OUCH cooling fan died BIOS help?

hi
im looking for some help with my toshiba satellite p100 laptop. the problem is that the cooling fan has broken (its not BROKEN its not running because of some kind of software problem) and the left side heats up (mainly the graphics card!) anyway warrenty didnt help and netther did the site, manual, or the 4.30 BIOS (newest BIOS for my laptop) thus i NEED help. any ideas to get that side fan working?
thank you

 

What makes you so certain it is a software problem?

 

i got a tech guy to open the laptop up and test the fan itself, i also took it into some toshiba warranty place so they can look at it, they both said the hardware worked fine. so i think its software or BIOS

 

That's strange I wonder though... Did they just test the fan itself? The problem could also be caused by the motherboard. Maybe it isn't sending power to the fan due to faluty harware there. Tech guys aren't very thorough.

Did you made any BIOS, hardware or major software changes around the time it stopped working?

 

I'm with Greg,

cause the techies hardly have time to be thorough on every system, evenso they must have checked the BIOS in the first place. It sounds like a hardware issue to me.

 

not that i remember? i havent changed much in the bios, this problem has been going on for a while. the first time a just get the restore cds and it wrked for a month, the second time i restored it but it didnt work, so i took it into warranty. the first tme they replaced the speaker and the fan. when i brought it back they just ran some 32 hour test, it didnt FAIL, therfore it wasnt worth fixing. it does fail for me when im on a computa game.

what happens is the toshiba screen appears "in touch with tomorow TOSHIBA" and the fan will self test for 5-10 seconds. it works during that time. then when the pre loaded windows vista begins to boot the fan turns off and never goes on again!

 

Aha! you're right it is a software issue, since the fan operates when POST is run, so the fan works. Why is the Vista environment so prone to problems?!

why not you provide more details/information about the software perhaps something you suspect, so that we can be more accurate in troubleshooting.

 

Maybe it is software then. New fans come with the ability to control the fans speed. There must be some conflict going on somewhere which is telling the fan not to spin. Try installing a program like SpeedFan and see if you can gain any access to the fan.

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

ok
ive installed speedfan and have opened it up although im a little lost.
ive gone to the configure panel and clicked on the "fans"tab but i do not see any of the fans there. it also says on the main screen.
any instructions?
(note)
my laptop has 2 fans on on the side and one on the back, the back one works and the side one does not. i got to go for now but ill be back in 2 hours.

 

If it's not detecting the fan that could either mean the fan doesn't support the control feature ( some don't, mine doesn't) OR whatever is preventing the fans operation is also preventing manual control.

You said that you flashed the BIOS and reinstalled windows already, so I can't see how it could be a software issue... Unless there is some sort of control driver Vista needs to use it, but I have never heard of that and it would have been included in your recovery disk.

If you are still under waranty I would take it back and demand they do a more thorough checkup. Fully recover the laptop with the recovery cd's so that you can tell them software is EXACTLY the same as you bought it.

 

hmmm... idk
im out of warranty and they closed down that place a month after i took it in.

 

hmm, well it would most likley be somthing microsoft snuck on or mabye the microsoft bios. ill need to find some logs to find out for sure. that is if the computer even keeps them. where would i find logs that were written on certin dates?

 

Hi,

I've had the same issue through the almost 2 years I've been using my P100.
I've updated the BIOS everytime a new version was available, and I have them all stored:
Sat-SatProP100-240-WIN.exe
Sat-SatProP100-330-WIN.exe
Sat-SatProP100-330-WIN.zip
Sat-SatProP100-380-WIN.exe
Sat-SatProP100-420-WIN.exe
Sat-SatProP100-430-WIN.exe

I had mixed problems with the GPU fan not kicking--especially when playing games in Window$ XP: the fan seemed to be disabled by software.

Anyway, here is my $10 dollar solution:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/p...4443289804&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true

Although not the optimal solution (a better BIOS), it saves time and the cost is minimum. BTW, temperature dropped by at least 20C degrees in performance mode. In power saving mode, it goes even below 50C. =P

My 2 cents =)

Manuel