I have an HP Pavilion running Win XP SP3. On Friday it suddenly shut down
while I was using it. I have no idea what happened and pressing the on/off
button didn't do anything until I pulled the plug and then plugged it back
in. It did restart and I continued to use it throughout the day. The
following morning it was off when I went to use it and again I had to pull
the plug and then plug it back in to get it to restart. It dawned on me that
it might be overheating but I don't know how to tell. Anyway I opened the
case and could see that 2 out of 3 fans were not running. The fan on the CPU
was running but the fan on the power supply and the one that cools the
inside were both not. I gently prodded them with a pencil and after several
tries they reluctantly and slowly started to spin up to speed. Are they
supposed to run all the time or only intermittently? The computer has been
up and running for about 30 minutes and both fans are still running. The
inside of the case was not very dusty. I had cleaned it about 1 1/2 years
ago when I added some memory. If both fans are supposed to always run what
would make them both stop? It looks like the fan that cools the inside of
the case might be easy to replace if I can find the replacement but the one
on the power supply looks like it might be more difficult or would the whole
power supply need to be replaced. I'm assuming if both fans are always
supposed to be running then my assumption of overheating may be correct.
Does this sound logical and if so should the fans be replaced or should I
just wait and see what happens. I've has this machine over 7 years and don't
really want to put any money into it but I'm also hoping to hold off buying
a replacement until the next Windows operating system is released and I hear
that may be fairly soon.
Looking forward to any thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks,
Joe Trimarchi
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