I have:
- Windows Vista Home 32-Bit SP1
- Intel Celeron CPU 3.06 GHz
- 2 GB RAM
I installed the operating system about a year ago, has been working fine.
However about 3 months ago, the CPU fan has started to intermittently race at a high-pitched tone, especially during or after viewing Youtube videos, or being on a web site with Flash, or running a virtual machine. Also Thunderbird and Tweetdeck seem to kick the fan into high-speed mode as well.
However, sometimes I can run these applications with no CPU-fan racing, it seems to vary.
Vacuuming the fan to clear all the dust actually improves the situation but it seems it is just getting worse and even after a vacuum and a reboot, it isn't but 10 minutes of computer use that the fan starts screaming again:
Just as an example, I started a youtube video and a virtual machine at the same time, but the fan remained quiet:
However, after this, I started Thunderbird and the fan started racing again:
It is not a 1-to-1 cause-and-effect, it just starts racing about every 10 minutes. It never used to do this.
What can I do to improve this situation other than a full reinstall of the operating system?
- get 4 GB of RAM?
- install windows 7?
- new video card?
- is there some way I can monitor my CPU fan with software?
Anyone have experience with this?