Noisy Fan Alienware 14

Hey guys

Just got an Alienware 14 last week. I don't mind the fan noise when gaming - it does get loud but has to keep the laptop cool.

My complaint is that during internet browsing it should really just be whisper quiet, but the fan is quite audible. It is an inconsistent noise too which makes it even more frustrating.

Anyone else have this problem? I'll make a video when I can.

Thanks.

 

The cooling system seems to work this way..
The fan stops--->accumulate the heat till about 5x degree--->fan spins to cool it down to 4x degree---> fan stops--->loop
It's not a quiet fan, so this mechanism can keep the machine quiet most of the time..
If you really hate it, try to set your own fan control table via HWiNFO

 

The fan randomly activates even when browsing for me until I updated to the latest bios. Ever since, the fan has stayed dormant when not gaming. Maybe that would help you too.

 

This fan never stops. Seems to be the lowest setting.

 

i've noticed that if i'm browsing or doing light tasks the fan is quieter than when i have left it alone for say 20 mins with nothing running and the display off. the fan seems to just kick in for a few seconds then stop for 20secs or so then kick in again for a few secs and repeat and repeat. seems odd that it would kick in so much when nothing is actually running.

 

I will have to try this. I really want this laptop to work out.

 

did another testing period like above but this time did not behave as before so hoping it was a one off bedding in thingy

Nexus 4 via Tapatalk 2

 

It might not be the fan your hearing but your western digital hard drive. That thing is noisy.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

Oh now this is interesting... I just updated to A04 bios and its the same thing. I will try swapping the hard drive... I have some extra I can test with. Thanks!

 

hmmm interesting. I was sure it was the fan kicking in. maybe it wasn't then. i'll post a video later of what I thought was HDD noise

Nexus 4 via Tapatalk 2

 

Ya because when I switched mine to ssd it went away lol

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

this is the only sort of 'loud' noise i get from my hdd. I've not got a ssd installed. only seems to make it when first booting up, or if it is spinning down or spinning up after not being used for a while. it happens so little that it is no problem for me.



good news is that I've not been able to repeat the fan bursts in my earlier post. just let it idle over two 30 minutes periods yesterday night and this afternoon and could not replicate so guess that was a one off thing before.

 

I get a "this video is private" error.

The sound I'm hearing is very consistent - always on. But on ocassion it "dips" then goes back to full speed. I'll have to record it today when I get home.

 

sorry have made it public now

 

Well - good news and some bad news. I disassembled the laptop down to where the hard drive is, turned on the computer and I have been able to determine the source of the sound is the hard drive.

Bad news - When I re-assembled, I couldn't get the sata ribbon for the cd rom drive all the way back down and its not being detected in Windows. The function keys work (FN+F4 pops the CD out) but the device isn't listed in my computer. It seems like the ribbon is "good enough" because I can pop the DVD, but why wouldn't it be in explorer? Is there a trick to get the ribbon back in? It looks like the white guard for that location has some wiggle room but doesn't come off...

 

Nevermind... naturally its one of those things a reboot fixed

I think what happened is when I turned on the laptop to listen to the hard drive, I accidentally put it in standby instead of shutting down, so it already skipped identifying the CD / DVD rom because it was disconnected at the time.