Eliminating fan noise on a DV8000

[Edward_Lawrence]

I have a DV8000. It makes a huge amount of fan noise. I don't mean that the fan is broken - I've read tips on checking for that. I mean that the fan is always on at high speed. When I first got it, the fan would come on only occasionally. I set as many settings as possible to avoid the fan, choosing slower performance and battery efficiency over higher performance. And for the first year, that worked: the fan stayed off almost all the time, unless I was running something really CPU intensive.

But now the fan comes on regardless of settings I choose to keep it off. When I first boot, after the computer has been off for a while, the fan is off. But within a few minutes, the fan comes on and stays on. My house is not hot. The computer is in a cool location. The CPU utilization is low. The vents are not blocked. Everything would suggest that the fan should not need to come on. But it does...

Please help if you have any tips.

[Vaika]

I'd say that is fairly normal, however irritating the noise can be. With notebooks, everything is packed so tightly together that even when your house is not hot and even when the vents are free, there is a large amount of heat generated.

If you do not already have one, I would suggest getting a high-quality cooling pad to keep a constant air flow near the vents.

One thing that I like to do is feel near the vents periodically to see if my notebook is heating up-- if it is, I station a fan near it to get the hot air away from it and to assist with cooling.

[RonKe]

Vaika,

Do you know if the cooling pad will work with a notebook sitting in the HP Expansion Base xb3000 (docking station)?  There is not much room between the slanted platform the notebook sits on and the "curved base lip" at the bottom of the Expansion Base.

Photo of Expansion Base xb3000:  http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?product=1845158&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&cc=us

Message Edited by RonKe on 11-17-2008 02:44 PM

[Edward_Lawrence]

I don't think it's normal. For example, when I properly tuned my previous laptop, a Dv1000, I didn't have this problem. And my current laptop, this DV8000, didn't have this problem for the first year or 18 months. I also have a Compaq 6510b which doesn't have the fan turned on such a high percentage of that time. Again, I think it's normal for the CPU fan to turn on during periods of high CPU utilization. But if I set up the settings to prefer quiet operation over high performance, I expect the fan to stay off unless I am doing something CPU intensive.

[RonKe]

The fan is most likely set on High by the BIOS because of the NVIDIA GPU problems many people are having from comps running too hot and casing failures.

[AnthonyMormino]

Potential solution:  I bought my HP DV8300CTO in July 2006.  The fan was absolutely fine until about a year ago.  It became very noisy even when the computer was seemingly idle.  Previously I had a Sony notebook computer where the fan went bad as tines broke off.  I assumed I had the same problem with HP.  At the same time the fan problem appeared, I notice I was getting less and less time off my fully-charged battery.  Additionally, the AC power adapter started getting very hot. 

I read a posting on another site that explained when a battery starts going bad, it draws large amounts of power to compensate.  The power draw can cause the AC adapter to heat up.  I assume the failing battery's increased power draw can also cause the computer to heat up.  I ran the HP Battery Check, which told me my battery was bad and needed replacement.

I replaced the battery (http://intelligentbatteries.com/) and voila, the fan quieted down significantly, back to whisper silent as when I bought the computer, and the AC power adapter is now cool to warm, no longer hot.

[Edward_Lawrence]

This is really interesting. I do know that my battery is at the end of its life. I can't run on battery for more than about 15 minutes. And it does fail the battery check. Does anyone know if it is feasible to just take the battery out? At this point, my computer is always plugged in. If removing the battery, and using the computer without the battery caused it to run quieter (and consume less power), that would be awesome. If I do get the battery replaced (cheapest I found was $80), I'll let everyone know if that solved the problem.

[RonKe]

Edward,

What is your specific Product Name (p/n) and Model Number?  The Dv8000 appears to be just the Product Name, which is not specific enough for downloads/updates, etc. 

Look at this link:

Differences between Product Name, Product Number and Model Number

If your machine's fan was quiet at first and then you performed a BIOS flash, then the increase in the fan's engagement is most likely because of the algorithm in the BIOS flash. If not that then dust, possible GPU issues, etc. 

You can check all of the available BIOS versions for your specific P/N and/or Model Number by entering that info within the Software & Drives download page accessed by clicking on that phrase at the very top of this HP page in the Menu.

Inform us regarding your attempts at using the notebook on the AC adapter w/o having the DC battery installed.  That should work okay.

See my signature for an example of the P/N and Model/Series Number.

[Edward_Lawrence]

According to the label on the display, it is a "HP Pavilion dv8000". According to the label on the bottom, the product is "hp pavilion dv8000". According to the same label on the bottom, the part number is "ex177av". It was a customized to order (CTO) model, although I don't see that aspect of the model name anywhere on it. It has a dual core Intel T2500 CPU, with a maximum speed of 2.0 Ghz. (it's currently running at around 500 mhz.) It has 2GB of RAM, and an 80 GB 7200 RPM drive. It had two drives, but I took one out to see if that would help with the fan noise. I tried it without the battery installed, and that did not seem to make a difference. It still ran at about the same volume.

[killaprofile]

high cpu load and voltage affect the overall temperature

the best software out on the web is Right Mark CPU utilizer.

With this software you are able to drop the cpu voltage and increase performance.

This definitely decrease the temperature and decreases the fan noise.

There is no back-draw to this software and its completely safe because

i've used it for about two months during college.