I have a Dell Studio XPS 8100 running Windows 7 that is about 5 years old.
The CPU is a Core i7 CPU 870 @ 2.93 GHz.
Recently the CPU fan started surging to a high speed. After start-up, it can take up to a couple of hours for this surging to take place.
Here is what I have tried so far:
1. Ran Dell's hardware diagnostics with no problems shown.
2. Opened the computer and checked for dust problems. Minimal dust present. I cleaned what was there. I also removed the CPU cooler-fan and re-seated with new thermal compound.
3. I checked the BIOS. It has the latest update.
4. I recently started in Safe Mode and noted that there was no longer any CPU fan surging present after a couple days of operation. After restarting normally, the fan surging showed up again after about one hour.
Any ideas about fixing this problem would be greatly appreciated. Should I try re-flashing the bios? I do have a new CPU cooler-fan. Is it worth replacing the old unit.