Fan slows down performance

Question

Hi,
I have an Inspiron 9100. After a good hour or two, one of the fans kicks on really loud, never seems to stop.
This is all fine, I can tolerate it, BUT the problem is my CPU performance is suddenly more comparable to my P2 400mhz machine!
So slow, that I CANNOT deal with.
I bought this machine for making music and it becomes crippled and useless once the fan kicks on.

Is this just "how it is" for everyone or is my machine in need of repairs? Is there any way I can fix it or get around it?

Thanks for the help

dugawug · Answer

i just ran Dell diagnostics on it to check the fans.  3 fans were all checked OK. i'm lost now

HMKrieps · Answer

Did your i9100 behave like this since you own it? If this problem only appeared after some months, maybe the cooling fins are clugged with dust. You can clean them with a can of compressed air, using very short blasts to not damage the fans. If you had this problem from the beginnig, it seems that there is a problem with the cooling system since the i9100 has no problems to keep the CPU cool enough under heavy load.

MattFrancis · Answer

before going through the process of replacing a fan, I recommend getting a program called FANGUI which can be used to monitor the temperature of the fan in the unit --- http://www.google.com?search=Fan+GUI

dugawug · Answer

thanks everyone, the 9100 is really new, like a month old, so i'm hoping my fans don't need a bi-weekly cleaning!  ;)   otherwise, i have the fan/temp monitoring software and last night, i ran it for over an hour and the temp didn't increase at all!   i'll leave it on for a long time today and report my results.   i did lately install the Dell Quickset and thought i read somewhere that this must be installed for the fans to work correctly (or something)   again, i'll report back later tonight thanks

dugawug · Answer

interesting, now i can't seem to re-produce the problem. well, unless i set the computer to sleep mode for a while, then when it comes back on, it comes on extremely hot (like 90C)...

otherwise, under normal operation, it doesn't seem to overheat now.

i did just add the Dell Quickset, which I previously forgot to install, and set it to maximum performance. not sure if this could have done it alone!??

otherwise, i installed the Fan GUI....that's all i've changed.

i'll keep checking, but i hope i somehow eliminated the problem

dugawug · Answer

well, i got the CPU to 100% by using a trick of opening two calculators in scientific mode, giving them both numbers like 99999999999999999999999999999, then hitting n!

don't know what the hel the math is all about, but it's enough to send my computer into full CPU usage trying to calculate something indefinitely...

so anyway, running at full speed now for over an hour with no overheating problem!??

only thing i did was install that Dell Quickset. maybe it is key in proper fan performance?

oh, the other twist is I still overheat when in sleep mode for just 15 minutes!!????

lost, but content....

Dinger007 · Answer

Your heat sink are cloged with dust I just did this fix to my Computer.   The main HEat Sink to the CPU requires the disassambly of the laptop to be able to remove all the dust.

IzMan · Answer

Actually, update your BIOS. It should fix the sleep mode temp reporting.

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Fan slows down performance

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