Alienware Aurora - System Fan @ max speed

I purchased an Alienware Aurora R4 ALX in December of 2012.  My warranty runs out on Wednesday the 18th, so I need this issue resolved ASAP.   Recently, my system fan for the liquid cooling has been spooling up to max speed under any type of load on the CPU, whether I'm playing games or even just updating windows via Windows Update.  The radiator is not plugged, nothings obstructing air flow in any way, and yet my CPU is getting hot now which is causing my system fan to go banana's... and it is quite loud, approaching 5500 RPM.  I'm beginning to think there may be something wrong with the liquid cooling system itself, which would cause the CPU to heat up, which in turn would cause the fan to spool up to try to cool it off.   What do you folks think?  Anyone know what may cause this sudden problem??   Thanks in advance!

Don't worry I have the exact same problem with the Aurora R3 with the fans at max.  Dell says they will not address this for my model even though I am still paying it off.  I guess this will be my last Dell product, 

As a workaround I have to uninstall when it happens and reinstall and good for about another week or less before it happens again.  BTW setting it compatibility mode of windows 7 does not do anything.  They will still go racing on a reboot at random.

You could take your side panel off, and when you hear the system fan race to max, touch your radiator see if it feels "hot", as opposed to "warm", as an indicator of heat. Touch your cpu pump and that general area to test for cpu heat  ...

Call up Cmnd Cntr > Thermals; look for the widget that says if your cpu pump is detected as "running" or "failed". While in CmndCntr/Thermals, if you click that "triangle - arrow" on the widget, on system fan and/or cpu pump, you can make the widget appear on your desktop, so you can see fan speed, pump status without calling CmndCntr up all the time to check ... which may or may not still be true with the newest iteration of CC/3.5 they just issued.

First I would try a cpu temperature monitoring program, like: http://alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

or Intel xtreme tuning utility, which displays temps & other info:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?keyword=%22%22extreme+tuning+utility%22%22

or try HWInfo: http://www.hwinfo.com/ ... whatever your preference in software, knowing the approximate cpu temp will allow you to gauge if your system fan is working overtime to fight real heat, or, the software & systems entrusted to control the fan speed is just "glitchy", coming on @ max speeds in time's of no real need. You could try to blow the radiator & system fan out. You could remove your cooling pump, & reapply new "Arctic Silver" type heatsink compound if your cpu temps are reporting high. With my system, I might call up CmndCntr; at reinstall click "repair" - (Or uninstall then reinstall CmndCntr the recommended way) but that's up to you. I have other suggestions, but honestly, until you know what your cpu temp reports as, it's tough to know the true reason why the fan goes to max. Perhaps in the meantime, post what your cpu temps are showing tonight. Let us know if it's overheating  - & the fan goes to max to fight it - or, the cpu temp is "normal", & the system is acting glitchy for some reason. There's a difference between glitchy - & a possible failing cpu pump. Huh?

Ok so the first thing I did when I noticed the problem was exactly that - I took the side cover off and felt the radiator, the cpu pump... both were cool.  I felt the fluid lines - one was hot, the other was cool, which I'm assuming is normal since one is taking the heated fluid away and the other is bringing the cooled fluid back to the CPU.

I installed CPUID HWMonitor and noticed one of my cores on my CPU was getting warm during gameplay (usually around 85-90 C) and that was making my fan speed spike.  I'm not an expert, but I thought it was odd that only one core was getting warm and the other 3 were in the low-mid 50s range.  Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be, I don't know, like I said I'm not an expert.

After reading the suggestions here, I installed Core Temp and it's acting fine now... All I did was installed the program - I don't get it.

I'll test it more vigorously today to see if I can't get it to do it again, then post here with any updates.  Thanks, folks!

The fact that your inlet tube is "hot" & the outlet is "cool" is a good sign the pump is running. I keep the pump & system fan widgets on my desktop to keep a watchful eye on things. I'm not a cpu core expert, but, with one core at 90, and the other 3 at 50, it could be that your application is seriously hogging one core.  Or, it's common knowledge that Intel uses inferior internal heatsink compound between the processor & its top heatsink lid. What happens is the cpu runs hotter then it "could", & for instance the cores report unevenly as 75,70,65,60 ... shoddy compound that isn't spread evenly by the factory. People are removing the cpu lid (de-lidding), spreading their own superior arctic silver 5 type heatsink compounds - from there the cpu temps drop - & - the cores all tend to run at a more even 60,60,60,60 for instance. It's possible we're all victims of this inferior Intel paste.

Youtube search, "delidding 3770k" (or similar language):

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=delidding%203770k&sm=1

searched "i7 IHS" (Integrated Heat Sink):

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=i7%20ihs%20&sm=3

These videos are easier to watch than contemplate actually doing, lol. Also, as stated prior, it might be time for new/better paste between your pump & cpu. Within minutes, you could unbolt your cpu pump, remove the old paste that Dell/Alienware spread, apply better paste, & check your temps over the next week, see if they improve. You can search the net for the best heatsink compounds to buy. I'll check back in on you later ... football's on. lol

I purchased an Alienware Aurora R4 ALX in December of 2012.  My warranty runs out on Wednesday the 18th, so I need this issue resolved ASAP.   Recently, my system fan for the liquid cooling has been spooling up to max speed under any type of load on the CPU, whether I'm playing games or even just updating windows via Windows Update.  The radiator is not plugged, nothings obstructing air flow in any way, and yet my CPU is getting hot now which is causing my system fan to go banana's... and it is quite loud, approaching 5500 RPM.  I'm beginning to think there may be something wrong with the liquid cooling system itself, which would cause the CPU to heat up, which in turn would cause the fan to spool up to try to cool it off.   What do you folks think?  Anyone know what may cause this sudden problem??   Thanks in advance!

Don't worry I have the exact same problem with the Aurora R3 with the fans at max.  Dell says they will not address this for my model even though I am still paying it off.  I guess this will be my last Dell product, 

As a workaround I have to uninstall when it happens and reinstall and good for about another week or less before it happens again.  BTW setting it compatibility mode of windows 7 does not do anything.  They will still go racing on a reboot at random.

Well, everything was fine for a couple weeks.  This past weekend, it started doing it again.  All cores are now showing temps of 85-90 degrees, not just one, and my fan is spooling up to a nickel shy of 6k.

I'm going to pick up some Artic Silver at Best Buy tomorrow, I'll apply it tomorrow night after work and post how it goes.  Finger's crossed!

I suppose tonight you could create a system restore point, & if you have a recent restore point you can fall back to, fall back on it for testing purposes ...  who knows... & if things act the same? Undo your restore operation from tonight if you prefer. Just a thought.

Well, everything was fine for a couple weeks.  This past weekend, it started doing it again.  All cores are now showing temps of 85-90 degrees, not just one, and my fan is spooling up to a nickel shy of 6k.   I'm going to pick up some Artic Silver at Best Buy tomorrow, I'll apply it tomorrow night after work and post how it goes.  Finger's crossed!