My computer is LOUD!!

[Guest]

I know this is the XP community, but Dell doesn't help at all.

Anyway, I have a Dell Gen 3 XPS with 2 GB of RAM and a 3.59 GHz processor.
When I play the video Game Oblivion, my computer gets REALLY loud and half
the time it doesn't "calm down" when I'm done playing unless I restart the
computer. I know this game is very graphically intense and pushes just about
any system to it's limits, so I know this is the problem. I wish I knew more
about computers, but I don't, so I can't say what it is that is so loud; my
guess is that the coolling unit isn't good enough? I don't know.

Any suggestions for how I can get the thing to slow down after I'm done
playing?

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

The "loudness" is from the fans in the system, responding to a build-up of
heat. When you finish playing your game, it takes time for the heat to
dissipate. Then the fans should return to a slow, quiet state. If plenty of
time goes by and the fans don't return to a quiet state, then you have a
hardware/BIOS problem that Dell needs to fix (it's not something that's
controlled by Windows.)

 

[·]

I know this is the XP community, but Dell doesn't help at all.

Anyway, I have a Dell Gen 3 XPS with 2 GB of RAM and a 3.59 GHz
processor. When I play the video Game Oblivion, my computer gets
REALLY loud and half the time it doesn't "calm down" when I'm done
playing unless I restart the computer. I know this game is very
graphically intense and pushes just about any system to it's limits,
so I know this is the problem. I wish I knew more about computers,
but I don't, so I can't say what it is that is so loud; my guess is
that the coolling unit isn't good enough? I don't know.

Any suggestions for how I can get the thing to slow down after I'm
done playing?

More than anything, no doubt, the noise comes from your graphics card
fan. The CPU fan probably gets a bit louder, but if you have a
powerful, late-model graphics card, it probably sounds like a Boeing 747
at takeoff with the fan going full-speed.

I use RivaTuner to control fan speeds:

http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

I won't say what percent I run my graphics card fan at, but it's a great
deal lower than the manufacturer's ridiculous fan speed of 53%, and it's
a whole lot quieter, too. I've been running it this way for a very long
time now, and it works fine for me, even in the middle of 3D games.

Be careful, experiment slowly, watch the temps, yada yada.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, both of you. I'll contact Dell about the BIOS and check out that
website.

Thanks again!!
Shaun