So...When I play a game like World of Warcraft or something I notice multiple things...
One, the fan is unbearble loud...sometimes, and I dont know why its sometimes. there is so ryme or reason to it. The fan spins fast some days and other days it dosent.
Two, The graphics start blinking this red/green thing after a while. DOnt know why.
Three, I had a technician from Dell come in replace the fan and it did nothing. My computer actually locked up after he installed it.
I am about to comit suicide because I am so frustrated Ive been dealing with this shit for months and I have not gotten any results from anything. I am abou to give up on it and quit using my computer.....
Also, I added a new graphic card a NVIDIA 6600 Gt and some extra RAM a while back but I dont know if that would do anything.
Please help b4 I go insane.

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I have this same problem with an Inspiron 3800 Laptop and I've just learned to live with it.

My thinkpad (p3) does that too. Its just wahat nearly all modern ones do. the fan can go quiter if you have it so air can get under it and use something like cool n quite or speedstep to slow down the cpu speed cos thats what makes it hot so the fan come on

(If still valid)

You need to get yourself a nice NEW fan. Bigger - better. All separately sold fans are much quieter than retail ones and do buch better job. The on that was replaced, obviously failed resulting your CPU lock-up. (overheating - automatic lock-up to prevent damage).
You had some BAD service on DELL's behalf there and should call them back, but this time you provide the service man a new thermaltake fan or something. Let him mandle with installation. While you're at it, Video card cooling also can be upgraded (trickier to install, though - don't think that the service man will want to do that for you).

The noisiest fan I ever had was the fan on an old video card; that combined with the graphics halucinations suggest looking at that. Ummm, open up the case and turn it on; if you can not tell where the sound is coming from - try using a bit of tubing as a sort of stethescope to see if you can narrow down where the sound is coming from. Hope this helps

I have a new 5150 Dell that is really noisy too. It sounds like the fan but it isnt. Its the case. The sides, top and front fascia are kinda loose which cause it to rattle real bad, especially when using games/burining discs.

Also for the guy who mentioned his inspiron laptop overheating, does yours randomly power off after a while and wont go back on (i think due to overheating). This really annyoys me as it has areally loud, big fan and is only 700mhz so why shoukld it overheat?

Oh yeah and also my 5150s ATI Radeon x600 goes absolutely crazy and gets corrupted, so everything is kinda like pixilated and flourescant, but its mainly old games. Far cry is fine. Is this a dell (cooling)or an ATI (gfx) problem

Oh yeah and also my 5150s ATI Radeon x600 goes absolutely crazy and gets corrupted, so everything is kinda like pixilated and flourescant, but its mainly old games. Far cry is fine. Is this a dell (cooling)or an ATI (gfx) problem

Maybe your VGA is overclocked?

Your video driver should be able to display core temp.
If it is a cooling issue, you need better cooling PRONTO!

I used ATI's catalyst tool and my card is pretty much the same as the referance model (no overclocking) and is at a healthy 40 degrees (it is apparently supposed to run at 20-60)

I guess it is a compatibility issue then. (With the old games)
Some old games have different modes for different cards (from it's time). I sometimes "fool" some games to think that different card is in use. It sometimes does the trick.

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