-on: 51C
CPU Temp 20 mins after: min=55C max=66C

HDD: Fujitsu MHT2060AH (60GB 5400 RPM)
HDD Temp 5 mins after power-up: 37C
HDD Temp 20 mins after: min=43 max=45C



So, it seems the Samsung harddrive operates much hotter than the Fujitsu. The 10C difference could make a difference between being bearably warm and uncomfortably hot. If I have the time, I might swap the harddrives, and see how the Fujitsu runs inside the L2000.

Since all my previous laptops are Pentium-3s and Pentium-4. I can't say if the Turion-64 temp are normal. My opinion, since it's made to compete with Pentium-M, it should be running cooler that what I'm getting. The operating temp of the Turion-64 that I got seems to too close to the operating temp of my Pentium-4 laptop. Some may not agree that I compared the 2 notebook, but com'on, the Gateway is a DTR laptop, I expect the L2000 to run much cooler that the Gateway.

One nice thing about the L2000 though is that the fan is much quiet compared to my Gateway laptop. Those who have used or own a Gateway 400SD4 know what I mean. So, if the hot left palmrest can be fixed, I will keep the L2000.

 

In a normal environment the CPU will heat up until the fan kicks in at 55C. The HP BIOS governs this. They really should give you the option of setting that lower. The fan would kick in sooner of course but it'd also help cool the HD and GPU.

HDs shouldn't break 50C unless they're under heavy use or the ambient temp is very high. Granted, Hitachi's 7200RPM drives are very well made, but it's an old design at this point (mine is well over a year old, as is the notebook) and slower drives should at least come close to matching its thermal performance. If your HD is running at 55C (131F), yeah, that's going to be a little uncomfortable under your palm. It's also going to make cooling the CPU substantially more difficult, perhaps enough that the CPU will keep heating up until it trips the "run fan fast" threshold (62C? Somewhere around there).

HD heater in a cramped thin-and-light notebook chassis... yeah, that would explain an awful lot.

 

Here are my readings after about 1 hour of system being on and doing mostly web browsing:


CPU (ML-34) Temp - 52 (jumping to 54 frequently before the fan turns on)
HDD Samsung MP0603H (60Gb 5400 rpm) Temp- 52 C

At this point the heat in the left palm area is quite unbearable. Likely the notebook is going back to HP for a return.

 

Sorry you're not pleased with your notebook.

My undervolted AMD Turion ML-34 (1.175v @ 1800MHz) is only 51c and my Seagate 100GB 5400 drive is 49c after several hours of surfing, writing e-mails, etc. My fan comes on but not very often and for only brief periods.



If I change my power scheme to "Max Battery" which throttles the processor to 800MHz I may only see a 1-3c drop compared to 1800MHz doing the same tasks. I was expecting a larger drop in temps.

 

It sounds like Samsung HDs are the biggest problem? Note that different HD brands likely put their temperature sensors in different spots so readings may not be directly comparable. I think Samsung is new to the notebook HD market?

 

I don't have the DV1000 anymore but I can tell you that I have a Samsung MP0402H in my T41 and it's been on for hours. I have been using it all morning and the temp hasn't gone above 37c. So again I am going to have to lean towards that HP has a design flaw in the heat management system on these laptops.
Scott

 

i'm pretty sure it's a design flaw or manufacturing defect. there's no way that these laptops were designed, tested, and produced with these heat problems in mind. i'm calling hp today to have it picked up. next choice ... dell d610, except it has the infamous headphone jack noise/hiss problem!!!! is there ANY thin and light laptop that doesn't break the bank and doesn't have a serious flaw????

 

I will let you know how the Toshiba Tecra A5 is. Hopefully it will be in my hands later this week.
Scott

 

I've read that MP0402H were cold harddrives and they are an exception. This seems to work the opposite with other MP series (MP0408).

 

Maybe http://discountlaptops.com/

Their notebook models and prices are the best I've seen. Resellerrating - 10 stars.

 

I talked to HP tech person yesterday about heat/fan issue and its
possible link to harddisk. He has arranged for a replacement drive
to be mailed. Depending on what they send me, it may or maynot
solve the issue.

I think it's the board design which is the biggest culprit here.
I've both 6 and 12 cell batteries. I really don't like the added weight
of 12 cell, so using it as a workaround is not an option for me.

If new hd doesn't help with heat, I'll send my L2000 back.


Imran

 

i doubt a new hard drive will fix the problem. good luck

 

I've the same feeling.

Let me know when you get tecra a5.

I saw it in compusa yesterday. Looks good.

Imran

 

ok. the L2000 is going back to HP tomorrow.

I was gonna try swapping harddrives, but I thought I better not risk voiding the warranty and messing-up my refund.