E6540 Inadequate Thermal System! ATTN: Dell

Great, thank you for keep us updated! I hope they'll also refer to the Notebook Review forum since there are more users with issues there. 

Also, it's interesting that he said they weren't aware of any issues when the guy from their Twitter team told several of us that the engineers were aware of the issue and were working on a solution.. 

Updates: Several of us have initiated service calls with Dell! 

Knock Knock Dell... Seriously, you guys should jump in and comment here. I find it funny that Dell representatives periodically answer questions on these boards but as soon as something major goes down, they go into hiding.

Anyways, I am getting my motherboard and heatsink assembly replaced. My representative confirmed to me that if this doesn't fix things, that we will then consider more extreme options like swapping for a different model. So do give them a call! 

Has anyone had any updates from Dell this week? after having my laptop picked up last monday morning I have not had any updates from them. I will be calling them first thing on Monday though.

Bump

Put a call in using my ProSupport warranty after @DellCares taold me to give them another 24hrs after blowing me off for 3 days. I called to inquire about the status of the case number they gave me and guess what? They opened the case and closed it already. They didn't put any details or comments, I'm lucky it was even a real number! 

My case has been reassigned twice since calling. I'm hoping this last gentleman will be the last person I have to explain everything to.

BTW, no matter how many times you're assured they have the heatsink assembly in stock and that it'll be shipped NBD, you'll soon find out that in reality it's backordered until the end of Feb..

I'm not convinced that Dell has ever had an appreciable stock of heatsinks...ever.

I tried to get a heatsink replacement back in September and it was backordered then too! They ended up offering me a system replacement. 

Dell! Seriously, I know you have read this post. Can you please do your customers a favor and post here....

Working with Dell Support is going to be your only way to resolution.  Yes, there are periodically posts by Dell employees, BUT they are NOT required to follow up, create cases, or otherwise resolve issues in the forums on which they post ... consider them informational posts only, to fulfill their daily quota of public social interaction.  They are also NOT qualified to respond to advanced issues - you wouldn't want them to respond.  This is primarily a user-to-user forum and is NOT an official avenue of support with Dell.  For a resolution, continue working with Support on your cases.

Hi Theflash1932!

Are you from DELL?

I doubt it.. He/She's right though. If you look at the other responses the Dell people have given, they wouldn't be much help. This is just a way to see if others were having the same issue since it's highly doubtful that we'll get an actual fix.. 

You really need to be logging your temps. If you just tell them you hear the fans are kicking on, they'll think they can correct the problem with a BIOS update that has a less aggressive fan profile which would be the exact opposite of what is needed. 

I bet their definition of "passed" is that the machine didn't experience a thermal shut down. Did they give any details? Did they see the processor throttle? If there was no throttling then it wasn't really a stress test imo because throttling this machine is extremely easy. 

My case got reassigned last week and I still haven't heard anything from my new case manager. I emailed him Friday and Monday as well as left voice mail on Monday. There's only a few hours left in the shift today so I guess I won't be hearing from him today either.

Update 28/01/2014

My laptop was returned today, and according to dell technical support every component has been stress tested and they have all passed.

However, with the laptop plugged in, and just a terminal ping session hitting the bbc website and my email open in a web browser the fan kicks in as before.

I have contacted Dell and explained that I have been using two other Dell laptops - a E6330 and a E6530 for at least 8hrs a day, they have application servers running on them, development tools, outlook, debug utils etc and the fan never kicks in or makes a noise - these laptops run fine.  However on the new E6540 model that I purchased (due to a good experience with the above models) the fan kicks in intermittently with just an email client open - this can not be right.

I have been told that I will receive a call from the escalations team tomorrow to discuss the matter further.

And those options are?

:emotion-15:

 I have been offered a replacement E6540 which I refused, and I am now waiting for a call from the escalation team tomorrow.