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Fan Noise of the Inspiron 1525 (again)
I am opening a new thread to increase the possibility that anyone from Dell read this. If they at all look into this forum.
The noise of the fan, which keeps switching on and off, is really intolerable. Last time I heard this was when I had a desktop processor in my notebook. Why is Dell not creating a third and very low speed level? Then the fan would never go to 3000 rpm in internet or office use. Or they just have to increase the switch on temperature level high enough. The fan switches to 3000 rpm at about 42°C. In my old Inspiron 640m the fan turned on to about 55°C. Specs from Intel are 100°C max. for my T8300. So what is the reason to switch on the fan at 42°C? Can anyone please explain!
And there is not even one really quite notebook in the current product line for private users! This is really very disappointing!
I also wrote to support, they were very friendly, but could not help of course.
shaglund1
302 Posts
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May 15th, 2008 02:00
if you want to change the settings you can use: http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html
i use it on my 1520...
keep in mind that the 100C max temp is where the chip dies. so keeping it lower then that is a good thing. electronics have a duty cycle that is directly related to operating temp... if you ran your cpu at 75C all the time it would die much sooner then one that was kept at 40C.
my mom bought a 1525 and i was shocked that the fan was so loud. it is just a design flaw and happens when you need a specific amount of air in an ever shrinking space as computers get smaller and thinner. my 1520 is whisper quiet when the fan is on low.
shaglund1
302 Posts
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May 15th, 2008 15:00
i think you have 21 days to return. but you have to pay 10% restocking fee... the 1720 is a good unit. the 1520 is replaced by the 1525... the 1520 is bar far a better pc, imo...
the other thing that i can think of is getting a laptop cooling pad. this would solve the problems at work, but not really on the go. find one with adjustable fan controls.
another thing to look at (if you dont use any high memory using programs) is to disable the "pagefile" feature in windows. this will turn off the data transfering from the ram to the hard drive... this would let the hard drive be idle more and use less power, and less heat... if you multi-task lots (like 10 windows open) this wouldnt really work, you could still make it smaller (like 250MB)...or you could get a SSD and, pretty much, eliminate the heat all together from the hard drive.
martin30
8 Posts
0
May 15th, 2008 15:00
Thanks for your answer. I have i8kfan installed. The Problem is the only thing working is reading the core temperatures. There are several posts in the diefer forum confirming that.
I know that a higher temperature is worse for the CPU. The only thing I do not understand is that in my old 640m (T2300 CPU) the fan is switched on at more than 50°C. So never in office or surf mode. The T2300 and my current T8300 in the 1525 have the same temperature specs. The other thing that would solve the problem is to have the fan at lower speed, e.g. 1500 rpm. This would probably prevent the temperature to reach 42°C and noise would be no issue. Both solutions seem so simple I can not understand Dell is providing the Bios for that.
My 1525 system:
T8300
Integrated X3100 graphics
Vista Home Premium
4 GB RAM
250 GB @7200rpm
(and a fan killing the satisfaction with the system)
I would give my 1525 back to Dell (if possible after two weeks), but you can not even purchase a 1520 in Germany right now. It vanished from the website.
pebi1
7 Posts
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May 16th, 2008 10:00
pebi1
7 Posts
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May 16th, 2008 16:00
Thanks for your answer
CPU load 4-10%
CPU frequency 1872 Mhz
Can you please tell me how do I find out if Speedstep is not working correctly?
Unfortunately it's too late for me to send back the laptop because I've bought it on the 19th of March.
martin30
8 Posts
0
May 16th, 2008 16:00
That is definetly not normal. Could be a programme producting some quite high CPU load constantly or Speedstep is not working. What is your CPU load in the Windows tasks manager if you do nothing? What is i8kfan saying concerning your CPU frequency? It has some real time measurement of the CPU load which wokrks also with the 1525.
My suggestion to all who are annoyed with the fan noise: Let Dell know, contact them and send the notebook so long until the refund your money. May then the really enforce their efforts to solve the problem.
martin30
8 Posts
0
May 16th, 2008 17:00
Speedstep is a function to adopt the CPU frequency according to the CPU load. So the CPU frequency is reduced (and with it the power loss/heat generation) at low CPU load.
You can measure the CPU frequency with i8kfan. Maybe it is not working correctly, in the options there are different methods for the measurement. "Realtime" or in German "Echtzeit" should do. If the frequency never drops down below 1800 MHz then Speedstep is probably not working correctly. Mine drops down to below 800 MHz, but this is maybe also a measurement error. I read somewhere that 1200 MHz is the lowest Speedstep level.
Contact the support again and constantly running fan is definitely a malfunction.
shaglund1
302 Posts
0
May 16th, 2008 19:00
I8kfanGUI will only tell you the maxium frequency, speedstep will not effect it... it also depends on which power option you have selected on the bottom right.
if you go into task manager then reasorse monitor, it will show with the blue line in the cpu box what the cpu frequency is. by selecting different power options you can see it change (power saver/balanced/high performance)
my cpu floats around 34-36C when speedstep is active, but i am also running the new perlyn(45nm) processors which run cooler then the old(65nm) ones.
calinnn
4 Posts
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May 17th, 2008 08:00
pebi1
7 Posts
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May 17th, 2008 16:00
shaglund1
302 Posts
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May 17th, 2008 16:00
calinnn
4 Posts
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May 17th, 2008 20:00
I8kfanGUI is not fully functional with inspirion 1525 it is showing only maximum speed for your processor;
You can try CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
pebi1
7 Posts
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May 18th, 2008 06:00
calinnn
4 Posts
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May 18th, 2008 10:00
pebi1
7 Posts
0
May 18th, 2008 11:00
Yes, you are right, it is not Dual Core. It's an Intel Celeron 540. So I'll have to live with this noisy fan, which runs all the time. At least I've learned something for the next time :(