computer overheating and fan speed

from about a month ago until now i have been expiriencing an odd behaviour of my computer, regarding temperature and fan speed.

it happens to be a toshiba l500 12g laptop, running win 7 64 bits, with a T6500 core duo @ 2.10 GHz, 4 gb ram and ATI radeon HD 4500 series, which i bought almost exactly a year ago.

i will be considering three distinct fan speeds, so you can understand the situation:

SPEED 1: the usual speed the fan used to run at before it started acting strange. it would be almost completely silent, while running average software for normal usage (itunes, firefox, utorrent, slsk simultaneously) and heavy software for work like autocad 10 and photoshop cs4 (also simultaneously)

SPEED 2: faster and a little louder than SPEED 1, before it would start only when running games and currently it has become the normal and constant speed.

SPEED 3: faster and louder than the previous two. before it would start like this after a couple of hours playing, now it starts running like this immediatly after i open a game or watch a movie at 720p or 1080p.

i got a little app called speedfan, that reads the temperatures and is able to change fan speeds manually - although i don't have enough knowledge to mess around with this. i am trying to understand first if i have an overheating problem and how serious it is.

just started using it now, so i don't have any registries of previous temperatures, when it was all working fine, but here is what i get now:

45ºC to 48ºC - according to speedfan it's the ideal temperature for each CPU, so it even shows a little green tick. at this temperature i get the SPEED 1 on the fan and the computer runs really smooth. except that it only stays like this for about 10-15mins after booting, or if is idle with no background programs running;

50ºC to 60º - average temperature i can get now. doesn't get lower at all. when listening to music and browsing on firefox, with d/l software running on the background. the normal usage. the fan works at SPEED 2 and it's kinda loud. from about 50ºC and above speedfan app shows a little flame. which might suggest unusual temperature, i guess.

60ºC to 80ºC - running HD movies or games. when playing it gets really loud, at what it seems to be the maximum speed and sometimes i get a sudden and massive FPS drop, lasting about 5 min and getting back to normal again, with games that run smooth at max settings (source engine latest games)

the laptop hasn't been clean yet since i got it, but i am waiting for a guy i know to return from holidays and help me with that, as i don't wanna mess up the hardware.

note that i am not worried about the fan noise at all. as long as it keeps my computer cool enough to work well and keep all the pieces away from damage, then it's fine for me. but i feel something is not right.

i hope i have given you enough info. what do you think?

I have a Dell Inspiron 600m that was overheating like crazy. This turned out to be a common problem for this laptop model. I looked up the manual and learned how to get in there and clean the fans and heat tank (I think that's what it's called?) with compressed air, and haven't had the problem again since! (Now it's a dead battery :-p) So yeah, cleaning could help you. They also make and sell pads with fans or cooling gel that you could use to try to keep your temps low.

  On 8/31/2010 at 7:54 PM, encey said:

I have a Dell Inspiron 600m that was overheating like crazy. This turned out to be a common problem for this laptop model. I looked up the manual and learned how to get in there and clean the fans and heat tank (I think that's what it's called?) with compressed air, and haven't had the problem again since! (Now it's a dead battery :-p) So yeah, cleaning could help you. They also make and sell pads with fans or cooling gel that you could use to try to keep your temps low.

yea, definitely needs a cleaning.

i am just afraid that even if i eventually come up with a solution to cool down the thing, there is already damage that can't be easily apprehended.

That's what the ATI software (Catalyst) is for. Open it and go to 'overclocking'.. the bottom one on the list, and you can tell it what speed you want the memory and how fast the fan will go when running 3d applications. You don't want to run the fan at max speed for very long as it will ruin the fan after a while.. the trick is to find a happy medium setting.

  On 8/31/2010 at 8:12 PM, mafted said:

That's what the ATI software (Catalyst) is for. Open it and go to 'overclocking'.. the bottom one on the list, and you can tell it what speed you want the memory and how fast the fan will go when running 3d applications. You don't want to run the fan at max speed for very long as it will ruin the fan after a while.. the trick is to find a happy medium setting.

how do i realize that ideal speed? will the catalyst software help me with that, based on my card and settings?

i am glad you mentioned catalyst, because i had completely forgot about it.

i'd say keep the fan at or below the medium setting, and set the memory to about the same and see how the temps do. there's a tuning feature (in that same 'overclocking' screen) which will test all resolutions and fan speeds to see what your best average settings are. but , it usually takes a while, for some reason.

ideally, you just want the temperature down as low as possible while keeping the highest memory speed possible.

  On 8/31/2010 at 8:24 PM, mafted said:

i'd say keep the fan at or below the medium setting, and set the memory to about the same and see how the temps do. there's a tuning feature (in that same 'overclocking' screen) which will test all resolutions and fan speeds to see what your best average settings are. but , it usually takes a while, for some reason.

k, thank you.

i will clean it tonight, see how it improves [or not] and try the ati software.

I found speedfan more trouble than it's worth. Your motherboard is probably better at figuring out what speed to set things at, but you can Google speedfan +your laptop and there'll be a guide with good settings and rules no doubt. You could check your bios for settings about desired temps too. Cleaning is always a good option as there's probably a Fingermouse in there.

  On 8/31/2010 at 8:30 PM, futuregirlfriend said:

I found speedfan more trouble than it's worth. Your motherboard is probably better at figuring out what speed to set things at, but you can Google speedfan +your laptop and there'll be a guide with good settings and rules no doubt. You could check your bios for settings about desired temps too. Cleaning is always a good option as there's probably a Fingermouse in there.

as i said, i don't have enough knowledge/balls to configure it manually myself, thus i am just monitoring the temperatures and taking my conclusions. a cleaning is definitely needed here.

I had a overheating laptop and it would get REAL hot, and re-booting itself because of it, took it semi apart and blew all the shit out of it and cleaned the fan blades, and its been in tip top condition ever since.

Your ok. CCC Overclocking isn't available on laptops I don't think. Power-management automatically turns on or off AMD's PowerPlay which underclocks the GPU.

heh, my fan just stopped working. Overheats in about 10 minutes.

As a temporary solution you can often prevent overheating by putting the vacuum up against the fan air inlet and sucking all the lint off it

  On 8/31/2010 at 10:00 PM, Bubba69 said:

heh, my fan just stopped working. Overheats in about 10 minutes.

shit, you are far worst than me.

mine never stopped working, which really surprises me as i have the computer on for a lot of time.

yea just open it and get all the dust out.. it's a negative current also, which doesn't help.

clean it out asap, ruiagnelo. i used to leave 1 of my old PC's on all the time. it got so hot the PSU blew and took the Motherboard with it!

i bought a whole new PC in the end and had to have all my stuff copied off the old HD (luckily it wasn't toasted!).

if i'd have just cleaned it out once in a while and turned it off when i wasn't using it i could've saved myself a lot of time and money (and worry!).

  On 8/31/2010 at 11:36 PM, sirch said:

clean it out asap, ruiagnelo. i used to leave 1 of my old PC's on all the time. it got so hot the PSU blew and took the Motherboard with it!

i bought a whole new PC in the end and had to have all my stuff copied off the old HD (luckily it wasn't toasted!).

if i'd have just cleaned it out once in a while and turned it off when i wasn't using it i could've saved myself a lot of time and money (and worry!).

yes mate, will do it.

unluckily enough, i have a laptop whose heatsink can't be reached by simply removing a cover on the back. i have to remove the keyboard. shit :(

but i am getting help from some guys i know. i hope soon.

i´ve been using these on my old laptop, no shit!!

What's the problem?

Core 2 Duo can cope with temps up to 100º C. If you keep it below 80º C you're well within limits.

  On 9/1/2010 at 12:00 AM, Jackson Michaels said:

What's the problem?

 

Core 2 Duo can cope with temps up to 100º C. If you keep it below 80º C you're well within limits.

it can cope, but it shouldn't cope.

i am not interested in taking the computer into it's max limits.

  On 9/1/2010 at 12:39 AM, ruiagnelo said:

  On 9/1/2010 at 12:00 AM, Jackson Michaels said:

What's the problem?

 

Core 2 Duo can cope with temps up to 100º C. If you keep it below 80º C you're well within limits.

 

it can cope, but it shouldn't cope.

i am not interested in taking the computer into it's max limits.

My point is, these FPS drops you're talking about aren't caused by your processors reaching temps of around 80º C. That's perfectly normal when playing games.

sorry to bring this thread up again.

finally took my laptop to the store, so that my friend could open it and do a cleaning.

it was a bit dirty, not that much tho.

everything works fine tho. even playing the best games, the bottom surface of the computer gets almost the same temperature as the table. almost cold actually. and no fps drops anymore.

  On 9/1/2010 at 12:45 AM, Jackson Michaels said:

  On 9/1/2010 at 12:39 AM, ruiagnelo said:

  On 9/1/2010 at 12:00 AM, Jackson Michaels said:

What's the problem?

 

Core 2 Duo can cope with temps up to 100º C. If you keep it below 80º C you're well within limits.

 

it can cope, but it shouldn't cope.

i am not interested in taking the computer into it's max limits.

 

My point is, these FPS drops you're talking about aren't caused by your processors reaching temps of around 80º C. That's perfectly normal when playing games.

read my last post.

the fps drops were actually caused by the heating. problem solved.

  On 8/31/2010 at 10:03 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

As a temporary solution you can often prevent overheating by putting the vacuum up against the fan air inlet and sucking all the lint off it

if youre going to do something like this its best to put a small pencil or screwdriver in place to stop the fan spinning because the force of the vacuum can damage the bearings in the fan...

my computer at work does this... it revs up then goes to sleep. i slap the keyboard to revive it. and after it sleeps there's this crazy heat that eminates from it... it's a mac!

  On 9/11/2010 at 12:34 AM, asymmetrical head said:

my computer at work does this... it revs up then goes to sleep. i slap the keyboard to revive it. and after it sleeps there's this crazy heat that eminates from it... it's a mac!

clean it.

seriously, i doubted all people telling me it could simply be a matter of dirt, stored in the fans and heatsink, and today my friend cleaned my laptop and everything works just as it was working the first day i got it.