[Cherick]

Since everything else works good, why are you only having problems with videos?

Perhaps you should ask to be moved or post your problem in the Malware removal section.

Well, things are slower than normal, before the fan went on, but the video and music playback are the worst.
I use Firefox at slower than before, but still usable speed. But WMP and Youtube or any video site are just to the point of non-usable state.

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Well, you do have a lack of RAM IMHO, and you should make sure you don't have too many processes running at the same time in the background.

If you want, open the task manager, processes tab, make a screenshot of your running processes and post it back here. We could try to determine which applications you could uncheck from the Startup tab. Also, what antivirus are you running? Are you running more than one? These are things that can make a difference.

After all this, if still no joy, I suggest you post your thread in the Malware section of the forum. Experts will help you determine if you have an infection.

Edited by karbo, 29 January 2009 - 01:55 PM.

[karbo]

Well, you do have a lack of RAM IMHO, and you should make sure you don't have too many processes running at the same time in the background.

If you want, open the task manager, processes tab, make a screenshot of your running processes and post it back here. We could try to determine which applications you could uncheck from the Startup tab. Also, what antivirus are you running? Are you running more than one? These are things that can make a difference.

After all this, if still no joy, I suggest you post your thread in the Malware section of the forum. Experts will help you determine if you have an infection.

Edited by karbo, 29 January 2009 - 01:55 PM.

[Cherick]

Well, you do have a lack of RAM IMHO, and you should make sure you don't have too many processes running at the same time in the background.

If you want, open the task manager, processes tab, make a screenshot of your running processes and post it back here. We could try to determine which applications you could uncheck from the Startup tab. Also, what antivirus are you running? Are you running more than one? These are things that can make a difference.

After all this, if still no joy, I suggest you post your thread in the Malware section of the forum. Experts will help you determine if you have an infection.

Ok, I kinda agree on the lack of RAM, but what I don't understand is that I have had this computer for more than 2 years with the same RAM, and it had not given me any of this problems, at least not the fan at full speed.
I use Avast, before the PC Restore I had Ad-aware, Spybot and Malwarebytes too, but none of those running in the background, just Avast.



The screenshot is not uploading, dunno what's wrong, I'll try again.

EDIT: I think it went thru now.

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by Cherick, 29 January 2009 - 02:15 PM.

[makai]

Ok I did everything again, checked the cooling fan, is clean. Check the heatsink grill, clean. Cleaned and re-applied thin coat of grease and put the heatsink back tightening the screws in order and a little bit at a time. Turn the computer on and still the cooling fan is full speed, stopped for half a second and is still on full speed.
Here are the readings from MobileMeter:
Frequency: 266Mhz
Temperature: 85.5C
Charge Rate: 0.00w
HDD #0: 28C
The HDD started at 24C and keeps going up, Im not using the cooling pad right now.
Frequency changes to 200Mhz, 233Mhz and 266Mhz.

Here are temps from Speedfan, just in case they can show something:

HD0: 28C
Temp1: 86C
DIMM: 255C
CPU: 85C
GPU: 255C

EDIT: updating as the HDD #0 temp in MobileMeter is at 30C now, again the fan is still full speed and I'm not using the cooling pad.

What's up with all these readings? 266mhz for the CPU? Something is definitely not right. I don't know about the GPU and Dimm readings, but the CPU is normally read accurately by Mobilmeter. I've never seen a processor trottle down that much, but its probably doing it because of the temperature. It's also probably why your videos are playing so lousy. Your computer must be running very slow overall.

If you boot your machine to bios and leave it there, will the fan still run at full speed? Also, please look in bios and check what the CPU frequency reads. To get to bios, continually press the F2 key directly after you boot up until you get an indication bios is loading. It also may be the F1, or F10, key... I haven't checked your model to find out what the right key is.

Also, if you can, find the bios screen that allows you to reset the bios to default settings. You can also reset the bios by removing the bios battery (or battery connector) and leaving it disconnected for about 10 minutes or so, then reinserting it... that is if it's not soldered to the motherboard.

This definitely looks like a hardware problem, but try resetting the bios first.

[Cherick]

Ok I did everything again, checked the cooling fan, is clean. Check the heatsink grill, clean. Cleaned and re-applied thin coat of grease and put the heatsink back tightening the screws in order and a little bit at a time. Turn the computer on and still the cooling fan is full speed, stopped for half a second and is still on full speed.
Here are the readings from MobileMeter:
Frequency: 266Mhz
Temperature: 85.5C
Charge Rate: 0.00w
HDD #0: 28C
The HDD started at 24C and keeps going up, Im not using the cooling pad right now.
Frequency changes to 200Mhz, 233Mhz and 266Mhz.

Here are temps from Speedfan, just in case they can show something:

HD0: 28C
Temp1: 86C
DIMM: 255C
CPU: 85C
GPU: 255C

EDIT: updating as the HDD #0 temp in MobileMeter is at 30C now, again the fan is still full speed and I'm not using the cooling pad.

What's up with all these readings? 266mhz for the CPU? Something is definitely not right. I don't know about the GPU and Dimm readings, but the CPU is normally read accurately by Mobilmeter. I've never seen a processor trottle down that much, but its probably doing it because of the temperature. It's also probably why your videos are playing so lousy. Your computer must be running very slow overall.

If you boot your machine to bios and leave it there, will the fan still run at full speed? Also, please look in bios and check what the CPU frequency reads. To get to bios, continually press the F2 key directly after you boot up until you get an indication bios is loading. It also may be the F1, or F10, key... I haven't checked your model to find out what the right key is.

Also, if you can, find the bios screen that allows you to reset the bios to default settings. You can also reset the bios by removing the bios battery (or battery connector) and leaving it disconnected for about 10 minutes or so, then reinserting it... that is if it's not soldered to the motherboard.

This definitely looks like a hardware problem, but try resetting the bios first.

Ok, I'm on a desktop PC right now, I have my laptop here, I'm on the BIOS and yes the fan if full speed.
Where do I find the frequency? is it the same as clock speed? it say current 800mhz, minimum 800mhz.

[karbo]

Nothing special I can see in the processes needing to be removed.

Well, try Mr. Makai's suggestions and if still no joy, you can try the malware section if you want.

Good luck!

[makai]

Yes, clock speed and frequency is the same thing. However, also look for somewhere that identifies the processor. It should say something like 1.8ghz Pentium M... this is just to know if your processor is being identified correctly. The frequency being shown (800MHZ) is the lowest frequency your laptop is meant to run at while on battery power, or AC if your power settings are set for Dynamic Switching mode, or what is also known as Speedstep.

Did you resest the bios to defaults? There should be a menu with that option.

[makai]

Nothing special I can see in the processes needing to be removed.

Well, try Mr. Makai's suggestions and if still no joy, you can try the malware section if you want.

Good luck!

His laptop is running at 85C degrees. It is also throttled down to 266Mhz. His fan is running at high speed in bios and in windows which means the laptop is overheating. This is a either a hardware problem or a bios problem. It has nothing to do with windows or malware.

[Cherick]

Yes, clock speed and frequency is the same thing. However, also look for somewhere that identifies the processor. It should say something like 1.8ghz Pentium M... this is just to know if your processor is being identified correctly. The frequency being shown (800MHZ) is the lowest frequency your laptop is meant to run at while on battery power, or AC if your power settings are set for Dynamic Switching mode, or what is also known as Speedstep.

Did you resest the bios to defaults? There should be a menu with that option.

Ok, on the same menu with the clock speed, there is:
Processor Type: Pentium M
Processor ID: 06D8
Current Clock Speed: 800MHz
Minimum Clock Speed: 800MHz
Processor Cache Size: 2048kb
Hyperthreading capable: No



And yes, I did reset to defaults.

Since you mention that it could be a bios problem let me add that AFTER this problem started, and after the first PC Restore, I read somewhere that I should update the bios, so I went to Dell Support site and updated the bios to A04 version. Just throwing it out there in case it has something to do.

Edited by Cherick, 29 January 2009 - 04:25 PM.

[makai]

From everything you descibed so far, it looks like a motherboard, or processor problem. No M processor should run at 85C under any kind of normal usage. The fact that it's also doing it in bios is a tell-tale sign that it's not windows related. You might try updating the bios again, but be warned that if it fails to update due to the condition your laptop is currently in, it might permanently kill the laptop... in which case you will probably have to send it to Dell to get it reflashed.

Is your battery totally dead? I mean, is there not even enough juice to have it start and get into bios? What you might try is installing the battery and try to charge it enough to at least power up and get into bios without having to use AC. We're trying to see if the laptop will calm down if on battery power only.

Another long shot is to shut down the laptop, pull the AC cord, and press and hold down the power button down for about 2 minutes. This will sometimes discharge the power circuit caps and kill any residual charge. This has worked on some Thinkpads when weird problems occur.

I'm going to guess the laptop is already out of warranty... correct?

[Cherick]

From everything you descibed so far, it looks like a motherboard, or processor problem. No M processor should run at 85C under any kind of normal usage. The fact that it's also doing it in bios is a tell-tale sign that it's not windows related. You might try updating the bios again, but be warned that if it fails to update due to the condition your laptop is currently in, it might permanently kill the laptop... in which case you will probably have to send it to Dell to get it reflashed.

Is your battery totally dead? I mean, is there not even enough juice to have it start and get into bios? What you might try is installing the battery and try to charge it enough to at least power up and get into bios without having to use AC. We're trying to see if the laptop will calm down if on battery power only.

Another long shot is to shut down the laptop, pull the AC cord, and press and hold down the power button down for about 2 minutes. This will sometimes discharge the power circuit caps and kill any residual charge. This has worked on some Thinkpads when weird problems occur.

I'm going to guess the laptop is already out of warranty... correct?

Ok, I'm pretty sure the battery is completely dead, because on the power management menu or on the bios it says "battery not installed". But right now I unplugged and turn the computer on to go into bios and it did. It's there right now, but the low battery indicator light is on and the fan is still full speed.

Yes is out of warranty already.

EDIT: I don't know if this is of any help but I found the link where I saw the Pentium M with a max temp of 100C.
http://www.gamingtre...ic=13375.0;wap2

EDIT 2: This is very weird, the laptop is still running, I'm on the bios and on "battery" power only. It used to turn off merely a minute or two after unplugging it, but right now it is still on.

Edited by Cherick, 29 January 2009 - 04:59 PM.

[makai]

Well, I don't know what else you can try. Something is causing this but I don't know how to isolate without at least swapping the processor. The thermal sensor for the processor is actually in the processor itself, so if its indicating a high temp, then the processor is the one that indicating it. Then again, it could be a bad bios. If it were me and I had no other choice, I would try a bios reflash. However, this is up to you... knowing full well what can happen if it fails. The other option is to take it to a repair shop ($$$), or have someone you know with experience take a look at it. Then again, if you're willing to spend a little money, you can pick up a Pentium M on ebay quite cheaply nowadays. You have to weigh all your options and decide which option to take. Sorry I can't be of much help with this.

[makai]

EDIT: I don't know if this is of any help but I found the link where I saw the Pentium M with a max temp of 100C.

Yes, but keep in mind.. this is MAX temp... like right before meltdown. Your processor is throttling down to 266MHZ due to overheating. This is a safeguard so it doens't fry. It knows it's overheating. I can guarantee that if you continue to run your laptop in this condition, very soon, it won't even start up. The whole reason for your video and slow computing is due to the frequency your laptop is currently running at.

[Cherick]

Ok.
Well, I guess I'm gonna try updating the bios again and just take the risk.

And this might be a dumb question but, would formatting the HD help in any way?

[makai]

Ok.
Well, I guess I'm gonna try updating the bios again and just take the risk.

And this might be a dumb question but, would formatting the HD help in any way?

No question is dumb! I wouldn't think it would help since some bios' can run even without a HD installed. Don't know about Dells though. At this point I guess you can try whatever you think might help.