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PortalBen · 14th Dec 2012, 13:04

Hi. I have an Acer Aspire V3-571G that was bought at the end of June and worked perfectly up until about six weeks ago. The fans never spin at a high speed anymore, even when the laptop is very warm, and over the last fortnight the laptop has had five or six BSODs.

Is there any way to get the fans spinning at the right speed again? I'm pretty desperate to fix this so that I can comfortably play games again, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks,

Ben

aramil · 14th Dec 2012, 13:14

Where do you use it? In bed or on your sofa arm? Or on a desk? Might just be bunged up with fluff and dust.

I have seen laptops etc with clogged fans.

If not could just be a faulty fan. Is it under warranty?

You could try speedfan (software) to see what the fans are running at.

Sent on my CM10 JB powered i9100 by TapaTalk 2

Pod · 14th Dec 2012, 16:39

If it's under warranty have it looked at, and if not it's time to break out the little screwdriver and take a peek inside.

Do you know what the bsods have been referring to? This might help pinpoint whether it's a cooling problem or something else.

PortalBen · 14th Dec 2012, 17:27

Yeah it's been put on the bed a lot recently, that's probably why. Is there an effective way to unclog the fan without dismantling the laptop? It's still in warranty.

Thanks for the help!

adampski · 14th Dec 2012, 18:42

All depends on the structure of the case; as to where the heat sink is. If you really aren't comfortable on taking off the bottom parts of the case then you could get a canister of compressed air, blow it into the vents but obviously the dust will go else where in the laptop.

... I was just trying to find videos or guides on how-to disassemble your laptop, however there doesn't seem to be one of your particular model. It really is simple, but won't recommend you do it because most warranties void if disassemble yourself. Just give it in for warranty repair, probably time consuming but if we're wrong with dust build up then atleast they'll fix it = hassle free on your side.

I wouldn't put it on your bed any more though, unless you get a laptop stand/tray to put it on whilst on the duvet. Preferably one with fans.

Shirty · 15th Dec 2012, 09:05

One quick thing to add though, not all laptops are warranty sealed (with security stickers, for example), so it is often possible to remove part or all of the back panel to clean any fluff or dust out without voiding anything. Just make sure you use the right sized screwdriver so you don't butcher the screws.

That said if you're not confident doing this and can live without it for some time then just get it warranty repaired. Make sure you back up first

mrbungle · 15th Dec 2012, 18:33

If it was blocked with dust ud likely find that the fans would rev up more..

However if you are sure its overheating you really need to take it to bits.

PortalBen · 15th Dec 2012, 20:33

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated! I'll check whether what I need to do will void the warranty and if not then I'll dismantle it when I have access to my tools again on Monday. Hopefully just a dust issue!

Thanks again

PortalBen · 17th Dec 2012, 21:33

Well I took it apart today to clean it, it was easy enough but I couldn't see much (if any) dust. I've put it all back together but the fan still isn't spinning up properly when the laptop is getting hot. As such my fps in L4D (not a hard game to run) is terrible and nowhere near as high as it used to be. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Elledan · 17th Dec 2012, 21:44

If you install a measuring app like Speedfan, what kind of temperatures etc. are you seeing?

Sutters · 18th Dec 2012, 13:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by PortalBen

Well I took it apart today to clean it, it was easy enough but I couldn't see much (if any) dust. I've put it all back together but the fan still isn't spinning up properly when the laptop is getting hot. As such my fps in L4D (not a hard game to run) is terrible and nowhere near as high as it used to be. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Sounds like it could be a GPU issue.
I would try to ascertain the temparature of the graphics card when idle and gaming.

It could be perhaps throttling it due to a high temp...

rici1241 · 18th Dec 2012, 13:53

What CPU and GPU have you. Speedfan gives me idle temps of 40 for both the CPU and GPU. I can test load temperature if you want, so we can compare.

PortalBen · 18th Dec 2012, 23:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sutters

Sounds like it could be a GPU issue.
I would try to ascertain the temparature of the graphics card when idle and gaming.

It could be perhaps throttling it due to a high temp...

My GPU had an average temperature of around 90 in game, while my CPU averaged a bit above 60 (as measured by speedfan). At idle my CPU is ~ 37 and my GPU is ~60.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rici1241

What CPU and GPU have you. Speedfan gives me idle temps of 40 for both the CPU and GPU. I can test load temperature is you want, so we can compare.

Hi, my CPU is the i5 2310M and my GPU is the GT 630M.

Thank you all for your time in replying to this post, it's much appreciated

Ben

rici1241 · 19th Dec 2012, 04:47

60 degrees is way too high for idle. It really sounds like a faulty fan. The only other thing it could be is bad thermal compound on the GPU. I think you should RMA it, or maybe change the thermal compound your self.

wolfticket · 19th Dec 2012, 13:36

I'd RMA it.

If there's an underlying problem taking it apart and cleaning it could give the impression of helping without actually solving the problem.
Also, even if the warranty isn't voided by opening it up, mass produced laptops can be awkward to service and damaging it levering sticky access panel off or something probably would.

If it's still under warranty I'd take advantage of that.

kenco_uk · 19th Dec 2012, 14:20

Is there a bios update available? If so, they may have considered fixing when/how long/how fast the fan comes on. It wouldn't be the first time.

It could be worth taking apart, it depends how accessible the heatsinks are as from the sounds of it, they could do with re-timming.

PortalBen · 19th Dec 2012, 16:08

Hi again. This morning after light use for an hour the GPU was at about 50. Then from about 30 mins of Minecraft it was back at 90! I switched to just using my integrated graphics for Minecraft but it's still hovering between 60 and 70 degrees.

I'm not sure how to go about an RMA as I received this laptop through an insurance company after my last one was stolen. I'll try and find a BIOS update but I'm not too hopeful because when I first got the laptop it ran everything excellently.

Ben

Pointy · 20th Dec 2012, 07:50

I did an older Acer laptop for a customer a while back, he was having slow downs during gaming, L4D2 would drop to 8fps on occasions.

The laptop itself looked clean but after a strip down, the inside of the heatsink was about 30% blocked, this was not apparent until you took the whole fan assembly apart. The fan itself didn't seem to be any louder than normal.

As a general rule laptops usually suck in air from the bottom and exhaust it out of the rear or side. If you can't feel a good draft coming out the exhaust while the fan is running then it is probably blocked.

If it's not too badly blocked, a can or air can blast out the dust if you spray it from the exhaust towards the fan. Be warned that sometimes you can dislodge a big ball of fluff that may even stop the fan from spinning.

Regards,

Les

Andersen · 20th Dec 2012, 08:07

Yup. Dug out a felt-like mat of gunk from missus' laptop couple months ago. Being a HP craptop it was, politely said, very difficult to take apart (read: disassemble completely) and gain access to heatsink.

PortalBen · 20th Dec 2012, 15:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pointy

I did an older Acer laptop for a customer a while back, he was having slow downs during gaming, L4D2 would drop to 8fps on occasions.

The laptop itself looked clean but after a strip down, the inside of the heatsink was about 30% blocked, this was not apparent until you took the whole fan assembly apart. The fan itself didn't seem to be any louder than normal.

As a general rule laptops usually suck in air from the bottom and exhaust it out of the rear or side. If you can't feel a good draft coming out the exhaust while the fan is running then it is probably blocked.

If it's not too badly blocked, a can or air can blast out the dust if you spray it from the exhaust towards the fan. Be warned that sometimes you can dislodge a big ball of fluff that may even stop the fan from spinning.

Regards,

Les

I suspect this is the case as there is much less of a draft than there used to be. I'll try and get a can of compressed air and give that a go because it seems to be a pain to fully take apart.
Thanks for the advice!

Ben

14th Dec 2012, 13:04	#1
PortalBen Multimodder Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Posts: 151	Help! Laptop fans playing up/laptop overheating Hi. I have an Acer Aspire V3-571G that was bought at the end of June and worked perfectly up until about six weeks ago. The fans never spin at a high speed anymore, even when the laptop is very warm, and over the last fortnight the laptop has had five or six BSODs. Is there any way to get the fans spinning at the right speed again? I'm pretty desperate to fix this so that I can comfortably play games again, so any help would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks, Ben

14th Dec 2012, 13:14	#2
aramil Duct Tape Saves...... Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Worcester, UK Posts: 429	Where do you use it? In bed or on your sofa arm? Or on a desk? Might just be bunged up with fluff and dust. I have seen laptops etc with clogged fans. If not could just be a faulty fan. Is it under warranty? You could try speedfan (software) to see what the fans are running at. Sent on my CM10 JB powered i9100 by TapaTalk 2 __________________ System: Intel i5 3570K delidded CLU @ 4.6Ghz \| Asus Stabertooth Z77 (1708) \| Asus GTX560-TI Direct cuII \| OCZ Agility 3 120Gb \| Samsung 1Tb F2 \| WD 500Gb \| Corsair 750TX v2 \| 8Gb (2x4) Corsair Vengence \| XSPC-Raystorm-750-RS2400 (2 X Akasa viper) \| Casecom 5288 \| Samsung LS24B300HL / LE32R74 / LE46C750 \| Windows 8 Pro 64bit \| Audio: Linn Classik & Keilidh Speakers

15th Dec 2012, 18:33	#7
mrbungle Undercooked chicken giver Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: UK-Wolverhampton Posts: 3,063	If it was blocked with dust ud likely find that the fans would rev up more.. However if you are sure its overheating you really need to take it to bits. __________________ One//i5 3570K 4.5Ghz//Z68X-UD4-B3//8gb DDR3//EVGA 670 F.T.W.//HX850W//CM690ii//2x128 V200 SSD//Xonar DG// Two//i5 3570K 4.3Ghz//Z68P-DS3//8gb DDR3//MSI 7870//TX750W//Akasa Mirage//128 Vertex+ SSD//Xonar DG//

17th Dec 2012, 21:44	#10
Elledan Hypermodder Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Almere, Netherlands Posts: 830	If you install a measuring app like Speedfan, what kind of temperatures etc. are you seeing? __________________ "Psychology is just meta-hacking an OS that was randomly bashed out by a million monkeys on typewriters over a few billion years and runs on constantly changing, badly shielded hardware with a lot of legacy design issues. I think." - Nexxo www.mayaposch.com - my site and blog. www.nyanko.ws - my company's site.

18th Dec 2012, 13:53	#12
rici1241 Supermodder Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Limerick, Ireland Posts: 419	What CPU and GPU have you. Speedfan gives me idle temps of 40 for both the CPU and GPU. I can test load temperature if you want, so we can compare. __________________ Acer Aspire V3-571g \| i3 2370m \| Gt630m \| 6GB RAM \| 500GB HDD \| Windows 8 pro Last edited by rici1241; 19th Dec 2012 at 04:41.

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14th Dec 2012, 16:39	#3
Pod What's a Dremel? Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Southampton Posts: 7	If it's under warranty have it looked at, and if not it's time to break out the little screwdriver and take a peek inside. Do you know what the bsods have been referring to? This might help pinpoint whether it's a cooling problem or something else.

14th Dec 2012, 17:27	#4
PortalBen Multimodder Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Posts: 151	Yeah it's been put on the bed a lot recently, that's probably why. Is there an effective way to unclog the fan without dismantling the laptop? It's still in warranty. Thanks for the help!

14th Dec 2012, 18:42	#5
adampski What's a Dremel? Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Portsmouth Posts: 6	All depends on the structure of the case; as to where the heat sink is. If you really aren't comfortable on taking off the bottom parts of the case then you could get a canister of compressed air, blow it into the vents but obviously the dust will go else where in the laptop. ... I was just trying to find videos or guides on how-to disassemble your laptop, however there doesn't seem to be one of your particular model. It really is simple, but won't recommend you do it because most warranties void if disassemble yourself. Just give it in for warranty repair, probably time consuming but if we're wrong with dust build up then atleast they'll fix it = hassle free on your side. I wouldn't put it on your bed any more though, unless you get a laptop stand/tray to put it on whilst on the duvet. Preferably one with fans.

15th Dec 2012, 20:33	#8
PortalBen Multimodder Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Posts: 151	Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated! I'll check whether what I need to do will void the warranty and if not then I'll dismantle it when I have access to my tools again on Monday. Hopefully just a dust issue! Thanks again

17th Dec 2012, 21:33	#9
PortalBen Multimodder Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Posts: 151	Well I took it apart today to clean it, it was easy enough but I couldn't see much (if any) dust. I've put it all back together but the fan still isn't spinning up properly when the laptop is getting hot. As such my fps in L4D (not a hard game to run) is terrible and nowhere near as high as it used to be. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

19th Dec 2012, 04:47	#14
rici1241 Supermodder Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Limerick, Ireland Posts: 419	60 degrees is way too high for idle. It really sounds like a faulty fan. The only other thing it could be is bad thermal compound on the GPU. I think you should RMA it, or maybe change the thermal compound your self. __________________ Acer Aspire V3-571g \| i3 2370m \| Gt630m \| 6GB RAM \| 500GB HDD \| Windows 8 pro

19th Dec 2012, 13:36	#15
wolfticket Downwind from the bloodhounds Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Devon, England Posts: 1,160	I'd RMA it. If there's an underlying problem taking it apart and cleaning it could give the impression of helping without actually solving the problem. Also, even if the warranty isn't voided by opening it up, mass produced laptops can be awkward to service and damaging it levering sticky access panel off or something probably would. If it's still under warranty I'd take advantage of that. __________________ Wolfticket: Ambitious but rubbish "A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought." Dorothy L. Sayers (1893 - 1957)

19th Dec 2012, 14:20	#16
kenco_uk I unsuccessfully then tried again Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Bourne, Lincolnshire, UK Posts: 9,112	Is there a bios update available? If so, they may have considered fixing when/how long/how fast the fan comes on. It wouldn't be the first time. It could be worth taking apart, it depends how accessible the heatsinks are as from the sounds of it, they could do with re-timming. __________________ Mac:Macbook Pro 7,1 w/Samsung 830 256GB, ML xbmc:Windows 8 x64, Fractal Design Node 304, MSI Z77IA-E53, G2120 fanless, 2x2GB, 3TB, Samsung 830 256GB dazzypops:Win8Prox64, i5-2500k@4.3, MSI Z77A-GD65, 8GB, 4TB, Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, 2 x MSI GTX660 (+110core, +535mem), LG IPS 24", Z5400 5.1

19th Dec 2012, 16:08	#17
PortalBen Multimodder Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Posts: 151	Hi again. This morning after light use for an hour the GPU was at about 50. Then from about 30 mins of Minecraft it was back at 90! I switched to just using my integrated graphics for Minecraft but it's still hovering between 60 and 70 degrees. I'm not sure how to go about an RMA as I received this laptop through an insurance company after my last one was stolen. I'll try and find a BIOS update but I'm not too hopeful because when I first got the laptop it ran everything excellently. Ben

20th Dec 2012, 07:50	#18
Pointy Minimodder Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Sussex, UK Posts: 44	I did an older Acer laptop for a customer a while back, he was having slow downs during gaming, L4D2 would drop to 8fps on occasions. The laptop itself looked clean but after a strip down, the inside of the heatsink was about 30% blocked, this was not apparent until you took the whole fan assembly apart. The fan itself didn't seem to be any louder than normal. As a general rule laptops usually suck in air from the bottom and exhaust it out of the rear or side. If you can't feel a good draft coming out the exhaust while the fan is running then it is probably blocked. If it's not too badly blocked, a can or air can blast out the dust if you spray it from the exhaust towards the fan. Be warned that sometimes you can dislodge a big ball of fluff that may even stop the fan from spinning. Regards, Les

20th Dec 2012, 08:07	#19
Andersen Umpteen to the elfteeth Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Pub around the corner Posts: 669	Yup. Dug out a felt-like mat of gunk from missus' laptop couple months ago. Being a HP craptop it was, politely said, very difficult to take apart (read: disassemble completely) and gain access to heatsink. __________________ Too weird to live, and too rare to die \| Help me get more space at Dropbox \| Hardcore gamer and proud of it Main: i7 3770 \| Asus P8Z77-V LX\| ENGTX560 Ti DCII TOP \| 16GB \| 7 Professional 64bit \| 24"+24" \| Crucial M4 256GB \| 1,2TB HTPC/VMhost: Q6600 G0 \| Asus P5N-D \| HD4350 Silent \| 8GB \| Windows Server 2008 R2 \| 3TB RAID5 (two identical boxes) Samsung SF510 \| Archos 101 8GB \| HTC Wildfire S Black \| Oh man. My iPod Touch got wet in ra1n. \| 100/50Mbps VDSL2