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Just bought an HP 4530s from newegg. Laptop is great, but..

The FAN is always on. I did some googling, found it is a known problem, but no easily googlable solution.

Tried to:

  • Update BIOS to the latest
  • Disable "CPU fan always on when plugged in" BIOS setting
  • Installed Windows 7 Home (came with), Live CDed Ubuntu, Windows XP
  • Spent 2 hours with horrible HP support
  • Some other things that I can't already recall => spent too much time on it

Laptop is not refundable (learned it the hard way, after the fact, by looking at the NEWEGG clever policy that is hidden in "details")

I would really appreciate a workable solution / workaround / hack. The laptop is for my friend who will most likely be running Windows XP/7.

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9
  • This question is likely a better fit for SuperUser...look for it to be migrated soon.
    – GregD
    Sep 30, 2011 at 3:44
  • @GregD. I see. Should I migrate it there, or it will get migrated by someone else?
    – tolitius
    Sep 30, 2011 at 3:59
  • nevermind. I see it here. thanks for migrating the question.
    – tolitius
    Sep 30, 2011 at 4:01
  • You might be a victim of the HP CPU Assassin
    – Sathyajith Bhat ♦
    Sep 30, 2011 at 4:07
  • @Sathya, thanks for the reference, but I just reinstalled to a fresh, HP crapware free Windows XP, and the problem still remains.
    – tolitius
    Sep 30, 2011 at 4:32

3 Answers 3

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If the bios permits external control over the fans, then you could try speedfan

If the bios doesn't permit external control over the fans, then a fixed bios is your only option. If this is a fault, then you can get a replacement/refund regardless of newegg fineprint. Consumer law trumbs small text.

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7
  • I don't think BIOS permits such a thing. And newegg does not recognize this as a defect, but as an expected behavior. Is there anything else that can be done to fix this? Thank you.
    – tolitius
    Sep 30, 2011 at 19:36
  • Did you try speedfan? You won't be able to tell from the bios itself. And it isn't up to newegg to decide what is a defect in an HP machine, that is up to HP. If they say it is the correct behavour, then there is nothing you can do. IF they say it isn't the correct behaviour, then newegg are obliged to accept what HP say.
    – Paul
    Oct 1, 2011 at 3:40
  • speedfan does not see the actual fan. unfortunately. newegg says that it is an expected behavior.
    – tolitius
    Oct 4, 2011 at 22:01
  • I am not sure what the relevency of newegg's position on the fan is, however, if HP have designed this notebook such that the fan is always on, then the answer is no, you cannot stop it spinning and expect the laptop to function optimally. And in all liklihood, you cannot stop the fan spinning in any case.
    – Paul
    Oct 4, 2011 at 22:52
  • HP kind of says it is a problem. If you ever talked to HP support, they just don't really know much. But newegg is where my money for this laptop curently reside, and they say "works as expected". I personally think that there is a way to stop this fan ( acpi settings, BIOS, etc.. ). Just did not find it yet.
    – tolitius
    Oct 4, 2011 at 23:19
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I have heard that HP has deliberately forced the fan to be always on in some of their machines to avoid a hardware bug, which caused the fan to shut off too soon or too long — leading to heat damage.

I don't know if this applies in your case; but if it does, then you are lucky that the fan is on.

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-1

If you are not having any luck with fan speed control even via a software the below might be useful..

I have a 4530s which started showing symptoms of a pulsating fan i.e. fan going to full RPM and back to normal in matter of seconds. After couple of months time frame it continously ran on full RPM and no tool would slow down the fan or stop it. Turns out that one of the fan cable (in my case blue one) had been crushed by the back cover and was possibly in a disconnected state. Fiddling with this cable immedietly slowed down the fan. I believe that over time the cable was continously pressed in its place by a plastic piece in the back cover which eventually caused it to break. I have sort of straightened the cable and placed the cover back and voila all works fine (even with out the HPFanControl). I did also get rid of the offending pieace from the back cover so that it can not damage the cable any more.

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