Should My Laptop Fan be on all the time?

[m_pav]

I’ll give tip-ui a go too.

The package to install is TLP-UI. Capitalised to emphasise the differences between the L and the I

[GlennB]

Thanks for the clarification, however I can't locate the mentioned TLP-UI package in Synaptic.
I see a package called TLP but that appears to be for battery management, and its already installed.
I tried a Live Distro - Xubuntu, but that didn't make any difference to the FAN.
The fan does seem to be temperature controlled as when the Laptop is booted from cold its off for a couple of mins and then it goes to permanently on.
I tries the stress test for about 5 mins and the CPU temp went from about 46 to 52, and quickly went back down after i finished the test.
Not sure what a "normal" CPU temp should be when idle?
Thanks for all your help with this.

[jeffreyC]

For TLPUI look in the test repo.

[JayM]

Don't use Synaptic, use MX Package Installer and explore its tabs.

[m_pav]

Please remember the most important thing I recommended to do was to ensure the cooling system was clear. On a scale of 1-10 for a working laptops hardware, with 10 being the most important, unobstructed airways and cooling is one the very few things that reside at position # 10

There is a quick and dirty way to clean the fan if you're not able to open the chassis, that is to clean all the plastic around the exhaust vents, and with the laptop turned off, as much as is possible, wrap your lips around the fins and give a single quick blast. If there's loose dust in there, it probably wont be nice for you, but it should dislodge enough to make the particles pass through the fins and out the exhaust when the fan next stats up.

I actually did that in front of a customer who was adamant a clean was not required. It was truly disgusting and we both witnessed dust coming out from under his keyboard as I gave it a huff. More dust came out after I restarted the machine and true to form, it ran cooler. Needless to say, I ended up giving the laptop a thorough professional strip-down and de-dust.

Another way is if there is an air intake grille under the laptop and you can see the fan blades through he grille, pin the blades so they can't move with a straightened out paper clip bent just enough so as not to invoke damage, then use a vacuum cleaner to draw air through grille so as to cause a reverse airflow. This will draw out much debris from the cooling fins and when you're done with the reverse draft, try to draw air back through the exhaust in case any debris was lodged in the fan.

These are crude, but effective methods of performing a non-invasive light to medium de-dust of a laptops cooling system. Just be sure to carefully inspect the fan blades prior to turning the machine on again, to ensure there is no loose bits of debris.

As I said, the D1 (and in fact, all HP laptops of that era) are known for running considerably warmer than other brands, so you need to be vigilant to ensure the cooling systems are running optimally.

[Stevo]

Many laptops won't show fan speeds in Linux, in my experience.

If the cooling system is clogged, the fan may have to run constantly to get any trickle of air through it...or the processor may also need repasting, or a better thermal paste. Of course, some laptops are a lot easier to service than others.

[JayM]

My laptops' fans always run all the time, but I live in the tropics where it rarely gets below the mid-70s F and is usually in 80s so I just never worried about it. I do closely monitor my CPU temperature though, and I always use a laptop cooling pad underneath just to provide some additional cooling. The one I have now has a single 200mm fan and a mesh top. It doesn't run very fast but it doesn't need to with that big of a fan. It drops the temps by 3-plus degrees vs. without it.

[GlennB]

Thanks for all the advice you guys give.
I’m comforted that some of you also experience an always on fan, having just spent money to “re-use” the old laptop by installing a modern SSD and upgrading the RAM I was hoping to get more life out of the battery if it didn’t have to spin the HDD anymore. Oh well some progress I guess.
@m_pav: thanks; I forgot to say on my last post that I did dismantle the laptop, not fully, but enough to examine the fan. It had some dust attached to the vains, if that is the right terminology and I cleanEd with vacuum and big puff. I don’t think it was clogged much. I also checked the inlet areas which were clear of muck.
I tried to reinstall Windows and now I know why I changed to Linux. I wanted to see if the fan was all ways on with Windows as I don’t recall it was, well after spending hours creating boot media and reinstalling I completely forgot to check! I think it was the frustration of the OS made me quickly reinstall MX.
I will take another look at the test repo for the above mentioned app and experiment.
Thanks again Guys.