My computer fan is kicking on high every few minutes, help!

Let me tell you the story of my HP - I had the same issue, it had three fans and eventually the motherboard went. I had three day turnaround extended warranty and contacted HP. They told me to stick up my butt and refused to honor the warranty or event to acknowledge its existence even when it was read to them and faxed to them and even though my Attorney and the State Attorney General contacted them. The AG's Office contacted the AG in CA and the BBB and they all said that they were swamped with complaints on HP warranty service. HP's attitude was tough, sue us if you don't like it, in CA and with limited liability. My computer was ultimately returned after 13 weeks, broken. I didn't bother to send it back, just bought a new one. It was a top of the line zd8000 and cost a fortune. I have been in touch with a class action Attorney who the last time i spoke with him is thinking of a class action suit.

Did you think about trying the extended warranty most credit cards give you when you purchase an item using them?

I would caution in using "Shop" air. As one never knows if the compressor has an Air/Water seperator. The use of hosed air can cause more problems than it solves. I'd stick to using canned air when ever possible.

Don't make the fan go too fast, you can make it inoperable.

I pride myself to be a meticulous housewife! What came out of my computer shamed me to no end!!! It is soooooo quiet now, I had not noticed how noisy even normal operation had become!!!!
Thank you so much!

My fan started going on high speed every few minutes AFTER cleaning the computer with compressed air. Going to try it again today. It was running perfectly until I cleaned it.

Lee's problem; the fan noise was intermittent.
I really don't know much about how fans are constructed these days, but I did notice that some do have ball bearings.

Many years ago I too had the same problem with a fan which turned on
a spindle. Before doing anything, I took off the cover and turned
the PC so that I could observe what happened during operation.
It turned out that the plastic around the spindle had worn, and
this caused the fan to oscillate as in the case of a motor cycle
speed wobble. The fan of course slows rather than speeds up.

I little thin grease on the spindle proved effective, and allowed me
a few days in which to obtain a replacement. Colin

I have had issues with AVG and excessive CPU loads since version 8. I recently installed AVG free 9.5 on my test machine just to see if things had changed, and it went right back to 40-55% CPU load. With that loading your processor fan will absolutely run harder.

I forgot to mention that Microsoft Security Essentials on an XP machine has done the same CPU overloading for me. It seems to work fine on Vista and Windows 7 but I have tried it on several XP machines with the same results.

I had similar results with Lavasoft's Ad-Aware's most recent versions.

What was different about your machine from before the problem started and now? If there are any hardware or software differences, I would start looking there, even if you don't see how it could be related. As far as the shop reinstalling, did they use the original CD or their own? Did they install any different software to "help protect" you?

Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions! My computer is clean as a whistle inside, has plenty of room for air to circulate, the room is always rather cool. I have used Avira Free for about a year. I do believe the tech (and I use that term loosely) saw me coming-LOL! He re-installed from HIS CD but left out the Media Center Edition so I took it back and he re-installed it again (said he bought the CD from HP for $16.00). Anyway, I have thought all along that the problem lies with the BIOS. I have gone into it but it's like Chinese arithmetic (to me). Right now the fan is quiet as a mouse but when I go to another website or topic the fan will immediately kick on high. Forgot to mention it in my original cry for help. But thanks again everyone!

YES! As soon as I clicked on the Preview Message the fan went into high gear. WTH!

HP and many other OEMs use customized power management software to control fan speeds and overall system performance. So assuming your "tech" actually did use a genuine HP recovery set for your system you should have all those tools avaliable to you. Look in your start menu for a HP folder and then look in that for tools like "PC Health" and "Power Settings." The names may be different, but they will be similar at any rate.

Another dead giveaway to whether he used genuine HP Recovery is when you got the system back it should have a start up program to help with setting up Media Center and customizing it for your locale.

You can order the recovery set for your system directly from HP by visiting http://parts.hp.com or calling them at 800-BUY-MYHP.

I work at a thrift store and we do computer repairs and rebuilds on a regular basis. I just repaired a computer the other day with the following problem ... it's worth a check.

Check to make sure the power supply fan is working. While it doesn't cool the CPU directly, it does pull a steady flow of air through the case (usually in at the front, and out the rear). If the PS fan is NOT working, it will cause the CPU fan to work harder, and will eventually cause your PS to fail (which is what happened in my case).

With the computer running, and warmed up (some newer computers are using thermostatically operated PS fans, so they're not always running) ... hold your hand over the rear of the computer ... the PS is usually near the top ... and you should feel a steady flow of air coming out. If you can easily see the rear of your computer tower, you'll be able to see the fan turning.

Also, I don't know if this has been addressed, but go into your Bios (usually by pressing either the F1, F2, F10, or DEL keys repeatedly. There should be a page called "Hardware Monitor" or something similar, and it should have "CPU Temperature". It should read about 25 - 35 degrees C. normally (warmed up) ... if it's reading 50 - 70 degrees, you have a problem, and the CPU should be reseated.

And finally, I know you've just reloaded your operating system, but spyware and trojans can cause excessive CPU usage (you might be picking them up at a specific site you're going to). I use a program called "Malwarebyte's Anti-malware" ... it's a free download and works excellent ... it even works in Windows safe-mode.

Just some possibilities to check.

"Right now the fan is quiet as a mouse but when I go to another website or topic the fan will immediately kick on high. Forgot to mention it in my original cry for help."

The CPU doesn't run at a single temperature but gets hotter the more "work" it has to do. Animated images/graphics use more CPU cycles than a still image does, causing the CPU to heat up. Anything that is "computationally intensive" can have this effect. So the fan comes on. Nothing's broken.

How new is the machine, did it have HP Advisor on it. i would suggest going to http://www.hp.com/#Support and entering your model number or allow the site to auto detect your system and update all of your drivers. If HP Advisor is not a choice I would suggest to search it on the HP site. Allow the sytem to update and tell you what the issue is.

Hi Betsy. I haven't read through all the replies you've had from these good folk, so please forgive me if I cover ground you've already come across. First off. I hope you're not paying this so-called tech guy each time you bring it back to him?

The problem most certainly has to be tied to a process running. You're probably already familiar with startups in msconfig? Th biggest resource hog of any system is usually "media" related, eg. movies, music, images etc. If you're running a Peer to peer to download anything, that'll cause the fan to kick up a gear. If you're running any kind of scan, that will cause it too, but as someone has already probably said, it depends on the processes running in the background. I hope this helps in some way.

Which model of HP is it? Is this a notebook, or a desktop? There are some drivers that are required on some PCs for fan control - that can figure into it. Some desktop model #'s are like a1520n, or m280y, or s5220n - knowing what you have - might explain it a bit.

Mine used to do the same thing, my husband replaced the fan, and after a quiet week, it started doing it again, the Motherboard finally bit the dust, and WaLa I got a new computer!
I had an HP Windows XP now I have Win 7.. its a little different but I do like it.

I use AVG 9 on 6 machines and have installed it on 20 others for others. I have seen your problem on one installation in version 8 which was solved by removal and reinstallation. I have seen the problem with Zone Alarm too; also about 2 versions back. That is when I switched to AVG and no problems since.

Yes, I have AVG in my Dell desktop with Vista, and it is very quiet. But I had an emachines with XP Home, before this one, that also had AVG and the fan ran continuously and was very annoying! I complained about it to Microsoft and various companies and they didn't have a clue what could be the problem! So I doubt very much if your problem was from using AVG! But if if using Avast works for you - than you made the right choice! I just didn't want AVG to get blamed for this therefore, giving them a bad name!