Fan Speed is at Maximum Constantly

SeanJeremiah

Hello,

 

I have an Acer 4738G runnning on Windows 8.1. [skip to paragraph 6 for Problem Description]

 

[Background]

 

One fine day, the laptop powered down due to an overheat. Reason unknown. (The laptop is usually used for web browsing or docment processing. No CPU intensive processes i.e. games or video editing)

 

But the strange thing was that when I switched it on again, the display was not working. But everything else was fine. Someone suggested hooking it up to an external monitor and ta-da...both the laptop display and external monitor seemed to work fine. Disconnect external monitor and restart PC, laptop display dead. Reconnect external monitor, both displays ok.

 

Anyway, I sent to the Acer (Highpoint) service center at Low Yatt Plaza (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). The laptop was returned to me a couple of days later with the HDD replaced as they said it was corrupted. I didn't think so. Took it home, same problem as before, so I took it back.

 

This time they took a little longer to fix it as they identified a problem with the motherboard. When it was returned to me, the display was working perfectly but now the the fan started running at maximum speed constantly right from boot. It usually is pretty quiet as I don't subject this laptop to heavy laods and the fan speed changes according to the CPU temperature. I only realized this when I returned to my workdesk as it had began to get very annoying.

 

[Problem Description]

 

Sent it back for repair. Returned. Constant high fan speed right from boot problem remained. I belive that they had misunderstood me when I said there is a problem with the fan speed controller on the motherboard. They said they had run an overnight burn test and everything was ok. Apprently not.

 

I was not able use a third-party software i.e. SpeedFan to control the fan speed. Nor did anything change when I flashed the BIOS to the latest version. I even tried downgrading to Windows 7 and factory settings. (However, I did notice that while the BIOS installer was running, the fan speed did slow down to a more normal level.)

 

What could I do to fix this problem?

 

[More severe problem]

 

I descided to reinstall Windows 8. I booted from the installation DVD. And while I was doing so, the PC powered down due to an overheat as the fan was not running during the installation. This time I'm sure of the cause as the fan is always so noisy when it does run. Upon restarting, the display was non-functional, simillar to the problem I had earlier. Sent it back for repair but I really doubt their ability to fix the problem.

 

Again, what should I do?

 

Thank you for any assistance provided.  

Blayn-Acer

Sorry for the problems you are having getting your system fixed to your satisfaction. My best recommendation would be to contact the service center in Malaysia, to express your concerns about the repair service you received. Since the problems you are describing seem to be hardware related, there is not a lot that we can do to resolve them via this forum.

Vince53

Acer Blayne is probably right. However, you can try downloading the free CoreTemp program to check your operating temperature.

SeanJeremiah

Thank you for taking the time to reply guys. The laptop was sent to the service center and is currently awaiting parts.

 

As I mentioned earlier, SpeedFan and a few other controllers I tried are able to indicate CPU and GPU temperature but not actually control the fan speed. Futhermode, changing the System Cooling Policy in Windows did not seem to have an effect as well.

 

Assuming they are not able to get it fixed as in the previous incidents, I would like to know if there is a way to manually control the fan speed, either though the BIOS, Windows OS or 3-rd party software? 

 

Thanks.