Fan stays on in suspend, why?

[Dave Niemeyer]

I got my computer to go to suspend automatically and manually just fine
except for one thing: the fans stay on, all of them, and it wakes up by
merely hitting any key on the keyboard. I'd like my fans to go off, don't
see it anywhere in the BIOS set up, have updated BIOS and have all WinXP
updated. This same machine just a few weeks ago had win2k and went to
suspend just fine, fans off and had to wake up with power button. I believe
right now after checking I have the BIOS set to go to S3 for suspend or
whatever it said in BIOS, I tried S1 at one time but that made it even less
"asleep" (woke up by merely moving the mouse) so went back to S3. That's
about all the only choices I see in this BIOS. Any ideas of what to do it
windows XP pro?

Dave Niemeyer
(remove "nospam" if replying directly)

 

[Dave Niemeyer]

I mean "standby" not "suspend" in the paragraph below:

Dave N

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Dave,

The fan stays on because the hardware detects a heat presence sufficient
enough to cause damage to system components. This is usually built-in
protection on the motherboard, you should not attempt to change it.

A definition of the various power states:

S0 - Up and running

S1 - Standby. Drives, display off. Power still on to cpu, fans, ram

S2 - Standby. Same as S1, but cpu is powered down

S3 - Standby. Power only to refresh ram

S4 - Hibernate. No power, contents of ram copied to hard drive before
powerdown (hiberfil.sys)

S5 - System off.

Not all states are supported on all systems, and this is a somewhat
simplified view. Some systems, hardware, or combinations thereof will not
support any of these states.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Dave Niemeyer]

Thanks for the definitions. But I still don't understand why it's different
now than before with win2kpro and no change to hardware.... Before, it
would go to standby, I assume S3, and fans would go off and you could only
wake it up by hitting the power button. Now with winxppro it's either not
going to S3 'cause the standby mode now leaves fans running and only a hit
of the keyboard is required to wake it up (sounds like, thusly, power is
running the RAM and CPU). So apparently WINDOWS has changed to keep fans on
and it's not going to S3, it's only going to S2 or S1 per your definitions
below. By the way, the fans ALL run, 3 of them, ALL night long so I'm
thinking it couldn't possibly be heat buildup. Wish I could figure out a way
for it to go totally to S3. Oh, well.

Dave Niemeyer
----------------------------------

 

[XPUSER]

Thanks for the definitions. But I still don't understand why it's
different now than before with win2kpro and no change to hardware....
Before, it would go to standby, I assume S3, and fans would go off and you
could only wake it up by hitting the power button. Now with winxppro it's
either not going to S3 'cause the standby mode now leaves fans running and
only a hit of the keyboard is required to wake it up (sounds like, thusly,
power is running the RAM and CPU). So apparently WINDOWS has changed to
keep fans on and it's not going to S3, it's only going to S2 or S1 per
your definitions below. By the way, the fans ALL run, 3 of them, ALL
night long so I'm thinking it couldn't possibly be heat buildup. Wish I
could figure out a way for it to go totally to S3. Oh, well.

Dave Niemeyer

========================================
I do not know if this applies to your issue or not but in my
BIOS settings on the POWER section tab there is a setting
"FAN ALWAYS ON" which I have set to "NO"
========================================

 

[Wolf Kirchmeir]

Thanks for the definitions. But I still don't understand why it's different
now than before with win2kpro and no change to hardware.... Before, it
would go to standby, I assume S3, and fans would go off and you could only
wake it up by hitting the power button. Now with winxppro it's either not
going to S3 'cause the standby mode now leaves fans running and only a hit
of the keyboard is required to wake it up (sounds like, thusly, power is
running the RAM and CPU). So apparently WINDOWS has changed to keep fans on
and it's not going to S3, it's only going to S2 or S1 per your definitions
below. By the way, the fans ALL run, 3 of them, ALL night long so I'm
thinking it couldn't possibly be heat buildup. Wish I could figure out a way
for it to go totally to S3. Oh, well.

Dave Niemeyer

A 2Ghz chip will generate a lot of heat even just idling - the fans are
pretty well necessary. If the machine is not a server, it's best to turn
it off. Just turn it on when you need it. Even on standby, it uses
about 100 watts, which may not sound like much, but it adds up. At
around 10 cents/kWh (low price, eh?), that's about 25 cents a day, $90/+
per year. And if everyone leaves their machines on all the time, that's
thousands of kilowatt hours every day nationwide - a lot of power.

Now, if MS could just design an OS that doesn't take forever to boot,
there wouldn't be this temptation to just leave it running...

If the noise of the fans bothers you, there are nice quiet fans
available, at a price, of course, but they really are nice. I know.

 

[Rock]

A 2Ghz chip will generate a lot of heat even just idling - the fans are
pretty well necessary. If the machine is not a server, it's best to turn
it off. Just turn it on when you need it. Even on standby, it uses
about 100 watts, which may not sound like much, but it adds up. At
around 10 cents/kWh (low price, eh?), that's about 25 cents a day, $90/+
per year. And if everyone leaves their machines on all the time, that's
thousands of kilowatt hours every day nationwide - a lot of power.

Now, if MS could just design an OS that doesn't take forever to boot,
there wouldn't be this temptation to just leave it running...

If the noise of the fans bothers you, there are nice quiet fans
available, at a price, of course, but they really are nice. I know.

Forever? I don't see where 30 secs to 2 minutes is forever.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Dave,

Yes, Windows has changed, but in the sense that the same hardware needs
different drivers than were needed in Win2K. These altered drivers may not
contain the same hardware support that was previously there, which is why
you may not be able to achieve the same power state at standby. I would
concentrate on supporting drivers for the motherboard itself, as you may be
relying on ones supplied by the OS, and the manufacturer may have a newer
set available.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Dave Niemeyer]

Yep, did that, been there. Got the latest drivers for the board from Intel,
and thanks for all the suggestions guys. I looked, no setting in BIOS for
"fan always on." Wish there was so I could turn it off, guess I'll either
go to "suspend" mode which I've never used, (only used standby before this),
or just turn it off over nite.

Dave N
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