Fn+1

I know this has probably discussed before, but I wanted to gauge some opinions/experiences on the subject.


Is there any downside (besides having your notebook sound like a hair-dryer) to using Fn+1? Will it affect the life of my fans or damage anything?

I haven't really been using Fn+1 while I game until now, when I noticed a 10 degree difference when running the Witcher 2.

Do you use Fn+1 frequently?

 

Does the laptop feel like it's getting hot to the touch while playing witcher 2? i would just let the lappy self regulate as I doubt 10 degrees is really going to make a difference with anything. Unless you are overclocking and looking for maximum stability.

 

What I've heard before is that leaving your fans on high for a long time will wear them out faster (moving parts and all). However the life of the fans will probably be longer than the life of the laptop itself (assuming they are quality fans - which every seems to say they are). I would say leaving the fans on high while gaming will keep the graphics card cooler - which is a good thing for the silicon. Fans are a heck of a lot cheaper to replace (and probably will be easier to find a few years down the road) than an 6970m.

How hot are you getting (just curious)?

 

i get to about 80 degrees C with not using fn+1 and about 70 degrees when I do.

I am undervolting my card to 0.95V while gaming though. (the factory settings are 1.1V)

 

I'd say, in the first year when your laptop is still under warranty, to use the fan at full blast if it makes you comfortable. That way if it does fail, you will know how long the fan will now last at full blast. And if it breaks it'll just get warrantied. Hopefully it won't break after the warranty though, but even then, your reseller should have the labor part of it covered, so it'll be cheap still.

 

lol labor for that = undoing 7 screws removing the packaging for the new fan, placing the new fan and replacing 7 screws. Thank god for free labor

 

lol. So the fans are as easily accessible as the hardware components then? I haven't taken apart the back covers and looked at it in detail, but if that's the case, then that is sweet.

 

yes they are

 

Im not sure if its a AMD only thing, but how did you undervolt your card? Through a bios mod? Or CCC software? Either way i'd LOVE to be able to mess with my 560ms voltage!

 

Use Fn+1 to suck in more dust.

 

When pressing fn+1, are there any visual cues to confirm that the fan speedup has been activated or deactivated?
Also, are there any other fn+ hidden combinations you know about?

 

Why not invest in a serious cooling pad? I recently purchased the CM Storm SF-19 and I gotta tell you it works. It keeps my laptop cool even when running furmark.

If not inclined to purchase the sf-19 then you may consider other similar alternatives.

Good luck

 

All the fn commands can be found in the manuel. I dont believe there are any visual cues when fan is on, but you definitely can hear it running at max speed.

 

Here is the reference page from the manual: http://i.imgur.com/UaBqG.png

Some have visual cues, others do not, I believe.

 

...and Fn+1 is the only one not mentioned so far...

 

Say, my laptop starts beeping really loudly after a few seconds of fn+1. It clearly kicks the fans in high gear. What's up with that?

 

bump, it a system beep.

 

i tried it once, but too loud. 75 deg with it off.

 

OT but, pressing Fn+F7 will not display any 'visual indicator' on the upper left corner of the screen? is this correct?

 

shameless bump. Any idea why my laptop turns on crazy beep mode when i fn+1?

 

My computer room is in the basement and is pretty cool, but I noticed a huge temp difference just by lifting the rear of the Racer up about 1 inch, thats it. Went from scary hot to cool as a cucumber. THe Racer idles about 10C lower than my single 6970M in my Alienware M18X. THats with the M18X sitting on a good notebook cooler as well, and the Racer just with a little spacer under the back.