Computer Fan Too Loud? Fix It By Cleaning Out the Dust & Dirt

eddie — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:07:44 +0000

We have many, many computers in the On Everything household, and I recently set them all up to run Seti@Home and Einstein@Home using Berkeley’s Boinc software. Most of them are just sitting idle most of the time, so why not do something useful with them, right?

The software installed & ran splendidly on most of the computers, but one was giving me a bit of trouble – when running the software on a Dell Dimension e520, the fan would kick up & run constantly, and it was loud as hell.

At first, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me – none of the other computers I was using had the same problem, and one of them had a nearly identical configuration.

I tweaked BIOS settings, monitored the machine using Speedfan, and even opened the thing up to investigate the matter. It was only then that I discovered the (obvious, in retrospect) problem:

That’s right – I have about half a dozen of Dell computers with this exact body style, and it never occurred to me that this is where the CPU’s cooling fan draws its air. Talk about feeling like a dummy.(!)

The air intake was caked so full of dust & debris that the CPU fan was taking in very little, if any, cooling air at all.

I cleaned out about a quarter inch of solidified dust and guess what? The problem went away.

If you are having a problem with a loud computer fan, particularly when doing processor-intensive tasks, check your air intake & make sure it’s clear. If you don’t have a Dell, your air intake may be located in another position. Look for big piles of dust on your computer case & clean them out.

Your computer will be much happier, much quieter, and will live a longer, healthier life.

Getting My Dell’s Wireless Card to Work With Windows Vista

eddie — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:16:27 +0000

My status as a business owner scored me a free copy of Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition. Because of all of the terrible things I’ve heard about Vista, I’ve kept it sitting on a shelf – until today. My morning was free, so I thought I’d install Vista on a Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop that recently became useless, owe to the fact that the latest Ubuntu release broke my wireless. (But that’s another story…)

The Vista install was fairly painless. The only problem I had was that Vista (like the new Ubuntu) was unable to use my wireless card. When I asked Windows Vista to “Diagnose” the problem for me, it suggested that I:

“Turn on wireless capability”

Gee, thanks, Vista. If I knew how to do that, I wouldn’t have asked!

Fortunately, I was able to discover the solution. Now, the way that the Dell 5150 is *supposed* to work is that hitting “fn-F2″ is supposed to turn the wireless card on and off. Unfortunately for me, however, fn-F2 does absolutely nothing for me.

To remedy the problem, I made a simple change in the BIOS. First, I rebooted the computer, then hit “F2″ to get into the BIOS. Once inside, I navigated to the page that contained my onboard wireless card’s settings, and changed the mode to “Application” controlled.

After restarting the computer, Vista was able to find my wireless card, and everything is now running smoothly.

Eddie On Everything » dell inspiron

Computer Fan Too Loud? Fix It By Cleaning Out the Dust & Dirt

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