Dell Inspiron 2600 CPU Fan Problems

[Ghetto_Child]

Ok so I was going through this Dell Inspiron 2600 here and it has a Celeron 1.2GHz cpu in it. I noticed that when first powered up the fan spins for like 5secs or less and then stops and never spins again. Not on reboot nor on shutdown. Just when I first boot up after a complete shutdown. Can I get some help on this?

I never ran a game nor did I run any cpu intensive programs on the system. The most I've had it running was maybe 1 or 2 hrs sitting in windows not even using the internet or anything. I didn't check to see if the fan runs when I used defrag or scandisk. I know the fan is working because I removed it and supplied it power and it spins just fine without stopping and without noise. Also running the laptop with the fan unplugged makes the laptop run the speedstep to slow down the cpu for safety and prompts a cpu fan error.

So what should I do?

[rp_guy]

i fail to see a problem here..

[bmaz]

i fail to see a problem here..

Ditto.

[Amourek]

I never ran a game nor did I run any cpu intensive programs on the system.

If you don't use any CPU intensive programs, the fan will never spin up and speedstep will stay at low.

[willy]

So why not rev up the CPU to the max and see what will happen ...

[Ghetto_Child]

Should not the fan be spinning even when windows finishes loading? I mean I'd think that boot up is pretty cpu intensive no? It spins for 5secs and stops for good. It does not spin on shutdown, does not spin on restart and I did not feel any air movement during defrag or scandisk. I had the notebook open during the shutdown, restart and boot up after a shutdown. The fan only spins for 5secs or less on boot up after already being shutdown. Get it?

I'm trying to find out if this is normal. It's not my notebook so I don't have any games installed and no clue how to test if the fan will spin up from cpu intensive programs. Is not the fan supposed to be spinning longer than 5secs? I also read on the internet that shutdown causes a huge temperature spike in cpus and that one reason cpus die is because the shutdown process turns off cpu fans a good while BEFORE the cpu temp STOPS RISING. In other words cpus keep heating up for 1-2secs after the shutdown has already turned off the fan.

[Oversized Rooster]

I don't see why the fan should continue spinning throughout Windows boot.

The fan doesn't turn on as soon as the CPU gets loaded. That's not how it works. Usually CPU fans in laptops are thermally managed. That means that if the heatsink reaches a certain temperature, THEN the fan will turn on, and only for long enough to reach the maximum safe heatsink temperature and it'll shut off again.

So basically, if load Windows, while there is some stress on the CPU, it hasn't been stressed for enough second/minutes for the heatsink to call for active cooling. Go run some games or SuperPI for a while and see if that gets your fan going.

Oh, and if that doesn't make it go either, run Everest or Speedfan to check the temperature of the CPU. Maybe the CPU just is too cool.

[Daijoubu]

If you don't use any CPU intensive programs, the fan will never spin up and speedstep will stay at low.

Celeron M doesn't have speedstep but it doesn't mean they run that hot
Cool enough to be called a mobile CPU

[Ghetto_Child]

I ran 3D mark for a few hrs, ran a full system virus scan, even checked in lavalys everest. Oddly the sensor section of lavalys doesn't show any temperature information for the cpu. The only thing that shows up in sensor is the hard drive which was at 51 degrees celcius

So what now? The exhaust area of the laptop was very warm, almost hot. Anyone out there got an Inspiron 2600 to compare with?

[Ghetto_Child]

bump

[Forsaken_Angel]

I ran 3D mark for a few hrs,

if it didnt crash with no fan running during that it doesnt need a fan. if it ever locks up or reboots randomly you know you have a heat problem. until then the fan might just not be running at full, it might be spinning slowly. your computer would have heat management software and only spins the fans as fast as necessary. on my 9300 my fans almost never come on unless i leave it on a blanket or carpet clogging the exhaust so the heat builds up. i also cant hear them when they are running at a lower voltage, they only make a noise when there at 100% and that bearly happens.

[bmaz]

If it aint broke.....

[Ghetto_Child]

When the computer first boots up I feel the fan spinning but it stops after like 2-5 secs before the windows loading screen shows up. The fan doesn't spin at all during windows and did not spin during the 3D mark tests. Even spinning slowly I would be able to feel the draft. I know the fan is silent, on 100% it doesn't make a sound. Whoever uses this computer has a retail WinXP in it and I don't see any temperature management software at all.

[Daijoubu]

There's no software, it's controlled by hardware

You can always use SpeedFan to monitor the temps though

[bmaz]

To finish my thought.
If it aint broke...don't fix it.

If the computer does freeze or exhibit any kind of failure that means, its more than capable to run without any cooling.
All new CPUs are programmed to power off, before they are permanently damaged by any heat-related issues.
If it's not powering off, its not facing these issues.