Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
7 Posts
0
57785
Dell Studio XPS 8100 - Loud Fans after Clean Boot (Windows 7 Home Edition)
Hello all,
I'm a bit skeptical at the moment, I would greatly appreciate your guidance and help on some of these issues: A few weeks ago, I noticed I was having problems opening .exe files I would download from the web (i.e: Linux Fedora). Some programs would only run with 'administrator' privilege (as in, 'run as administrator). In addition, the OS did not recognize the DVD/Blu-ray, making it very hard to troubleshoot on Win 7.
I decided to clean boot the system and re-install Windows 7 Home Edition. The computer was able to recognize the DVD/Blu-Ray drive 'outside of Windows' and I was therefore able to boot the system successfully. Shortly thereafter, I was able to reset my username, password, etc. The network drivers were uninstalled, but they were stored inside a folder named 'Drivers', so I proceeded to update the Network settings. The PC was able to connect to the Internet.
While all of this occurred, I noticed the fans were 'disturbingly' loud. It was an incremental phenomenon, it started off while I was running Windows 7, the noise seemed to increase exponentially - without any 'heavy' computation involved: only basic loading of windows 7.
I decided to turn off the computer and I haven't touched it since. Any idea of what may be going on with it? I've already opened the cover, and noticed the fan/heat sink were very dusty. Do you think this has anything to do with it? What could it be? Is it safe to turn the pc on?
rdunnill
6 Professor
6 Professor
•
8.8K Posts
0
June 9th, 2013 23:00
Dust buildup will lessen cooling efficiency: you want to be cleaning out the dust at regular intervals. I use a vacuum cleaner and a can of compressed air for this purpose.
Dell-Zohaib R
953 Posts
0
June 10th, 2013 03:00
Hi,
Yes, clogged dust can be one reason for fan noise. Try cleaning the fan and heatsink using a compressed air can as suggested by rdunnill. If the issue persists, try the below steps:
Note: Plug your computer to a good, working UPS before you update the BIOS. If you experience a loss of AC power or a significant voltage sag/spike during the BIOS flash, you will either have to buy a new BIOS chip or buy a new motherboard.
_XPSUser2013
7 Posts
0
June 10th, 2013 14:00
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions and guide hrough the initial hurdles. I cleaned the fans per your instructions with a canned-air-duster. The noise was still there.
I downloaded the BIOS from Dell, and followed the instructions: unfortunately, as the pc re-booted, it seems to be stuck on update 2 out of 35. I'm very anxious, it does not seem to progress. It's been at this level for the past 15-20 min.
What to do?
_XPSUser2013
7 Posts
0
June 10th, 2013 15:00
Ok, I had the guts to turn off the process while it remained stuck. The PC was able to boot Windows 7 successfully. Once in Windows 7, I typed in msinfo32 on the search bar, and I apparently the BIOS updated itself as we had hoped for.
The noise is still there, so I'm running Diagnostics to see if I have any hardware problems. What if there are none? Should I clean boot Windows 7? If so, what to do with the BIOS update? where to boot from?
_XPSUser2013
7 Posts
0
June 10th, 2013 17:00
I ran the diagnostic and it didn't find any errors, the noise keeps getting louder and i'm starting to feel like it's overheating. Another thing I'd like to add is that Windows 7 thought my computer was a Laptop.
rdunnill
6 Professor
6 Professor
•
8.8K Posts
0
June 10th, 2013 18:00
I suggest formatting a USB flash drive as DOS-bootable and using it to run the BIOS update.
That's how I updated the BIOS on my XPS 8500 last week.
Greg Sparling
1 Message
0
September 25th, 2014 11:00
I too have been experiencing a very loud noise (probably the fan) coming from my Dell XPS 8100 for quite a while. The noise comes and goes for no apparent reason. I think I finally fixed the problem a few days ago. I stopped using Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and only use Internet Explorer.
highjinx
1 Message
0
October 5th, 2014 19:00
Hi. There also could be hardware issues as well. My Dell XPS 8100's fans have been running really loud after updating to windows 8. I have installed the new bios and cleaned out the fans as well. I ran across this good article at toms hardware on replacing the fans and heatsink. I am going to try out this fix to see how it works. http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1918162/dell-xps-8100-fan-replacement.html
I think it is due to the stock fan/cooler dell used on the xps 8100.