Fan almost never comes on to cool.

Hi, I have an Acer 2303 Travelmate Laptop. It works fine except for one thing. There is a fan on the bottom (where your right leg would be if it was on your lap) that is meant to cool it down. The problem is that it only comes on if the computer gets really really hot, and then it only comes on for a little bit. Is there anyway to make this fan come on more often so it is actually useful?

Another quick question: Is it possible to upgrade the Video card on a laptop like this? I know on Desktops its just buy the card and switch it pretty much, but I'm not too sure because I've never done it with a laptop before.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Bowserstein

 

Have you tried notebook hardware control I use it on my inspiron 1100 to monitor the cpu and HD temps but I'm not sure if it will control the fan speed. Here's the link http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm