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Is there a fix for the Toshiba Tecra 8000 laptop cooling fan?

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computerdude92

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I just got this Pentium II laptop on Ebay. The cooling fan rarely runs, even when the laptop feels very warm or hot. When the fan does turn on, it's only for a second or two.

Is there a BIOS update to fix it, or is the dead CMOS battery the cause? The BIOS is limited and no setting fixes it.

The issue also plagued the Pentium 1 Toshibas I used to have. My Satellite 2805-s202 is only a year newer than the Tecra 8000 and does not have this problem. Guess it was one of the first models to be patched.
 
Are you sure the fan itself is ok? I own a TECRA 8000 as well and the fan almost always spins.

If anything, you can simply hard-wire the fan to 3.3 or 5 volts.
 
Have you tried software fan control solutions like Riva Tuner or SpeedFan? Not sure these exist for the older operating systems you are probably running.

Alternatively pay close attention to the function keys and various external, laptops from that generation sometimes had fan controls on the outside.
 
K... I bought a spare fan off the 'Bay... and I plan on running Windows 95 on the thing.

I'll look for 9x compat. versions of fan control software soon too.
 
Toshibas are like that. They power the fan on only for a brief amount of time when the temperature gets way too hot. Perhaps there's a thermistor on board? I have a SP4270 and some other cheap crappy Satellite I can't bother remembering the model number of, and using them on a lap... well you really don't want to use them on a lap for more than 40 minutes, if even that much.

hunterjwizzard said:
Have you tried software fan control solutions like Riva Tuner or SpeedFan? Not sure these exist for the older operating systems you are probably running.

Alternatively pay close attention to the function keys and various external, laptops from that generation sometimes had fan controls on the outside.
Click to expand...
I do remember reading about a DOS program (that runs in 9x as well), FAN.EXE IIRC, which can either crank the fan up to full speed or completely turn it off, but even if I could find it, all my machines run NT-based or OS/2 so I can't test it. The joys of wanting a stable OS...
 
OS/2 you are a tich SOL, but you might be able to find a similar program for NT. NT users needed working fans, too.
 
I found it, the mystic FAN.EXE. On VOGONS of all places :) https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=49365

I tested it from a DOS boot floppy and it works as I described it, even on a Pentium III-based machine, so I figure it'll work on yours as well.

Syntax: fan.exe [on] [off] (what features!)

Now, to find software that can control the fan from operating systems you can use for real work...
 

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JamieDoesStuff said:
Now, to find software that can control the fan from operating systems you can use for real work...
Click to expand...
I'd love to know what you're doing with NT or OS/2 these days. I like those operating systems but haven't had much luck finding software for them.
 
hunterjwizzard said:
I'd love to know what you're doing with NT or OS/2 these days. I like those operating systems but haven't had much luck finding software for them.
Click to expand...
They're both rock solid, that's what matters to me the most. I don't play a lot of games, and when I do, well, they're DOS based and run just fine on OS/2. I like to use all machines I have for actually productive stuff, no matter how strange it seems to quite literally everyone around me. We're talking mostly word processing, presentations and the like, that I print out or just use as is since file compatibility with all versions of MS and LibreOffice is genuinely insane. I can open a WordPerfect file made with a version from 32 years ago and keep all the formatting on my modern Linux machine with LibreOffice, and have heard of the same being done with MS Office. Changing a typeface only for the whole system to crash is not a fun experience (mhm 9x mhm).

Software-wise, there's plenty out there for OS/2: take a look at os2site.com . There's no collection like that for the old NTs, at least that I know of. archive.org is also everyone's friend, although OS/2 stuff there is scarce, to say the least.

I'm also thinking of finally snagging a case for a 486 I'm slowly building from the ground up, and once I do, I'll probably make it a teeny tiny server running OS/2 for all that networking goodness! What I'd host on it is another story... one which will be figured out once I get there.
 
Archive.org is fine if you know exactly what you're looking for. This has been my ongoing problem with trying out non-windows-based operating systems :p No one seems to be able to say "Why yes, here are three or four programs I really like that do this and that, give them a try.

Will check out os2site though, gotta be funny to own that domain after all this time.
 
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