Laptop fan runs constantly on high speed

[aeroguy]

Starting yesterday, the 2 fans on my Dell Inspiron 8000 (PIII 700, win XP pro, 320 MB Ram) won't stop running, even right after bootup after being off for a long time and really cool. Also, everything started lagging, like when I double click internet explorer, it will take a while longer to come up, and it takes longer to boot.

I didn't change anything, is it a bad heat sensor or something? But would that also make it lag?

 

[alzan]

As far as apps. running slowly; have you checked your computer with Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware, Antivirus? If you have these infections, they can certainly slow down your system.
Is there a setting in BIOS that's responsible for the fans running constantly? If there are cooling vents on your laptop casing, are the partially/fully clogged?

If you haven't already, check out Dell's online support for your model.

alzan

 

[aeroguy]

Did virus check and spybot, no problems.

Checked the BIOS, it's set correctly.

I tried a couple of system restore points, but I got messages that it could not be restored.

I wonder if the two problems are related, since they started at the exact same time yesterday. I've been looking around the Dell site, but I can't find anything that I haven't tried yet.

 

[aeroguy]

Ya, I'm out of ideas too.