Runaway cooling fan

[Brian_1000]

I have a Gareway with an Intel core 2 quad processor and have a problem with the system crashing. Sometimes it will run fine for days, other times it will crash every 20 minutes. Leading up to the crash is always the same, the processor cooling fan begins to speed up, then gets very fast before the crash. The fan will continue to operate at the high speed even after the system crash, until the computer is manually shut off. Operating system is MS Vista.

Thanks, Brian

 

[Guest]

Are you sure the fan isn't just making a lot of noise -- which it will if the bearing is going -- the actual result of this problem is that the fan slows down -- which could lead to overheating and crash.

If it's a desktop computer, replace the fan.