[fireice]

I've just installed windows 7 (64 bit) on my dell vostro 1500. Everything works fine but there are 2 slight problems that are annoying me.

1. It seems like the fan is always on. What driver controls this? (so that I can get the appropriate driver or is it the BIOS that controls the fan?)

2. Also, the hard drive accesses some data for a split second every 10 seconds or so. It does this all the time even when idle or on the logon screen. Any idea why this happens?

Thanks

[DoubleHelix]

1. This can be a function of the BIOS, chipset drivers, or some type of performance utility. Unfortunately Dell doesn't provide any Windows 7 drivers for that model. The most recent BIOS is from June 2008. If yours is older, you could try the update.

[fireice]

I'll try the BIOS update, how do you find out what chipset I have so that I can find the drivers for it?

Also, what do you mean by a performance utility?

Do you have any suggestions of how to fix problem no 2?

Thank You

[DoubleHelix]

I already checked Dell's website, and there are no Windows 7 drivers. Dell, like every other manufacturer, uses customized motherboards which means you should use their drivers. Generic chipset drivers aren't likely going to resolve the issues with power management since they're not designed to function with your specific laptop.

Many laptops come with programs and utilities designed to optimize performance and power consumption which in turn control things like fan speed. Again, since Dell chose not to release Windows 7 drivers, you're out of luck. You could try the Vista downloads and see if that works.

I have no idea how to troubleshoot your second question. My hard drives have always shown steady activity, and it's never been a cause of concern. Modern operating systems have hundreds of processes and services running in the background to perform various functions. As long as everything else works fine, I don't concern myself with it.

[fireice]

Do you think it would be better to install the 32 bit version of windows 7?

[DoubleHelix]

It doesn't matter. Dell doesn't provide drivers for any version of Windows 7 for that model.