Question : Problem: Gateway M275 Tablet Laptop Fan Won't Shut Off

Hello. My Gateway M275 Tablet was running perfectly until one day the fan turned on and never shut off. Even as I write this, the fan is going full out, despite a temperature reading of 33C. Restarts do not help. I have no idea what is going on. It is severely affecting my battery life. Any ideas?

Answer : Problem: Gateway M275 Tablet Laptop Fan Won't Shut Off

Hello  Falconz720:

Have you tried accessing the fan control features in the machine's BIOS?

I'm not familiar with the BIOS in that machine, but many machines have a BIOS setting for the fan control.

You can enter the BIOS by pressing F2 as the machine starts up (before the Windows screen).

There should be a heading for Power or System Health or ? - you will have to look through the screens.  The fan speed control should be set to Auto with a CPU target temperature in the 40-50 C range (the higher the temp, the hotter it has to get to run the fan full speed).

I don't know if Gateway includes a fan control utility but you might want to look in the Control Panel or the Accessories part of the Start menu.

Otherwise, you could try installing a fan controller utility such as Speed Fan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php) or Motherboard Monitor (http://www.sofotex.com/Motherboard-Monitor-download_L15737.html).  Both of these programs are a bit picky about which machines they run on - you should check for compatibility before trying them on your system.

Finally, it's possible that the fan control device on the motherboard has failed, in which case you are probably stuck with it (or will have to get if fixed by Gateway - is it still under warranty?) or that the connection between the fan speed sensor and the system has failed, in which case you MIGHT be able to fix it.  Unless you are familiar with taking notebooks apart (and the warranty has expired) I would not suggest doing this at home...

Good luck,

wb