Hey,
I just got this Acer M5-581T and I love it except for how high pitched the fan is and how it is constantly turning on and off again.
First things first, I just did a clean install of windows 8, downloaded all the driver updates and updated the BIOS to 2.09, the most recent. I have tried proping it up so it has extra space underneath for intake, and I have used a USB cooling pad with two fans and it has made no difference in the M5-581T's fan activity.
The issue is that the fan is both erratic in behavior and annoyingly high pitched. The fan ramps up every single time I click on something or open a new webpage in explorer. The fan seems to only have one speed which is super high pitched and moderately loud. The noise is actually unnerving. It must be what dogs hear when using a dog whistle.
The other nuisance is that it cycles on and off constantly from full speed to completely off. Open a new tab in IE and the fan ramps up for 10 seconds then stops for 10 seconds, then ramps up for 10 seconds and stops for 10 seconds, and on and on. I could actually tolerate it if it was low pitched or was always on at a low volume. As it stands it is unbearable.
Is this how the fan is supposed to cycle? I have watched the "performance" window and "processes" window in task manager to see what program might be causing this behavior and I can't spot one that is really that intensive or that has regular cycles. The CPU will spike for a split second when opening a program or new IE tab but the fan turns on just the same as if I was trying to start up FarCry3.
I am two days away from returning this computer, and I don't want to, because I like everything but the unbearable fan.
