Dell Xps m1710 problem

[panthers1]

okay maybe someone here can help me, I know this guy who bought a Dell XPS 1710 from Dell. It's a duo core 2.0 processor with 4gb ram and a 256 Nvidia video card. Now he turns it on and maybe 10 minutes after turning it on the fans kick on. And the laptop just slows down like it's a P2 or something.

I went to task manager and saw that before the fans turned on the processor never got higher then 40% but when they kick on it stays at 100%. I figured one of the fans were dead but both were spinning. I blew the fans clean but the problem is still there.

Does anybody know whats going on with his laptop. BTW he is running Vista ( sigh )

 

[Remeniz]

When in the Task Manager have a look at the Processes tab then click on the CPU heading twice. Whatever is using all the resources will be at, or near, the top of this list.

 

[panthers1]

what I dont understand is this happens when the fans kick on. I would try out the info you just gave me but the laptop isn't in front of me. I'll have to call him later to see.

EDIT:

I was also doing some research on this laptop and it seams like the video cards go on these machines. Maybe thats the problem???? I don't know I never ever ran into this problem before.

 

[GibsonSGKing]

It doesn't seem like a hardware issue to me. I think there's a virus or something causing the CPU to go under load, hence speeding up the fans. Try a full virus scan using Antivir or something under safemode.

 

[Remeniz]

The fans will kick in when the CPU usage increases to get rid of the heat it generates. So an application, or similar, is using all the CPU resources and the fans are switching on to keep it cool. When this happens you should be able to see what application/program is using 100% CPU resources in the Task Manager and take it from there.

If the graphics card is overheating or gone you usually get artifacts on the screen as well. So if the laptop is showing video ok then that isn't the problem.

 

[panthers1]

I don't know the guy told me he reinstalled Vista twice with the Dell disc, something is wrong. I got to look at the laptop for like 10 minutes then the guy had to leave. He was telling me he turned off most of the applications.

I did msconfig and he had maybe 4 items in there. I told him to buy Windows 7 and throw out that Vista disc. Well atleast you guys don't that it's a hardware issue which is reassuring. I'll have to have him drop it off to me one of these days. See I'm not to familiar with Vista cause I never cared to use that pos of an os.