Laptop overheating?

timestar

I have a newish laptop that seems fine, except that every 5 minutes or so an internal fan suddenly kicks in for about 15 seconds. I know that laptops need to cool themselves but surely this is excessive no? Not sure if it makes any difference but: a) I always use with the battery out as I only use it at home, b) it sits on a table about 12 inches from a radiator (don't think it's the radiator as fan kicks in like this when heating is off).

Thanks!

malamute

Not excessive as a matter of fact every 5 mins for 15 secs is great.
The cpu fan responds to the heat of the cpu if you are using the laptop on cpu hungry applications or running multiple applications expect it to run more often.
There is free software on the internet that can provide you with a whole load of information and also the ability to alter the way the fan behaves but as i have said all is ok.

bonzer

Yeah sounds fine. Mine runs all the time pretty much.

Some laptops also have a graphics card fan (or only a graphics card fan). So how long it runs for may also relate to if you are playing 3D games.

I wouldn't try and reduce how often it switches on as you may shorten the life of components if you don't know what you're doing.