7100 series cooling fan operation?

I have a Averatec 7100 Series. I noticed the CPU cooling fan runs at all times. Is this normal? It is very quiet. Most notebook fans cycle on and off. Avertec wrote me and said look at your power settings in windows to see if is set to Laptop. The fan starts running even before windows boots up. I looked in the bios setting and there are no provisions for power settings.
Anybody have any thoughts on this
Thanks
mdsimon

 

Hey md,

I answered your private email as well but thought I'd post my answer to you as well for the benfit of the other forum members.

Mine does run all the time and there is no provision to stop it or even slow it down like some laptops have.

The only other thing I would warn you about is to keep an eye on is the display screen. Back on the old forum there were 10 of us who had 7100s that the display started getting a vertical line of between 1 and 5 pixels wide. Mine started off blue, 1 pixel wide, then slowly degraded over a few months to a white line 5 pixels wide. It usually shows up about a half an inch to the left of the right top hinge as you're facing the display and goes from the bottom to the top of the display.

I sent mine in for warranty repair and it took over 2 months to get it back. It was a defective LCD panel. The only other thing I would recommend you do, if you haven't already, is to buy an extra Gig of memory. The standard 7155 & 7115 only come with 1/2 a Gig. Way too little for XP and if you want to do any fairly intensive graphics or programs. Mine sped up 2X with that addition and stopped crashing on certain programs.

Other than that, not a bad laptop for the bucks.

Rick

 

Rick
Thanks for you help. I would like the forum to know where I am at with the 7100. First I put another 512mb PC2700 DIMM my computer now shows 960MB the other 40 must be used by the video card. I have contacted Averatec several times and it went like this. First check to see that your power options is set to laptop, Second they tell me to blow air into the vents because there is dirt inside causing the problem over the phone. Are they nuts the thing is brand-new! So I removed the lower cover and everything looks like new, fan spins with no problems. Thirdly they have me and refresh Windows by holding the F4 key with Phoenix recovery by phone and call back if it the fan still runs and make plans to send it in."Phoenix works slick"! I fail to understand why they think windows has anything to do with the operation of the fan. The fan begins running before windows is even loaded. Rick I believe you about the fan running all the time. I think they may not know. Perhaps I should wait till some other problem pops up and then send it in before my one year is up, and then wait 2months for them to send it back.
I would like to here what your thoughts are.
Thanks
mdsimon

 

I agree with you md. First, I don't think averatec customer service knows which unit supports which features. The fan running continuously is certainly not worth going through Averatec warranty hell, especially when you'll get it back exactly the same way. I have a utility that, in addition to monitoring temps of the Core (CPU) and motherboard and HDD, also controls the fan manually. It finds no fan control chip in the 7100.

This is a warm running laptop and I doubt you'd see that fan shut off much even if it had the capability. As to battery life, the fan would only be a miniscule piece of that. The primary loads are the LCD backlight, CPU and motherboard, and DVD drive if being used.

Rick

 

Thanks for your help Rick. I will let the fan run. So far my Averatec has worked perfectly and runs with all my programs and hardware. Like you say for the bucks you can't beat it.
Mike

 

My question might be related. I have an 18 month old Averatec 7100 series. In November, it started overheating and shutting down. I wouldn't take all that long for it to happen - perhaps 30-45 minutes of running. The fan did seem to be operational.

I took it to Best Buy for service. They opened it up and cleaned it out. After doing so, they couldn't replicate the problem. They did suggest that if the problem continued, it might be a power supply problem, and their next suggestion would be to replace it.

It took about a month for it to start shutting down again. I've started to use it on a cooling pad - that doesn't completely take care of the problem, though I do think it runs a bit longer before shutting down.

Is there any credibility to the power supply issue? I'd like someone else to tell me that there is good reason that a new power supply might fix the problem before I spring for one.

Many thanks in advance for any advice that you can offer!

 

This is a hard one. Basically it sounds like you have an overheat problem. There may be one way to check that out. Visit and install the free Speedfan utility at http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php. Once installed keep an eye on the Core temperature. Normally it should hover around 39-40 degrees C. It may go up a bit from there during heavier compute loads but otherwise stay in the safe zone. The utility does tell you if it's getting dangerously high.

If it is truly a temp issue then you probably have one of two possible problems. First, the fan is not running up to snuff or stopping after a few minutes of run. In the case of the 7100, the fan is always on in full speed. The second possibility is that you have sucked up dust and lint into the fan and probably into the small pipe that connects the fan to the CPU chips. It's conceivable that Best Buy didn't do a thorough clean out. My 7100 is newer than yours and has a blocking sticker directly over the grills under the fan. I suspect this was put on later models to prevent sucking stuff directly into the fan. It's also easy enough to check out the fan. Just remove the bottom as if you were going to check memory. Directions are in their manual. This totally exposes the fan and connection pipes. You should be able to give it a good look over. In addition, you can set the laptop on it's side while running to see how the fan is doing with this bottom off. Keep the display open.

I doubt it's the power supply as, even if it quit after a few minutes the battery would take over and then start warning you when it started dropping down long before the laptop shut down.

Anyway, give the above a whirl to see if you can pin it down.

Rick

 

Thank you. I'll give the utility a try first. Then I *might* consider dismantling it myself. Not sure I'm brave enough to try that...

Liz

 

Liz,

Really not dismantling the unit. There are four small phillips head screws holding a removable panel which is primarily for adding or changing memory. As I mentioned, the owner's manual for the unit has a nice descriptive proceedure and pictures. It would certainly be a reasonably quick method to check fan operation. If you still don't feel comfortable maybe you have a computerese friendly friend.

Rick

 

Hi, I am a new member and my mom's Avertech 7100 is doing the same thing. It will run for awile and just quit. I sat it on its side and noticed that the fan wasnt moving at all even during bootup. I suspect that it,hopefully, is just the fan and can be replaced. Although when I removed the fan it didnt seem froze up like the bearings were bad or anything like that. If its not the fan any ideas on what it might be ?

Thanks for any help.

 

I just bought a used 7170 with a bad fan. I have not taken delivery, so I can't pin down the fan problem. It seems to me that the fan motor would need only two lead to run at full speed. One lead on the hot side and the other ground. The 7170 has three lead. I suspect the other 7000 series the same. This indicates to me a secondary winding on the motor for an itermediate speed. Just an ovservation.
Has anyone replaced the motor or only the fan on the fan/heat sink unit? if so, would appreciate particulars.
TO Diablospawn Don't run the computer at all without the heat sink and fan. You'll burn out the processor (if it hasn,t spoke syonara already.) Good news the processor chip is only $20.00 on Ebay. Hang in, I will crack the rebuild fan nut or someone will help us on this Forum.

 

Another though to Diablo's kid: Have you check to see if the fan is getting any power? If you can't find a location to check, a fine needle through each wire works well as test points. If it is not getting power another source on the motherboad might be available.

 

It pretty much sounds like a defective fan. Especially if you've removed it and were able to move it easily. And yes, this will cause the unit to do an overtemp shutdown.

Unfortunately, without the proper test equipment and motherboard expertise, it would be wise to take it to a computer repair service. It could be open windings in the fan which means a reasonably easy replacement or, worse, a failure on the motherboard of the fan circuitry. Not a cheap fix at all.

Just as a follow up on the above discussion on 3 wire fans, it appears that most or at least many of these have a speed tachometer built in so that the circuitry could monitor the units speed or a lock up condition, whether the given laptop uses this feature or not. They identify by the third wire being either white or yellow in addition to the standard black & red.

Rick

 

Well, I received my Ebay laptop AKA Averatec 7170 and the fan was in the box separate from the computer. That was fine with me. The fan does not have a yellow, black, and red wire; it had a red, orange, and blue wire. lacking a great deal of sophistication I figure blue was close to black and there was a red wire I chose to test those leads with a 4vt DC toy transformer. Darn, if the fan didn't work! Put it back in the computer, put in my new, used, 120 GB, twenty dollar, HHD and a restore disk. and,yeah, it worked and has been working right along! So the young lad with the bad fan might just try this test. I would say any transformer with an output of under 6vts DC would work as a test instrument

Also, You probably won't believe this the hinges no longer function properly and separated from the top cover. I have read that there was a problem with hinges and hoped I could get by without having to do anything. I have discovered that on my computer that the hinges are too tight. I used penetrating oil, no effect, and the hinges were still very tight. How tight were they you ask? They were so tight I could not move them with my fingers and had to put them in a vise and use pliers to move them. The real problem is not anybody's fault except the designer; it is a structural design defect. The hinge is attached to the plastic cover with six tiny embedded nuts, three on each side. Each nut is bedded in a circular hole. The cover being about 10 inches high acts as the force applied to a second class lever, you have tremendouse multplication of force applied to the hinge bolts. As in my case, the hinges failed to move and the applied force pulled all six nuts out of the case. the real culperate is the hinge. They have to be loosen sufficiently that they can be turned by hand with serious effort. The hinge pulls apart and the construction is similar to an ordinary house door. Pull the hinge apart and slip a screw driver into the circular area where the pin goes and have to expand it. You still want to maintain a tight fit, but sufficient to turn with your hands. If it is too loose, the screen will not support itself. There was some one out there with a loose hinge. If he reads this, all he has to do is put it in a vice and squeese a little,
To remove the hinge, you must remove the bezel (Screws and clip) and also the piece of pastic with the powers switch (no screws) can be uncliped partially from the battery compartment. All screws (3 in a row) are visible above except the screw that holds the lower part of the hinge. It is on back side. That screw holds the back case and also the verticle pin of the lower part of the hinge.
There is no way to get the bolts back into the case, so if they are out then the best approach is to drive two very tiny bolts (Model airplane hobby shops have these bolts for mounting motors) from the top of the case through to the hinge and bolt them on the hinge side. That was my fix and it works fine.

Afterburner

 

I had the same overheating issue with my Averatec 7170, caused by a non-functioning fan. This happened about a year ago, so the old forums were still up. With me and a few others, it really wasn't a defective fan, all we had to do was turn on the computer, then disconnect the A/C power and the battery while it was on, and for some reason the fan worked again. It has happened twice for me, but its been about 9 months now and I haven't had a problem with the fan since.

 

spacefreak:

You could go into more detail about your problem? I have a 7100 and the fan never spins up. I've removed the fan and tested it with 5V DC and the fan runs fine.

I've tired your trick and it doesn't seem to work... I'm hoping that I'm not doing it right and you could help me out. Thanks.

 

Have you checked the plug at the motherboard and if you have voltage there, have you traced and checked the printed circuit voltage?