Fan Comes on Too Often

One of the fans in my machine is coming on seemingly too often. It never used to come on at all, but now it will start up even when performing just low level computing like browsing the net or viewing jpegs. It is quite loud and annoying. If I close out everything that I'm doing at the time, it will turn itself off after 5 min. or so. How can I check the functioning of the fan or should I just replace it? Is it possibly a hard drive or CPU problem?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

When was the last time you cleaned the dust bunnies out of the inside of the computer? Accumulations of dust and dirt in and around the various components could cause execessive heat build up and trigger the fan sensor more often. Make sure you clean all vents as well. Also check the fin's on the cpu cooler, as there may be accumulations of dust down between the cooling fins. Usually the fan will unclip and you can carefully clean between the fins with a Q-Tip.

 

No, it is a desktop HP. Twice I have removed covers and dusted using the co2. It's frustrating because I can't identify a pattern. For instance, I was just burning a cd and browsing the net simultaneously and the fan did not start, but sometimes it starts when performing somewhat innocuous tasks. If the fan is a generic part, I guess I should just replace it if its not too expensive. By the way, as I was dusting last night, I did notice that it is the CPU fan.

Gentlemen, any more thoughts? Thanks in advance!!!

 

That adds significant importance to your situation. I would suggest that you shut down and unplug power, then remove the fan (leave the heatsink intact) and use something like a decent sized artist's brush to dust the heatsink and then blow it out with canned air. Clean the fan blades with dry Q-Tips and canned air and then remount the CPU fan. It sounds like you have a temperature controlled variable speed fan and you want to monitor this closely. If this continues it could be a sign of pending failure and consideration should be given to replacing this fan with something similar. This can also be an indicator that you CPU fan header on the motherboard is going south. While not as common, its a possibility.

For safety sake, there may be a BIOS setting which will shut down your machine when the CPU reaches a pre- determined temperature. There also should be a setting to enable a shutdown when the CPU fan fails. Check these out as they will provide you with some protection if the fan fails.

Good Luck and good catch - watch this closely to prevent any potential CPU damage caused by overheating.