CPU Fan won't turn on

[Vidar]

Greetings. I recently got a used WinBook XL2 just to do some web surfing and chatting on. I tried XP on it but was just a little too much for it. Instead of putting money in more RAM I tossed 98SE on it. What I’ve noticed since I’ve done that is the CPU fan will not turn on while in windows. It worked fine under XP, and will turn on for a few seconds when I initially power on the laptop but not again despite how hot the case will get. The WinBook site hasn’t offered to much and I don’t have the original CDs or books to go to. Any ideas?

[NooNoo]

This is about acpi - all these things are supported in xp, but not in 98se completely.

If you are lucky there is a setting in bios for it.

[Vidar]

No luck in the BIOS, however it looks like there is a newer BIOS out for it. I’ll give that a try when I get a few free moments.

Checking the power to the fan was the first thing I tried and it is plugged in. I know it works cause it will spin up for a few seconds then turn off again.

[paul_baker]

Greetings. I recently got a used WinBook XL2 just to do some web surfing and chatting on. I tried XP on it but was just a little too much for it. Instead of putting money in more RAM I tossed 98SE on it. What I’ve noticed since I’ve done that is the CPU fan will not turn on while in windows. It worked fine under XP, and will turn on for a few seconds when I initially power on the laptop but not again despite how hot the case will get. The WinBook site hasn’t offered to much and I don’t have the original CDs or books to go to. Any ideas?

I had a P3 do that with me and I had me on my system at the time and I solved the problem by flashing the bios and turning on the ACPI in the bios.
What is the OS that came with the laptop when it was new? if you know then try putting it back on the laptop.

[Damned Angel]

Most notebooks have a thermally controlled fan. It will not turn on unless the temp inside the notebook or cpu reaches a preset tempature. You said it turns on for a second when you first turn it on and then turns off right away, just like every other notebook I have seen.

Leave it on with something like an old 3dmark program running for a few hours and see if it starts the fan after a while.

[confus-ed]

... You said it turns on for a second when you first turn it on and then turns off right away, just like every other notebook I have seen....

I'd concurr with that ... I have an old tosh lappie that just sits 'on' & has done for about 4 months now, I think I might have heard the fan about 3 times (& one of them was rebooting it!) ... maybe xp was making it 'work' much harder & bringing the fan on more often

[jza734]

Sometimes you have to do something special pre or post install of win98se on laptops. If winbook has special "support, power or supplemental" patches for win98 then follow the yellow brick road..