Hardware Increasing Fan speed on XPS 17 Laptop

[LAA]

Hey,

Lately, I've been playing more games from steam (blame the steam summer sale)
Now I've become more worried about the heat produced by my laptop when playing the likes of borderlands 1/2.
I have actually always had this problem when playing certain games, borderlands I remember, as it seems the game that makes my laptop the hottest.
I did suck out all the dust from my laptop a few days ago, but there was still too much heat for my liking, so I also tried playing Borderlands with a fan being directed at the heat port, and then the laptop was running borderlands for a while and it was just about warm.

Therefore, I want to know whether theres a way to increase the fan speed on my XPS 17, so I have less of a need to have a separate fan plugged in cooling it down?

Thanks

 

[Ericthegreat]

Idk but I've heard many horror story's about ppl trying to add fans internally, so I don't recommend doing that.

 

[Wombo Combo]

SpeedFan
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

 

[raulpica]

Therefore, I want to know whether theres a way to increase the fan speed on my XPS 17, so I have less of a need to have a separate fan plugged in cooling it down?

I'm sure fans are programmed to run at 100% their speed when the PC gets hot, so there's no way to let them go ANY faster.

Be aware of some laptop cooling pads with fans in them, cheap ones can actually worsen the problem.

 

[LAA]

SpeedFan
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

I tried installing Speedfan, but it wont let me configure anything for fan.

raulpica Not sure mine does, would hope so, but I would like to set it myself so I know for sure.
And yeah I wouldnt get a cooling pad anyway, the fan heat port which blows out the most heat is on the side, so I guess a cooling pad wouldnt help for that really.

 

[Thanatos Telos]

I tried installing Speedfan, but it wont let me configure anything for fan.

raulpica Not sure mine does, would hope so, but I would like to set it myself so I know for sure.
And yeah I wouldnt get a cooling pad anyway, the fan heat port which blows out the most heat is on the side, so I guess a cooling pad wouldnt help for that really.

The Cooler Master ones are pretty damn good.

 

[FireValk01]

i have the same issue ive been trying to figure out myself. thanatos is it any cooler master pad or some specific ones

 

[PityOnU]

I tried installing Speedfan, but it wont let me configure anything for fan.

raulpica Not sure mine does, would hope so, but I would like to set it myself so I know for sure.
And yeah I wouldnt get a cooling pad anyway, the fan heat port which blows out the most heat is on the side, so I guess a cooling pad wouldnt help for that really.

Speedfan doesn't like laptop mobo's.

Just make sure to allow for proper ventilation (I like propping mine up with a book). If overheating becomes a regular occurrence it may be time to open it up and replace the thermal paste. In my experience that's once every 2-3 years.

 

[marcus134]

Technically, fan speed goes with the voltage, if you were to increase the voltage beyond what the mobo can give, your fan would spin faster. However it could reduce the lifespan of the fan or destroy it, depending on how much voltage you add.

 

[FAST6191]

I know it is a vendor laptop but as it was not really mentioned

Have you gone into the BIOS and seen if there are any options there? Sometimes you disable quiet mode, fiddle with the duty cycle of the fans, fiddle with the temperature at which the fans kick in, fiddle with the temperature the fans will aim to get the board to and maybe even just set them to go full blast at all points in time.

A casual search says some some people have done things like this already (though sometimes flanked with software elsewhere) but I did not push to far into it all.

 

[McHaggis]

Dust is probably the biggest contributor to ventilation blocks on laptops. I know you said that you'd sucked all the dust out, but did you do this on the inside? I used to deal with quite a lot of them overheating and usually the solution is to lift up the keyboard and use an air duster to blow directly into the fan and on other components to clear all the dust. Blowing or vacuuming from the outside is ineffective. I do this with my own laptop regularly; if I leave it for about 6-12 months then I find that it gets extremely hot below the base (too hot for knees!) and the fan is much noisier than usual.

Whilst laptops have more complicated internals than desktop PCs, usually the keyboard is the easiest part to lift out. There's normally a screw on the back in the middle of the laptop and 2-4 small tabs on the face keeping the keyboard down, though some newer laptops may just have the screws if the keys pop up through the shell. Looking at pictures of the XPS 17 I'd guess it's the former, but just use Google to search for your particular model if you're unsure. 5-10 minute job, guaranteed improvement if you haven't don't it for a while.

 

[LAA]

I know it is a vendor laptop but as it was not really mentioned

Have you gone into the BIOS and seen if there are any options there? Sometimes you disable quiet mode, fiddle with the duty cycle of the fans, fiddle with the temperature at which the fans kick in, fiddle with the temperature the fans will aim to get the board to and maybe even just set them to go full blast at all points in time.

A casual search says some some people have done things like this already (though sometimes flanked with software elsewhere) but I did not push to far into it all.

I have tried looking in BIOS actually, but I couldnt find anything relating to fan speed there...

Dust is probably the biggest contributor to ventilation blocks on laptops. I know you said that you'd sucked all the dust out, but did you do this on the inside? I used to deal with quite a lot of them overheating and usually the solution is to lift up the keyboard and use an air duster to blow directly into the fan and on other components to clear all the dust. Blowing or vacuuming from the outside is ineffective. I do this with my own laptop regularly; if I leave it for about 6-12 months then I find that it gets extremely hot below the base (too hot for knees!) and the fan is much noisier than usual.

Whilst laptops have more complicated internals than desktop PCs, usually the keyboard is the easiest part to lift out. There's normally a screw on the back in the middle of the laptop and 2-4 small tabs on the face keeping the keyboard down, though some newer laptops may just have the screws if the keys pop up through the shell. Looking at pictures of the XPS 17 I'd guess it's the former, but just use Google to search for your particular model if you're unsure. 5-10 minute job, guaranteed improvement if you haven't don't it for a while.

I havent actually opened up my laptop to hoover it out ever actually, had it about 2 years now.
Warranty has expired on it now, so I'm more open to the idea, but still scared to open it up. I'll look into how to do it for my XPS 17.

Just seems to me the fan speed is the problem, seeing having a fan next to it, cooled it way down, but I think its good for have a regular clean.

 

[KingBlank]

Try http://www.hwinfo.com/ Go into sensors and if there is a little fan icon, you can change the fan speed. The icon does not show on some laptops

 

[FAST6191]

I haven't actually opened up my laptop to hoover it out ever actually, had it about 2 years now.
Warranty has expired on it now

Please do not hoover your laptop out -- those static shocks you get from it to your hand are considerably more troublesome for the laptop. Get some canned air instead (they are usually only a few pounds from a computer or car parts shop).
Similarly it is not so bad on more modern ones but I usually like to stop the fan from spinning -- spin it yourself and the motor generates voltage which is not always the best to feed back into your motherboard.

As for warranties. I should note that there is the sale of goods act in the UK which means you can still get a kind of warranty for "a reasonable period" (late 2010 the thing was released let alone when you go it and I would say reasonable lifetime is much more than 2 years). Just get the receipt and wander down to the shop you got it from and sale of goods is almost a magic word.

 

[LAA]

Please do not hoover your laptop out -- those static shocks you get from it to your hand are considerably more troublesome for the laptop. Get some canned air instead (they are usually only a few pounds from a computer or car parts shop).
Similarly it is not so bad on more modern ones but I usually like to stop the fan from spinning -- spin it yourself and the motor generates voltage which is not always the best to feed back into your motherboard.

As for warranties. I should note that there is the sale of goods act in the UK which means you can still get a kind of warranty for "a reasonable period" (late 2010 the thing was released let alone when you go it and I would say reasonable lifetime is much more than 2 years). Just get the receipt and wander down to the shop you got it from and sale of goods is almost a magic word.

Oh of course I wouldnt hoover out the insides of a laptop, ha ha. I've just hoovered the heat ports on the outside of the laptop.
I actually got my laptop from Dells website, so would be more hastle to do it anyway, not that I plan on breaking my laptop

Try http://www.hwinfo.com/ Go into sensors and if there is a little fan icon, you can change the fan speed. The icon does not show on some laptops

HWinfo is actually detecting my fan and allows me to change it! Awesome!
However too scared to mess with it now, ha ha. Not sure whats "safe" to change the values too.
Prefferably, I really want it to when it boots up a game or some other graphic intense program, to put the fans on max.

 

[McHaggis]

I have tried looking in BIOS actually, but I couldnt find anything relating to fan speed there...



I havent actually opened up my laptop to hoover it out ever actually, had it about 2 years now.
Warranty has expired on it now, so I'm more open to the idea, but still scared to open it up. I'll look into how to do it for my XPS 17.

Just seems to me the fan speed is the problem, seeing having a fan next to it, cooled it way down, but I think its good for have a regular clean.

If you haven't cleaned the inside of your laptop for 2 years, I would expect doing so to make a huge difference to the temperature (more so than increasing the fan speed). Appropriate ventilation is key when dealing with electronics, it doesn't matter how fast your fan can go if hot air can't escape properly.

Also, by increasing the speed of the fan you'll increase the noise and decrease the life of the bearings. Try cleaning it from the inside out first, with an air duster (or "canned air" as FAST6191 called it).

 

[KingBlank]

Oh of course I wouldnt hoover out the insides of a laptop, ha ha. I've just hoovered the heat ports on the outside of the laptop.
I actually got my laptop from Dells website, so would be more hastle to do it anyway, not that I plan on breaking my laptop



HWinfo is actually detecting my fan and allows me to change it! Awesome!
However too scared to mess with it now, ha ha. Not sure whats "safe" to change the values too.
Preferably, I really want it to when it boots up a game or some other graphic intense program, to put the fans on max.

Glad I could help, You can set up automatic settings to make the fans spin a certain RPM when components get above certain temperatures too.
After that you can just make it run on startup, that Is what I did on my old Alienware M15X

 

[trumpet-205]

If the laptop is hot already, fan is very likely spinning at 100% already. So nothing left that can be increase.

 

[PityOnU]

I havent actually opened up my laptop to hoover it out ever actually, had it about 2 years now.
Warranty has expired on it now, so I'm more open to the idea, but still scared to open it up. I'll look into how to do it for my XPS 17.

You never said you had it two years.

Ignore everyone else, because I am about to give you some legit, from the heart advice based on my experience over many years.

The issue is definitely dust and old thermal paste.

The way the fans/laptops are designed, they can become clogged with hair or dust that cannot be removed without opening up the case. This is a HUGE pain in the ass but you have to do it if you want to continue using your device without it melting.

It's actually so much of a pain in the ass that if you take it to a computer repair shop, they will generally tell you it's a motherboard problem so they can charge you way more - because it's usually the same amount of work to replace a motherboard as it is to clean a stupid fan (thanks, Obama!), and nobody likes doing it because it's so easy to break the little tiny clips and screws in there.

You are right to be concerned about opening it. But if you do your research, watch some YouTube guides, take your time, have a clean and large workspace, and a few margarine tubs to hold screws after you remove them, you can do it.

While you're in there, remove the heat sinks from both the CPU and GPU and replace the thermal paste. That stuff doesn't last forever, and actually ends up looking more like cement than paste after a few years. Use rubbing alcohol to clean all the old stuff off first.

After you put it back together, it will run just as well, if not better (they use shit thermal paste nowadays), than new.

Good luck, mate.

 

[LAA]

You never said you had it two years.

Ignore everyone else, because I am about to give you some legit, from the heart advice based on my experience over many years.

The issue is definitely dust and old thermal paste.

The way the fans/laptops are designed, they can become clogged with hair or dust that cannot be removed without opening up the case. This is a HUGE pain in the ass but you have to do it if you want to continue using your device without it melting.

It's actually so much of a pain in the ass that if you take it to a computer repair shop, they will generally tell you it's a motherboard problem so they can charge you way more - because it's usually the same amount of work to replace a motherboard as it is to clean a stupid fan (thanks, Obama!), and nobody likes doing it because it's so easy to break the little tiny clips and screws in there.

You are right to be concerned about opening it. But if you do your research, watch some YouTube guides, take your time, have a clean and large workspace, and a few margarine tubs to hold screws after you remove them, you can do it.

While you're in there, remove the heat sinks from both the CPU and GPU and replace the thermal paste. That stuff doesn't last forever, and actually ends up looking more like cement than paste after a few years. Use rubbing alcohol to clean all the old stuff off first.

After you put it back together, it will run just as well, if not better (they use shit thermal paste nowadays), than new.

Good luck, mate.

I did actually take it apart a few days ago... Taking the top part off is pretty easy really, I was hoping I could take the bottom half off to clean that too, but... a damn cheap screw head broke when trying to unscrew it, and my dad said a way to remove it would be to drill the head off... which scares the hell out of me, ha ha, so I just left it at cleaning out the top half for now.
I did actually find like a "pile" of dust on top of the fan and some on the blades, so I guess that'll help it out. Noticed it being a little more cooler.

I decided to order a cooling pad too, after looking online and a lot of people who own this laptop say they cant imagine gaming on it without one, I hear Cooling Master U3 is one people seem to prefer at least for XPS 17, as you can change the direction the fans are pointing at.
I'll let you know if it helps significantly.