BleepingComputer.com: Fan Running All the Time

I have an HP Media Center m7170n.

The cooling fan won't stop running. It does not seem excessively hot. Do I need to replace the fan or some sensor? What if I just cut the power to the fan. Will it really burn up?

""Will it really burn up??""

Very possible - cutting power to any of your bits and pieces would not be recommended.

You could try a program like SIW which will give you info on temps under Hardware/Sensors -

http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html

Let us know what you find.

Cheers.

BTW. The inside of your case should be cleaned out at least once a year to remove all the dust which can really clog things up and cause problems - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/cleaning-the-inside-of-your-pc/

This post has been edited by rowal5555: 12 December 2008 - 05:16 PM

Thanks, I am taking the easy way out. Until I can get a new fan, I set it outside in below zero weather. Well, I at least gave that a thought. Thanks for responding to my query.

LOL

Before you do anything, you really need to know what temps you are dealing with with. Otherwise you may be just wasting time and money as things may be completely normal. A cleanout is always a good idea though.

Cheers

The fan is just "dumb" It will run at any speed it is told to , usually by a sensor, With settings determined in the BIOS in most cases
It would be best to clean the heatsink as rowal5555 suggested

Quote

Snow + Ice + Electricity = Dead computer