M18x Fans are always on

Hey guys so i had my M18x for about 2 years now and recently i had to alienrespawn to factory settings. After this happened i noticed the fans are consistently kicked on, even when im just doing simple stuff like browsing the web. When i leave the computer alone for hours the fans stay on as well.

Even when im gaming as well. simple games like heros of the storm would "chop"

CPU spikes up and down, would i have to replace the paste? is that why the fans kick on?

 

Yeah man. Sounds like the thermal paste is gone.

Replace the paste, and clean out the fans, and you'll be good to go

 

A couple of things are jumping out at me here.

1. Usually thermal issues creep up over time as the paste dries out. If your symptoms popped up directly after the respawn, I would start by taking a look at possible software issue before I tore my laptop apart.

2. Are your fans always on full blast, or do they occasionally come on (especially the left-side fan) out of nowhere, run for a minute or two, and then shut off? My R1's left-side fan runs intermittently, and it has always done it. Both ATI and Nvidia, dual cards or single GPU. Not sure why. If the fans are just constantly on full blast, that's a separate issue.

3. Install a temperature monitoring program. I use HWInfo, but there are many others. See what your CPU and GPU temperatures are peaking at. That will tell you if you need to open 'er up and repaste/clean fans and heatsinks. There's no 'right' answer, but lower is better.

I honestly wouldn't open it up unless it is actually having thermal issues VS. some odd glitch that occurred during your respawn. The fans and heatsinks are easy enough to clean, but repasting requires much more disassembly, which opens you up to breaking more crap.

 

Check to see if you recently installed the Dell diagnostic program (I forget the exact name) but it is a dell utility that they recently released. But when it gets installed it kicks your fans on high all the time. It needs to be uninstalled. One way to know if it is software is to just shut off the machine, then turn it on and go into the bios and let the machine idle in the bios for a couple minutes. If the fans stay off or low them go ahead and boot into windows. If they kick on high a minute or few seconds after getting into windows then you more than likely have this dell took installed.

 

Well the reason i did the respawn was because the computer was kinda acting up, it would chop randomly and the fans would consistently run high so i thought maybe it was time to start fresh. but even after the respawn im having the issue.

I can download HWinfo, do you possibly have a link to it so i know im downloading the right stuff?

No the fan isn't always on blast, only once i start up a game usually. and once its on blast it'll stay on blast and wont turn off

 

Nope i definitely dont have that on the computer

 

Of course. I grab it from here: http://www.hwinfo.com/download.php.

Once you see what kind of temperatures your components are sitting at, you can determine if you need to do some cleaning. I personally would start by removing the fans to see what kind of gunk is in there. All you've got to do is remove the bottom cover to do that. Clean out whatever you find (if you've never done it, who knows what you'll see). Reassemble and check your temperatures again. If there is little or no improvement, you may need to do a paste job. The OG Dell thermal paste is pretty robust, so you may find that your problems go away after cleaning the fans and heatsinks.

 

I have this problem too, with my 7970M crossfire M18x. I would be browsing the web or just watching the video and my left fan comes on FULL blast for no reason. GPU-Z reports the temp under fan full blast is at 32 degC, which is great and all, but super uncessary. usually sleep cycling fixes it for me, but I have no idea what is going to cause that kind of fan action. I don't have any dell software installed.

 

I haven't found it to happen for any particular reason. Must be something in the BIOS fan control tables.

 

I cleaned it before i did the respawn, i guess ill give the link a go and see what kinda temps i get

 

So i got it, but im not quite sure what i am looking at here

 

Fan control... among other things.

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Gotcha thanks Mr.fox! so it looks like my CPU temps are sitting around 65-70c just typing this and looking at the temps thru Hwinfo

And once i started up a game (heros of the storm) it just jumped to like 95-100c

 

That's way to hot. Need to repaste and or clean up the fans etc..

 

Is there a paste you recommend? can i just pick up something at bestbuy?

 

I would highly suggests ordering gelid extreme or ICD7. You can use the antec silver 5 or whatever best buy has in a pinch. But I personally would just order one of the first two mentioned for best results.

 

If you haven't removed the fans and cleaned them out as well as the heat sink radiators, they should be the first step. It may not need even need a repaste and you can clean them up in about 10 minutes.

• Remove the battery
• Remove 4 screws for the bottom cover in the battery opening
• Slide off the bottom cover (push it back, away from the battery opening)
• Remove 3 screws in each fan and lift them out of their pockets in the chassis
  (you can leave the wires attached, but be gentle so as not to break the fan wiring or damage the plastic terminal connections on the mobo)
• Use compressed air or a vacuum cleaner to remove hair/dust/lint crud
  (use an old toothbrush or a soft bristled paint brush if the crud is caked on and hardened... be careful not to bend up the radiator fins and hold the fan blades still when cleaning them with the compressed air or vacuum so they do not rev up to an insanely high RPM, as this can damage the fans)
• Reassemble and check your temps

If you haven't done this recently or not at all, you may be blown away by the amount of crud trapped and clogging the heat sink radiators. If it is really scary, please share a photo or two with us. It doesn't take very much dust and debris to impede air flow and cause fairly serious thermal problems.

Edit: nevermind... missed your post, LOL. Yes, you need to repaste ASAP.

 

How did I miss that the system was cleaned prior to the respawn? Sorry about that.

 

so i got the laptop open follwing mr fox video on GPU repaste, do you guys recommend me replace the pads as well?

and can i repaste the CPU and GPU with IC Diamond 7? it didnt come with a brush, how would i go about thiss??

 

If the pads are crumbling apart they need to be replaced. I didn't know you were repasting the GPUs, or I would have suggested ordering some.

For application of the paste, I heat the tube up with hot water from the sink for a bit, and smear it on with my finger with a sandwich bag or latex glove on my hand. It doesn't play as friendly as other less-viscous pastes like AS5, especially if it's cold.

Someone else may chime in with a better method, but what I described has worked just fine for me for years.