Computer trouble

[FFnerdHere]

Hey guys and girls. Ive been having loads of issues with my computer. After deleting everything on my hard drive no issues software wise. However it seems every once in a while when I boot windows (7) I get a BIOS error saying that my fan is messed up or stopped working. It says continued use isn't recommended but this is the only computer I have and at the moment don't have the extra money to fix the fan. So I only wanna use it when I'm checking email' modding saves or checking the forums on here. So the overall point of this thread is to ask what are the best ways to keep my laptop from getting too hot while I'm using it. Any suggestions are appreciated and thanks in advance.

[ReDeMpTiOn213]

Hey guys and girls. Ive been having loads of issues with my computer. After deleting everything on my hard drive no issues software wise. However it seems every once in a while when I boot windows (7) I get a BIOS error saying that my fan is messed up or stopped working. It says continued use isn't recommended but this is the only computer I have and at the moment don't have the extra money to fix the fan. So I only wanna use it when I'm checking email' modding saves or checking the forums on here. So the overall point of this thread is to ask what are the best ways to keep my laptop from getting too hot while I'm using it. Any suggestions are appreciated and thanks in advance.

Is your fan spinning any at all? Or it doesn't work at all?

[FFnerdHere]

Hey ReDeMpTiOn213 yeah my fan does spin when i use my laptop and sometimes its cool when I use it but sometimes its really hot its strange. I wish i knew how to fix the issue myself cause I think a new fan plus service fees to fix it at a shop would be around 100 bucks in total =/

[8Ball]

If the fan is actually spinning and you only get the message every few bootups it may just be a loose cable that may or may not be seated correctly at the time of boot. Generally speaking the more processor intensive a task is the more heat it generates but if the hot and cold streaks are seemingly random despite usage habits I would seriously check the cables because at one point or another it's turning off when it really shouldn't be.

Aside from popping the bottom off and taking a look yourself, you can also invest in a cheap fan stand, nothing too fancy just literally a bit of plastic with a fan on it thatplugs into a usb port, this raises the laptop and blasts it with cool air, cheap but effective.

Dust is the enemy of thermal management and clearing the fan tunnel out with a quick blast of compressed air (or even better, cleaning the damn thing with q-tips) will have a surprising effect on cooling performance, not to mention noise.

Other than this and we go into the realm of things I assume you won't be comfortable doing given you asked in the first place:
Replacing the thermal paste on your chips, typically they have crappy quality paste or even little pads because this is cheap but just effective enough to not effect the failure rate in a significant way.
Updating the bios, aside from fixing a whole array of potential bugs this may include some fixes for the fan if the problem is widespread with the model. Some people are scared to do this but I personally don't know why, just do it.

A small program you can download in the meantime to try and get a temp readout is HWMonitor, it will typically tell you the temps of the motherboard, hard drives, the fan speed etc. etc.
If you notice the fan at 0% or some other obvious problem, it's pretty clear it's stopped. OEM fans almost always offer telemetry data like this because they jack straight into the board.

[ReDeMpTiOn213]

Hey ReDeMpTiOn213 yeah my fan does spin when i use my laptop and sometimes its cool when I use it but sometimes its really hot its strange. I wish i knew how to fix the issue myself cause I think a new fan plus service fees to fix it at a shop would be around 100 bucks in total =/

Hey sorry I just woke up, but it seems that 8ball has beat me to it hahaha thanks :) but I have had the same problem that my laptop would get extremely hot and would actually smell something burning. First I got some air in a can and undid all the pieces on the bottom that comes off and used that canned air. I had huge chunks of hair and dusts coming out of it. I was on windows 7 ultimate. I have a Gateway with 2gb ram. Not the best laptop in the world haha but anyway I downloaded programs that adjusted fan speed and measured temp. Still didn't solve my problem. I think the thing helped it the most was me getting a laptop stand and cleaning out all the heat vents. Besides that I do take my laptop completely apart a number of times. It seemed my laptop got really hot when I was on windows 7 ultimate 64bit. But ever since I upgraded to windows 8.1 and use a laptop stand it doesn't hardly heat up very bad any more except for the average normal heating. As for the possible wiring issue if you have knowledge and tools I would recommend taking apart and running while it was apart so you can see and watch exactly when it stops and jiggle/unplug& reconnect the fan cable to see if it starts back up. But depending on the laptops age a new fan never hurts lol