HP laptop - fan running all the time + CPU only at high speed

A friend has a HP laptop - ZE5385 -
and the fan is running all the time .... it never shuts off -
It is always running at 2.6Ghz - even with the Laptop power setting
which I thought was supposed to have graduated speed settings...

Any thoughts on why the Power setting of "Laptop" is not lowering the CPU
speed,
and also why the fan is running all the time -

 

: A friend has a HP laptop - ZE5385 -
: and the fan is running all the time .... it never shuts off -
: It is always running at 2.6Ghz - even with the Laptop power setting
: which I thought was supposed to have graduated speed settings...

: Any thoughts on why the Power setting of "Laptop" is not lowering the CPU
: speed,
: and also why the fan is running all the time -

This is getting to be an FAQ on comp.sys.laptops.

Two common answers:

1. The heat sink/fan area around the CPU has gotten dirty and needs to
be cleaned out, so it can cool properly.

2. The laptop CPU is running near/at 100% load therefore causing the
CPU to get hot and thus the fan comes on automatically to cool it.
Could be spybot software or something like that or perhaps even
anti-virus software that is always scanning files. The laptop would
probably seem slow in this case, but you can verify by doing
CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up task manager to look at CPU utilization.

Andrew
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well - neither one really applies in this case
#1 - task manager shows about 95% idle time
#2 - the CPU is running at 2.6Ghz all the time when checked via My Computer
(right click)
So - the real problem, is why the CPU is running flat out
even when the power scheme settings is Laptop -
http://www.pcpitstop.com/faq/cpu.asp#cpupmgt

 

: well - neither one really applies in this case
: #1 - task manager shows about 95% idle time
: #2 - the CPU is running at 2.6Ghz all the time when checked via My Computer
: (right click)

And it will always be shown running at 2.6GHZ on My Computer,
regardless of the Power Management settings.

: So - the real problem, is why the CPU is running flat out
: even when the power scheme settings is Laptop -
: http://www.pcpitstop.com/faq/cpu.asp#cpupmgt

Doubt that's the real problem. My Toshiba 2GHZ Celeron has a fan that
only occasionally comes on when the computer is on A/C power and running at
full speed. Mine defaults to full CPU power when on A/C. Your HP
design could be different, but the CPU should run a lot cooler when
idling even at 2.6GHZ. Perhaps HP just leaves the fan on all the time?

Andrew
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*******************************************************************

 

The 2.6Ghz P4 845MP/MZ does not throttle CPU frequency for thermal
control - the CPU runs at 2.6Ghz always, but the clock steps in
increments to reduce effective throughput as dictated by the internal
thermal control circuitry. In addition, I have never seen a mobile P4
that runs cool enough that the fan is or can be stopped, but then I've
not seen all of them. The P4 CPU is simply terribly ineffiecient as
anyone with a P4/P4M furnace laptop can attest. FWIW, all P4s run with
clock stepping instead of CPU frequency (voltage) modulation for thermal
control.

Q

 

you need an AMD processor if you want throttling ,baby!!

--redpill

 

My Acer TravelMate 251 LC_DT has a 2.5GHz P4, and it only
occasionally switches its CPU fan on. The bottom of the
case is fairly warm, it's never hot even after several days
of uptime.

 

Amazing. I'm surprised the CPU has not burned up.

Q

 

It has the air intake above the keyboard, and when idle,
the fan only kicks in every 10 minutes. Obviously, when
going flat-out, it comes on more often, but it's never
permanently on. It's a neat notebook (even though about
1.5 years old) that wasn't expensive for its specifications
(512MB RAM, 30GB disk, P4 2.5GHz, combined CD-RW/DVD-ROM
and 15" XVGA for 1098 Euro, bought Christmas 2003).

Take care,

 

I don't have anything faster than a 600 Celeron laptop, so YMMV.
I gave up trying to get laptop power management to work.
I always turn it off in the BIOS and the OS.
I run a program called CPU cooler that halts the processor periodically
when it's in the idle loop. Makes a significant reduction in
temperature. Even tho the monitor shows CPU usage at 100% it's mostly
executing the halt instruction...I think.

If you've got a better solution, by all means use it. For me, this has
worked better than letting the BIOS and OS fight over who has power control.

Now if I could just figger out how to get suspend to work reliably;-(
mike

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Interesting. I have an HP Pavilion Notebook running at 1.6 GHz, and
have had two hard drives destroyed, probably due to heat. I finally got
a "cool pad" for the notebook. This plugs into a USB port, and has two
fans to help cool the notebook. I've heard good reviews. Apparently
overheating is fairly common with HP notebooks.

Cool pads can be obtained for anywhere from $20 to $100, depending on
the bells and whistles.

 

I Am having the opposite problem with my HP Pavilion Ze5500.
When i right click my computer > properties, it says its only
running at 1.6GHz instead of 2.66
I cannot find any settings in the bios to change any of this, and its
irritating me by making my audio jump.
I did have some processes pegging my CPU Usage at 100% which i have
sorted so the laptop runs better, but still jumpy audio and running
at 1.6GHz.
Any help would be great.
Thanks
David

 

FAN always ON - solution

I’ve been searching the web for hours how to change the settings that under Vista the laptop fan would not be always running while on AC power. I've tried multitudes of power configurations. When I run on AC the fan is constantly on, although it’s not excessively loud. If running on batteries, the notebook is silent. Under Windows XP the fan turned on only when the temperature rose above a certain level, regardless whether it was running on battery or plugged in. I thought it had to do something with the absence of nVidia PowerMizer settings under Vista. I tried SpeedFan, Notebook Hardware Control (NHC), RivaTuner – some of them don’t work on x64, some don’t have signed drivers etc. I read that one guy even soldered a resistor to reduce the fan speed.

Well, the solution to silence my HP nw9440 mobile workstation notebook was really simple:
In BIOS under System Configuration | Device Configurations there is a setting called “Fan Always on while on AC Power” and it was “Enabled”. Vista’s ACPI was actually conforming to this BIOS setting and XP’s ACPI was ignoring this setting. I just disabled it and the laptop is much more pleasant to use – even without earplugs I nevertheless put a CD box under the touchpad to improve cooling – so that the fan doesn’t need to turn on that often.

I hope this helps someone. The same should work on other more recent HP laptops running Vista (nx9420, nx8420, 8510p, 8510w, 8710p, 8710w), and presumably also on Dell, Gateway, Asus... If you don’t see the setting, try upgrading to the latest BIOS firmware.