Now as your computer controls the fan speed automatically – is it really a good idea to interfere with its automatic settings. Well, yes and no. There are different circumstances where it is beneficial and others where it’s not really advisable.
Firstly, a decision based on whether to control your fan speed manually (or more accurately semi-manually) should be made for technical reasons, by a technically experienced person. Not just because it seem ‘fun’ because that can cause problems, as can not knowing what you are doing.
The (shockingly) primary reason that people have given on the Internet for wanting to control fan speed is that they want to ‘cool down the laptop so it doesn’t burn their legs’. We cannot emphasise enough just how shockingly unadvisable this is! The fans are there to keep your computer working, not your legs cool! If the laptop is to warm for your legs, place another surface inbetween you and your laptop (like a tray) or put it back on a table!! Fan control should only be ever used for the benefit of your computer, not your own personal body temperature!
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, the technical reason for controlling your fan speed is usually because the operating system fan speed control is failing to work or one or more of your computers temperature sensors has broken – both of these issues can cause the computer to set an incorrect fan speed and therefore overheat.
It must be advised that it is highly unlikely that your computer will suffer damage due to overheating, even if you don’t control the system fan speed and the system is also failing to adequately control the systems fan speed. All modern computers are set to ‘cut-out’ once the temperature of your system reaches a ‘critical’ level. It does this to ensure that the computers hardware is not damaged due to overheating. If this is the case, switching the computer straight back on, without leaving it to cool down will likely result in another ‘cut out’ shortly after turning the machine back on.
Firstly, its advisable to know your stats regarding the temperatures of the different parts of your system. iStatPro is a really good utility / widget for this for users of Mac OS X. There are also other similar free tools available for Windows based users. Now iStatPro has many interesting and useful statistics – but for our purposes at the moment, we’re most interested in the temperature stats.
Now, the optimum and allowable temperatures are different for each system / laptop – to find out information for your particular system and laptop, you can Google for information specific to your system / laptop or consult the manual that came with it.
Malfunctioning sensors can lead to poor fan control and ultimately lots of crashes and cut outs.
It’s important to pick a reputable tool when choosing programs to control fan speed as there is the possibility that poorly written programs can lead to the problem getting worse or damage being done to your system. Try the tools above or if you try other tools, ensure you read reviews about it and take advice from people.
Of course, if this is a little scary and you’d prefer a less technical option (or need an additional option as the solutions above aren’t completely solving the problem when used alone) then you can always try laptop cooling mats/pads/stands which are available from many online stores and most computer shops. And of course there is the old completely non technical solution of pointing a desktop fan at a high speed in the direction of your laptop – which although inconvenient can be highly effective!
Image: aresauburn.
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>> And of course there is the old completely non technical solution of pointing a desktop fan at a high speed in the direction of your laptop – which although inconvenient can be highly effective!
OR you could get a better laptop.
;-)
Every laptop currently in existence could suffer from this problem!! ;).