Satellite P500-12D - A problem with the cooling system has been detected

Question

hi there everyone,
I have bought a Satellite P500-12D which was a retail return. When I start it up it runs a couple of mins and then this comes up on the screen:
Warning: A problem with the cooling system has been detected. please turn off the computer immediately and return it for service.
In the toshiba health monitor the cpu is under 50% temp and if it goes much above that the cooling fan comes on and lowers it back down and the fan stops again, I have noticed that only the r/h fan runs to cool the cpu, should both them come on together? Could it be a software problem?
Tthe unit is new without even the plastic off the screen surround or webcam. Any help or even point me in the right direction would be very appreciated, gary

Answer 1

The fact that the pc is a retail return would indicate that there was a fault at day one and the customer returned it. At some point the retailer turned it on and since it appeared to work re-sold it.
This is the cooling/fan report from a P500 produced by pc wizard 2010 - free from cpuid.com. Perhaps a comparison against the faulty laptop will point to the problem
<<< Voltage, Temperature and Fans >>>
> Hardware Monitoring : National LM79
> Voltage CPU : 1.02 V
> +3.3V Voltage : 1.02 V
> +5V Voltage : 0.43 V
> +12V Voltage : 1.02 V
> Chassis Fan : 42187 rpm
> Power/Aux Fan : 21093 rpm
> Processor Temperature : 64 C
> Mainboard Temperature : 16 C
> Hardware Monitoring : ACPI
> Thermal Zone : 48 C
> Processor :
> Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo (Core 1) : 57 C
> Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo (Core 2) : 58 C
> NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M : nVidia Driver
> GPU Temperature : 35 C
> GPU Diode : 35 C
> GPU Fan : 100.0%
> Hard Disk Monitoring : S.M.A.R.T
> Hard Disk TOSHIBA MK5055GSX (Assembly) : 38 C
> Hard Disk TOSHIBA MK5055GSX (Assembly) : 27 C