Acer TravelMate P653 - noisy fan on bootup

RayP

I didn't use my laptop over Christmas as I was away. It was left plugged into the mains but powered down.

 

The first time I booted it after my return the fan suddenly started up when the Starting Windows message appeared. It then remained at near maximum speed long after everything had loaded. This has never happened before.

 

I have managed to workaround this by pressing Fn + F4 which places the laptop in sleep mode. After several seconds the fan powers down.

 

If I then press a key to wake the laptop up everything is fine and the fan doesn't run at high speed. I can hear it gently running in the background.

 

For the remainder of that session the fan behaves itself. But when I start the laptop up from cold the whole process starts again and I have to repeat the actions to turn it off.

 

I'm mystified why it's doing this. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Acer ePower Management v6.0 via the eRecovery Management utility but it has made no difference.

 

I've also checked the BIOS (F2 at bootup) and can see nothing there that influences the fan speed.

 

Any help to cure this problem would be appreciated.

RayP

PROBLEM SOLVED!

 

In the end it was something simple but I really don't understand why this action fixed it.

 

With the laptop powered off I removed the battery then removed the power lead. I then reattached the battery and reconnected the power lead.

 

Powered up the laptop and the fan did not power up to full speed.

 

Thanks for your help laurent and I hope this may help others.

laurent_14

Hello,

 

Have you tried to  load the "Default settings" or "Optimazed settings" in the bios setup utility?

RayP

Thanks for your answer. No, I haven't. As I said before I cannot see any settings in the BIOS that affect the fan speed so discounted that option.

 

Please remind me how I can do this if you think it will solve the problem.

RayP

I pressed F2 on bootup to enter the BIOS. I then pressed F9 to reset it to default and then saved and exited.

 

The fan still came on when 'Loading Windows' was displayed. This makes me think it's something to do with what Windows is loading rather than a BIOS setting. if it was a BIOS setting the fan would start immediately wouldn't it?

 

I've even used a vacuum to suck any dust out of the various grills on the laptop but to no avail.

 

This is an extract what runs via msconfig on startup. Perhaps it might help. Yes/No in the first column indicates if it's enabled or not.

 

Yes    HKCU:Run    CCleaner Monitoring    Piriform Ltd    "C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe" /MONITOR
No    HKLM:Run    Acer MotionProtect Tray Application    STMicroelectronics    C:\Program Files (x86)\ST Microelectronics\ST_ACCEL\FFP_Token.exe
No    HKLM:Run    AtherosBtStack    Atheros Commnucations    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Bluetooth Suite\BtvStack.exe"
Yes    HKLM:Run    AvastUI.exe    AVAST Software    "C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\AvastUI.exe" /nogui
No    HKLM:Run    BackupManagerTray    NTI Corporation    "C:\Program Files (x86)\NTI\Acer Backup Manager\BackupManagerTray.exe" -h -k
Yes    HKLM:Run    BCSSync    Microsoft Corporation    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\BCSSync.exe" /DelayServices
No    HKLM:Run    cAudioFilterAgent    Conexant Systems, Inc.    C:\Program Files\Conexant\cAudioFilterAgent\cAudioFilterAgent64.exe
Yes    HKLM:Run    EgisTecPMMUpdate    Egis Technology Inc.    "C:\Program Files (x86)\EgisTec IPS\PmmUpdate.exe"
Yes    HKLM:Run    EgisUpdate    Egis Technology Inc.    "C:\Program Files (x86)\EgisTec IPS\EgisUpdate.exe" -d
Yes    HKLM:Run    HotKeysCmds    Intel Corporation    C:\Windows\system32\hkcmd.exe
No    HKLM:Run    HP Software Update    Hewlett-Packard    C:\Program Files (x86)\Hp\HP Software Update\HPWuSchd2.exe
Yes    HKLM:Run    IgfxTray    Intel Corporation    C:\Windows\system32\igfxtray.exe
No    HKLM:Run    IMSS    Intel Corporation    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IMSS\PIconStartup.exe"
Yes    HKLM:Run    LManager    Dritek System Inc.    C:\Program Files (x86)\Launch Manager\LManager.exe
Yes    HKLM:Run    Navigraph FMS Data Manager    Navigraph    C:\Program Files (x86)\Navigraph\FMS Data Manager\NGFMSAgent.exe -autostart
Yes    HKLM:Run    NvBackend    NVIDIA Corporation    "C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\Update Core\NvBackend.exe"
Yes    HKLM:Run    Persistence    Intel Corporation    C:\Windows\system32\igfxpers.exe
Yes    HKLM:Run    Power Management    Acer Incorporated    C:\Program Files\Acer\Acer ePower Management\ePowerTray.exe
Yes    HKLM:Run    ProShieldTSR    Egis Technology Inc.     "C:\Program Files\Acer ProShield\EgisTSR.exe" /run
No    HKLM:Run    StatusAlerts    Hewlett-Packard Company    "C:\Program Files (x86)\HP\StatusAlerts\bin\HPStatusAlerts.exe" /enumn /alertsn /notificationsn /fln /frn /appData:on /tmcpn
Yes    HKLM:Run    SynTPEnh    Synaptics Incorporated    %ProgramFiles%\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe
Yes    HKLM:Run    USB3MON    Intel Corporation    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver\Application\iusb3mon.exe"
No    HKLM:Run    WaveTSSW8UpgradePatch        "C:\Program Files (x86)\Acer Proshield\W8UpgradePatch.js"
No    Startup Common    Acer VCM.lnk    Acer Incorporated    C:\PROGRA~2\Acer\ACERVC~1\AcerVCM.exe

laurent_14

if it was a BIOS setting the fan would start immediately wouldn't it? yes it would.

 

Have you tried to reinstall the chipset driver?

RayP

"Have you tried to reinstall the chipset driver?"

 

No. I will need some guidance to do that please.

 

Have you discounted the programs that start with Windows being responsible? As the fan starts up when "Starting Windows" appears it does appear to be linked.

laurent_14

Look at this page about "HPStatusAlerts.exe". May be a virus.

RayP

A virus??? It's a very strange one if it is. I searched for hpstatusalerts.exe and ran Avast on it and it reported clean. The laptop shows no indications it's infected and I am careful about which sites I visit and never click on links in spam mail.

 

You mentioned reinstalling a chipset driver earlier. Can you identify which one and how I can update it?

RayP

PROBLEM SOLVED!

 

In the end it was something simple but I really don't understand why this action fixed it.

 

With the laptop powered off I removed the battery then removed the power lead. I then reattached the battery and reconnected the power lead.

 

Powered up the laptop and the fan did not power up to full speed.

 

Thanks for your help laurent and I hope this may help others.