Inspiron9300 incorrect temp. reading causes fan to stay on high speed

Question

Inspiron 9300, 1.7Mhz Pentium M, 1Gb RAM, 100GbHDD, 2 year old Switched on the machine today and fan started on high speed (for the first time ever) Started windows (XP home that came with the machine, never bothered to change it, worked reasonably well) and checked the temperature reading for the CPU. I'm using MobileMeter 0.3.1.0 to keep track of clock, temperature, discharge etc. Temperature shows 85.5 C, higher than I've ever seen before. Previously 60 C is the highest I've seen, even under fierce CPU usage. Typically temperature stays around 45 C in normal/idle conditions. I use RightMark CPU Clock utility v2.2 on Power on Demand profile, and the fan rarely comes on, and only at about 58 C or above, and even then on low speed. Obviously there's an erroneous temperature reading that gets the fan started on high speed. Also, it might be relevant the fact that in the last few weeks it happened a few times (maybe 3 or 4 times) when the machine just suddenly shut off (just cut off) all of a sudden, without any warning, but after restart, everything was ok, so I didn't pay much attention. Now I'm thinking it might have been a hardware protection that cut off the machine when it detected an abnormally high temperature all of a sudden, as in the temperature sensor spiking. Right now I'm using I8kfanGUI v3.1 to manually control the fan speed. I keep it on low, even though it's probably not needed at all, but I don't want to take any chances. Any thoughts on the matter?

I love dell · Answer

This post needs to be in the http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board?board.id=insp_general area!

ruda · Answer

First of all there is very few replies on this board. Secondly the very few replies that are given are of the kind 'do you have warranty. Why don't you go to Dell and get it fixed/replaced'. As far as I can tell this board serves no purpose. As to the only reply I got on my post, you lost me here. What do you mean with 'please be polite'? Was I not?

Jonny Dread · Answer

Hi,

I´ve had the same problem (cutting off) with my I 9300 in the last Month. The Dell Support told me that it seem to be an Driver problem, but is wasn´t.
I solved it by cleaning the space between the ventilator and the heatpipes. Over the half room was blocked by dust.
But I had to screw the whole notebook in its parts.
There is an downloadable "Dell Inspiron 9300 Service Manual" you can get in the service area by your Service Tag, and for me it was easy to handle.

After Cleaning, the NB hasn´t cut off again.

(Sorry for my bad english)

JD

ruda · Answer

Opened the laptop twice already, everything is clean and neat inside. The problem is caused by temp. sensor reading constantly 85.5 C, and this keeps the fan on high speed and causes the processor to be throttled down to lowest frequency. Dell support wouldn't help at all because there is some problem with the ownership transfer. My understanding is that there is some sort of power-on diagnostics you can run if you keep some keys pressed while pressing the power button to switch on. Anybody know anything about that?

Jonny Dread · Answer

On my NB is an hidden partition, on witch ist the Dell Diag Tool.
I can start the tool by pressing the Fn Key and then turn on the NB.
After the standard diagnostic has finished, i can choose an extended diagnostic, which takes about an hour to test the complete hardware. This tool is downloadable on the Dell Service Site by using your Service-Tag.
Because I am living in Germany, i don´t know, if this tools are avaible in every country.

I love dell · Answer

No, ruda, 'Please be polite' is for everyone!

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