Fan staying on- Inspiron 6400

rubadub · 31-01-2008 11:24pm #1

The fan has been coming on a lot more lately on my inspiron 6400, duo core 1.83, 2gb ram, XP media centre SP2. I am doing nothing unusual just running windows with internet explorer, maybe 6 windows open at once. Just now the fan came on right away and never went off. The laptop was in a cold room, so no way it is overheating. The CPU usage was up to 100% for a good while too, and just flicking down into the 90's. I restarted thinking the duo core might be disabled (I need to do this sometimes for a certain program). Now it is back and working fine. The internet was pretty slow, not like a connection problem, more a PC problem.

Any ideas what it could have been.

Ghost Train · 01-02-2008 12:55am

can you see what process or program is making the cpu run at 90-100% in task manager?
might tell you if its software thats causing the problem

if you run the machine in safe mode do you get the same problem?
again, if it runs fine here, it looks like some driver or software is causing the problem

if the cpu is using 70-100% for long periods you should expect the laptop to get hot and the fan to be running

rubadub · 01-02-2008 1:46am

eolhc wrote: »

can you see what process or program is making the cpu run at 90-100% in task manager?

Damn, I never noticed, I went in and checked if some odd program was on, but didnt pay attention to the cpu figures, never noticed them before TBH. Will do next time, thanks.

Bass Cadet · 01-02-2008 1:43pm

rubadub wrote: »

Damn, I never noticed, I went in and checked if some odd program was on, but didnt pay attention to the cpu figures, never noticed them before TBH. Will do next time, thanks.

could be a virus scanner that scans the whole system automatically at startup

rubadub · 01-02-2008 7:36pm

Bass Cadet wrote: »

could be a virus scanner that scans the whole system automatically at startup

I have no anti virus software and disabled all firewalls etc. I do know what you mean though, it slows my fathers to a halt, hence why I dont use it. I would rather just get a virus than suffer antivirus software!

It seems fine today

AlmightyCushion · 01-02-2008 8:46pm

Your laptop could be riddled with viruses and spyware. This could be what was causing the cpu to be so active. What process is taking up the most cpu usage?

rubadub · 01-02-2008 8:56pm

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Your laptop could be riddled with viruses and spyware. This could be what was causing the cpu to be so active. What process is taking up the most cpu usage?

all are at zero expect system idle. I wouldn't mind software that could check it once in a while when I am not using the PC, I do not like anti-virus stuff running in the background.

Does anybody have suggestions for good antivirus/spyware software to do this, preferably free!

Ghost Train · 01-02-2008 9:14pm

you could try using the online virus scanner
definitely not a good idea to disable the firewall

wouldn't be too worried about the virus scanner, as long as you don't visit any "strange" sites
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Fan staying on- Inspiron 6400

Comments