Laptop fan control

[Daniel Dalton <d.dalton@iinet.net.au>]

Hello, 

I'm using a Dell vostro 3350 machine. 

At times I feel the intensity of the fan is unnecessarily high. 

This occurs when for example using firefox or watching flash. 

It seems most times when I restart the gui the fan returns to normal
speed. 

This is a concern because it obviously will effect battery life. 

So I'm wondering if this is unusual behaviour, and if so how to maybe
correct it?

I've looked at thinkafan but no idea what I'm doing to be honest. 

Thanks in advance for any help. 

Cheers,
Dan