Hi all, Ive had my second hand laptop now for about 6 months now and it is driving me crazy. The problem started when i first got it, the fan starts between 5 and 10 minutes of starting up windows, no matter what im doing on it. i have checked the bios on it and it doesnt seem to be over clocked as i cant get in to change it so i am wondering if it has something to do with the processor over heating or the fan isnt good enough to handle the heat coming from it. When the fan starts it doesnt stop untill i have restarted the computer and then it slows down to its normal speed. the laptop i have is a : dell latitude d640 with a pentium 4 mobile processor, 1.8ghz. i had a look at the processor and the heat sink the other day and noticed that the heatsink was black where the processor was in contact with it which i cleaned to no avail. can anybody help????
First off, it's this isn't a problem. Laptops typically run alot hotter than desktop processors, as the processor is compacted and built into a very small and condense area. The processor you have is a Pentium 4 M(mobile) this requires about 50-65W of power, which means that they run very hot. Where as My Celeron M use's 20-25W of power and runs alot cooler (although it does still get quite warm). What you are experiencing is not odd, its quite usual, unfortunately alot of badly designed laptops have the air vent right under your wrists and not at the back or the sides of the laptop. This causes discomfort due to the heat and is extremely bad for you. - This is why you should always do research into the laptop your buying.
Hi I am not sure if you can but try and run SpeedFan to see how hot the processor really is. The only experience I have with the P4 M is in compaq laptops. The fan is always on but not always audiable. Saying that it kicks in regularly especialy if you are doing a few things at the same time. What I am not sure about is whether there was any kind of interface material that you might have wiped off when you cleaned the 'black stuff' off the H/S. If there was any such thing then this issue will indeed become a problem as the heat will have a hard time getting from the processor to the heatsink.
yes if you have wiped off any glue like substance (thermal paste) your CPU will over heat alot more, not unsafely but enough that it could cause your cpu fan to work overtime. Thermal Paste is a silver adhesive which cools the cpu down due to the silver in the thermal paste (read up on infared heating).
