I think I might have it, I recently had to replace the hard drive (the old one crashed) and had to reinstall everything and I might have not installed the correct chipset drivers, as the fan runs when I am in BIOS but not when Windows XP starts up.

I don’t think that cooling fan is controlled by the operating system.
But if you suspect that your operating system is causing the problem, you can boot your laptop from a life Linux CD (Knoppix for example) and find out if the fan works fine with another OS.
Knoppix runs from a CD and doesn’t use files on the hard drive at all.

Actually, I downloaded and installed Speedfan a few weeks ago to monitor my temps, and I did hit the critical mark according to the temp indicators (they all showed little flames beside the numbers) and so I purchased a cooling unit that sits under the laptop (it was on sale) and that seems to have stopped the laptop from overheating (at least it hasn’t gotten so hot that the flame indicators were present on the temp readings). I would assume that the fan not turning on when I have flaming indicators via Speedfan means my fan is not turning on when it should be, but then, why does my fan run when I first start up the laptop? (questions, questions) I can purchase a used fan fairly inexpensively and was considering doing this just to test it out and see if the old fan is the problem. Any recommendations?

It’s hard to tell if you have a faulty fan or there is a problem with the motherboard. I guess you should buy a known good fan for test. If the problem still exists, there is something wrong with the motherboard.

Why the fan starts when you turn on the laptop? That’s a good question and here’s my guess.
Maybe the motherboard sends maximum possible voltage to the fan at the beginning and it’s enough to start the fan. After that, the voltage going to the fan is lower and it will not start. This is just a guess and I could be wrong.

Here’s another idea just in case if there is a problem with the motherboard. You can probe the motherboard with a voltmeter and find terminals with voltage needed for the fan. Solder the fan directly to these terminals.
Basically, the fan will run all the time as soon as the laptop is turned on, but it should work. Do it only if you have nothing to lose.

I have an MA7/MX6596 with a cooling problem. The fan starts up when the computer starts up, and then shuts off after 15 to 30 seconds, and then does not come back on at all. The laptop gets very hot, and this concerns me, but it has never shut off because of a thermal overload (assuming this laptop even has thermal protection). The fan is clean and I haven’t found any way to manually enable it to see what the issue is. Should I just assume the fan is failing and replace it?

It’s hard to tell if the fan is failing or not. I guess it has to turn on eventually, but I don’t know if the CPU temperature reaches that critical point.
You can try SpeedFan software to monitor the fan and CPU temperature. Maybe it will help to figure out what is wrong.

My Gateway “jack’s” been repaired, with silver solder for strength, and is working fine.
However, there’s a “no battery detected” icon AND, sure enough, it doesn’t work with a
battery. Some say to replace the motherbrd, but I think there’s a component, ON the brd, that I can replace.
What’s your take on this?

Did you have a chance to test your laptop with another known good battery? Could be just bad battery.
If it’s not the battery, I don’t know which component on the motherboard is causing the problem. I don’t fix motherboards on component level.

your the Best

Danny

Your help has been sensational. I got my Gateway with the power connector problem working. I really appreciate the way you responded immediately to my questions while you were working on the Gateway that you had. This saved my daughter a great deal of money.

I’m glad to help.

I tried to make a contribution by clicking on the “Donate” button but Paypal doesn’t seem to like that for some reason. Is there some other way to make a contribution?

Not sure why you having this problem. Try again, I guess the PayPal site was down for a while. Also, you can try “Donate” button on my other site http://www.irisvista.com/tech/, it’s on the top of the page. By they way, this site could be useful for Toshiba laptops. Thanks!