Laptop fan keeps running on new laptop?

May 2, 2023 7:30 AM

My work laptop was recently evergreened and the new device has been working fine since I fired it up last week Thursday, but as of this morning the fan kicks in every minute or so and runs in short bursts. It's a Dell, Intel 1.70 GHz if that matters. I'm not using this thing any different than my previous laptop and the fan never ran on the old unit. Should I be concerned? The fan is not particularly quiet.
posted by elkevelvet to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

The fan runs when the PC gets hot. It gets hot when the CPU and other things do a lot of sustained work. Different models of laptop will have different thresholds for a "thermal emergency" that needs to be mitigated with the fans. You say you aren't doing anything different, but this being a work laptop, don't discount your IT admins running new/different software on your computer that does any number of things.

In the short term, you may want to have Windows Task Manager (right click on your taskbar and choose "Task Manager") running to see if you can correlate the fan turning on with some program on your computer suddenly using a lot of CPU.

If you can find a likely culprit or this persists, this is worth talking to your IT folks.
posted by mmascolino at 7:46 AM on May 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

This happened to my Dell computer. It has to do with the fan. I contacted Dell and they sent a Dell tech to replace the fan on my laptop and it has been running smoothly ever since. It should be covered by your Dell service contract.
posted by ichimunki at 7:59 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for these responses. The fan abruptly went quiet within minutes of posting this, now I'm not sure what to think. I believe they (org's IT) installed NetSkope on our systems and perhaps that is pushing the system a little harder? I will do some research.
posted by elkevelvet at 8:03 AM on May 2, 2023

I believe they (org's IT) installed NetSkope

Security spyware like this is notorious for stuff like this. It's initiating significant scans and the companies that make the software could care less how much it taxes your system, they aren't incentivized for that.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:26 AM on May 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm sitting here next to my own Dell work laptop, whose fan has been furiously blasting for a good 20 minutes, while the machine does nothing except run Microsoft Teams. I'm not even on a call.

I have Task Manager open, and none of the processes are using any significant resources. It's just a crappy laptop. Many of my colleagues have similar issues with theirs.

...Aaand now the fan has inexplicably fallen silent. This is how it goes.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 10:10 AM on May 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

On my Dell laptop I can right click on the battery icon in the tray and set the energy profile. Sliding it to the left prioritizes energy/battery savings vs performance to the right. Sliding to the left typically reduces fan activity.
posted by LoveHam at 4:29 AM on May 3, 2023