How to Make My Cooling Fan Run More

You can control the settings for your computer's cooling fan from the BIOS (basic input/output system) menu. Here, you can decide whether to use Smart Fan Control to automatically adjust the fan speed depending on the temperature of your central processing unit; the fan runs slower when the CPU is cool, and faster when the CPU is hard at work processing data and generating more heat. If you disable Smart Fan Control, the cooling fan will run at a constant speed. You can adjust this speed from the BIOS menu.

• 1

  Start (or restart) your computer. The BIOS menu can only be accessed while the computer is starting up and before the operating system loads.

• 2

  Access the BIOS menu by pressing the appropriate key when the computer starts up. The key you press will vary, depending on your computer brand and model -- you may see a notice on the first splash screen stating something like "Press [key] to enter BIOS." Often, the "F8" or "Delete" key is used for this purpose. If in doubt, refer to your computer's user manual for instructions.

• 3

  Use the arrow keys to navigate through the BIOS menus and use the "Enter" key to select options. You can use the "Esc" key to return to exit the current page and return to the previous screen.

• 4

  Locate the "Fan Settings" section, which is usually located on the "CPU," "Advanced" or "Hardware Monitor" sub-menu.

• 5

  Turn off "Smart Fan Control" to have your fan run at a constant speed. Use the arrow keys to change this setting to "disabled." Make the fan run faster or slower by adjusting the "Fan Voltage." Enter a higher voltage to make the fan run faster or a lower voltage to make the fan run slower. Then skip to Step 8.

• 6

  Change the "Fan Low Temperature" to set the CPU temperature that will activate the fan, if you want to continue using Smart Fan Control. Change the "Fan High Temperature" to set the temperature that will cause the fan to increase to its maximum speed.

• 7

  Adjust the "Fan High Voltage" and "Fan Low Voltage" settings to change the fastest and slowest speeds that the fan will use.

• 8

  Press "F10" when you are finished to save your changes and exit the BIOS menu. Your computer will restart and the new fan settings will take effect.