[Phriend]

Hi friends,

I currently own a Toshiba Satellite P-105 laptop and the cooling fan is driving me crazy! Basically, it kicks on full blast for about two seconds.... then it shuts off for ten seconds.... then it kicks on full blast for two seconds.... then it shuts off for ten seconds.... then it kicks on full blast for two seconds....

And this happens over and over and over again (and makes me want to blow my brains out!)

I tried a program called fan.exe but that did not work (I think because my laptop does not have a Pentium processor in it).

Does anyone know of a fix for this? Heck, I'd much rather the fan be on full-blast 100% of the time than to have to listen to this intermittent crap. It's HORRIBLE!!!

(I am running Windows XP).

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Welcome to Geeks2Go!

'fan.exe' changes settings in the BIOS. The BIOS in your laptop is therefore probably not compatible with it (not the processor).

Look in Control Panel. There should be an icon for "Toshiba Power Management" (don't use the Microsoft "Power Management" utility since it won't have the same options as the Toshiba one). There you can choose from three performance options which affect how the fan behaves. I think they are "Maximum Performance" (fan cycles off/on at full speed every few minutes), "Medium Performance", and "Quiet Mode" where the fan runs at low speed but performing tasks will take a little longer.

Edited by pip22, 20 April 2008 - 03:27 AM.

[pip22]

Welcome to Geeks2Go!

'fan.exe' changes settings in the BIOS. The BIOS in your laptop is therefore probably not compatible with it (not the processor).

Look in Control Panel. There should be an icon for "Toshiba Power Management" (don't use the Microsoft "Power Management" utility since it won't have the same options as the Toshiba one). There you can choose from three performance options which affect how the fan behaves. I think they are "Maximum Performance" (fan cycles off/on at full speed every few minutes), "Medium Performance", and "Quiet Mode" where the fan runs at low speed but performing tasks will take a little longer.

Edited by pip22, 20 April 2008 - 03:27 AM.

[Phriend]

Unfortunately, I do not have these "Toshiba Power Controls" in my control panel. Is there any place that I can download it?

[Tyger]

Have you been to the Toshiba site to look for any fixes for this? Also have you scoured the BIOS settings for any changes you can make? Do you use the machine in a dusty environment? It may be that the CPU cooler needs to be cleaned or that it is not making good thermal contact with the CPU.

[Phriend]

Have you been to the Toshiba site to look for any fixes for this? Also have you scoured the BIOS settings for any changes you can make? Do you use the machine in a dusty environment? It may be that the CPU cooler needs to be cleaned or that it is not making good thermal contact with the CPU.

This has happened ever since I bought the computer.... and there seem to be many other Toshiba Satellite P-series users online who are experiencing the same thing.

I am not a computer genius by any means, so if I need to check the BIOS settings..... ummmm.... could someone walk me through it?

Edited by Phriend, 20 April 2008 - 02:06 PM.

[Phriend]

Ok.... I just changed the BIOS on my laptop. The machine now runs in "Silent" mode instead of in "Performance" mode.

However, my cooling fan is still not being silent!

Can anyone help with this? Anyone? Please, I beg you.

[The Skeptic]

Please download Everest from my list of programs below. Install and run it. Click Computer and then click Sensor. Please report the temperatures of the CPU, hard disk, motherboard, and others if listed. This should be done when the laptop is in this cycle of high/low fan speed.

It might be that the temperature sensor that controls the fan speed is faulty.

[Phriend]

Please download Everest from my list of programs below. Install and run it. Click Computer and then click Sensor. Please report the temperatures of the CPU, hard disk, motherboard, and others if listed. This should be done when the laptop is in this cycle of high/low fan speed.

It might be that the temperature sensor that controls the fan speed is faulty.

When I initially downloaded Everest, it told me that it was not fully compatible with my machine because I have an Intel "Calistoga" sensor.

That said, it did allow me to check the temps. (Though I'm not sure if they were accurate or not).

The initial temperature reading was 145 degrees for the "CPU" and 88 degrees for the "Toshiba MK1234GSX".

After a few minutes, the temperature of the "Toshiba MK1234GSX" moved to 90 degrees. After a few more minutes, that temperature moved to 91.

The temperature did not seem to change whether the fan was on or off.

Could it be that the fan does not kick on due to a temperature change, but that Toshiba has just created a really annoying cooling fan?

[The Skeptic]

Toshiba designed the fan to kick into higher speed when necessity arise and that is controlled by temperature sensors. I read about your computer in some reviews and all mentioned a comfortable noise level. I still suspect the sensor and we must have an accurate reading to get any conclusion.

Please download Sandra XII Lite (a link in my list) install and run it. Click on Tools and then on Environment Monitor. Use the green arrow keys to move forward in the menus (don't create any report) until you get to a the test itself. The test is continious as indicates at the top right-hand side of the menu. Watch the graphs of the temperatures for about 10 minutes and report the temperatures, for each graph, at which the high speed of the fan kicks in.

[Phriend]

I don't think I'm the only one who experiences this. If you do a Google search for [ 'Toshiba' 'Annoying Fan' ] you get over 1200 results! Here are a couple people who have the same problem as me:

http://forums.comput...?threadID=15601
http://forum.noteboo...p/t-116984.html

Actually, that second link is pretty informative.... please give it a look.

In the meantime, I'll try to run those tests you've asked for.

[The Skeptic]

I am sure there are others who experience the same problem. I looked in Toshiba's support and found nothing. The links you provided are interesting and indicate to what we suspect from the beginnig: overheating. It can be result of under-ratted-fans, blocked vents, faulty fans, faulty temp sensor, bad thermal flow design etc. It's very possible that you will need the help f a professional lab that had already delved into this specific problem and have the solution.

In the meantime please submit the temp readings by Sandra. I would like to see them.

[Phriend]

I monitored the temps over a time period of about six hours last night. The temperatures fluctuated between 63 degrees C and 69 degrees C. For some reason, I couldn't get the program to monitor fan speeds, so I'm not sure how much this data will help you.

Actually, now that I look at it, the "Max Temperature" was recorded at either 68 or 69 degrees C on every single one of the 200 or so data points.

Edited by Phriend, 22 April 2008 - 08:34 AM.

[The Skeptic]

This temperature is surely high enough to start the second fan or increase a single fan to a higher speed. Like I said before, there can be a number of reasons to the high temperature, some real, some false. The only thing that I can help you with is to suggest that you clean the fans and inlet/exhaust vents with compressed air. You can buy cans of compressed air in any computer supply shop.

If that doesn't help then I suggest that you take your computer to a decent shop and let them fix the problem.

[Phriend]

Thanks for all your help. I think I've had this problem from day one, so I don't think that dust is the issue. I just bought a cooling pad and I'm hoping (and praying) that it will cool off my machine enough to keep the internal fan quiet.