Fan on/off, on/off, on/off, repeats every 3 seconds, for hours, Dell XPS 15 (l502x)

Also, I forgot to mention:  I am not too excited about calling Dell support over this.  I've already read stories of people who have gotten their laptop replaced several times for this without solving the problem, and that's just hassle for me.  It's still under warranty, but I don't like the idea of running in circles without fixing anything.

Any information on what might be going on?  This has been driving me nuts.

Charles H

If you haven't come across this link yet, it may be of some help.

support.dell.com/.../document

This is basic steps for all notebooks, but applies just as well with the XPS 15

Clean the vents

The last BIOS revision is A10 so you have that already.

Run diagnostics.  Just start the system tapping F12 and choose diagnostics. Allow the basic tests to complete. If you get the option choose no to memory diagnostics, choose yes to hardware diagnostics, choose symptom trees and then fan tests.  

Please report back here with the results.

TB

The vents are clean, as this is a brand new laptop.

As I mentioned in the first post, I am in BIOS rev. A10.

I ran diagnostics, and all the fan tests, and it passed all the fan tests.  I also ran all the thermistor tests, and it passed all those tests.

Since I am sharing a room with someone, it can be quite annoying to them to hear the fan constantly going on and off.  There is pretty much nothing I can do long term on the laptop, so I can never leave it running when I am away.  The fan just annoyingly turns on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off non stop, every 3 seconds.  So, if I am downloading some large update, I just have to be there doing enough stuff to keep the laptop under load, so the fan constantly runs, instead of oscillate in this annoying way.

I am not up for replacing the laptop, either, because previous people have gotten their laptops replaced due to this problem, and it did not fix the problem for them.  They eventually replaced it enough times that they got annoyed and sold the laptop for something else.

This is really a great laptop.  It's unfortunate that it has to be crippled by this common problem.

So, uh, any suggestions?  This is a pretty common problem that remains unsolved for many.

If the system passes diagnostics it is unlikely replacing the fan will make a large difference, but it is something to consider.  Other than that I don't have much, keep an eye open for further BIOS updates, unfortunately I really don't have much more to add, I am sorry.

TB

Well, thanks for the help, at least.  I'm glad that it isn't a hardware thing that needs replacement, then.  Whenever a possible solution comes out, I will be able to solve it here.  Can the problem be somehow escalated?  It looks like people have been having this fan cycling problem for over a year now, through several different BIOS updates.

I can't promise you anything there, if I do find out of any possible BIOS updates for the XPS 15 that could possibly help with fan noise issues I will certainly post here.  I certainly understand that the fan noise can be annoying, the good thing though is that there doesn't seem to be an issue with overheating with your system.

TB

I've been having this problem too since July 2011. It went away for a bit after a reformat. It came back a few months ago and has been driving me insane. I use my XPS 15 for graphic work while at work which uses the dedicated graphics card. Once the card goes above 60C, the fan keeps revving up and revving down every few seconds for hours. Even if I let the laptop cool down to below 60C, it keeps going crazy. Including when I shut down my work programs that use the dedicated GPU. Even putting the laptop to sleep and turning it back on barely worked any more.

This has distracted me from focusing on work. All I can focus on is the pulsing. It's like Chinese Water Torture...That I paid for!!! The rhythm of the fan gets into your head for hours, then will suddenly stop. But every time you use your laptop, you're wondering when it's going to start again.

I can't believe there isn't a recall on units affected by this. This is a huge annoyance.

I paid $100 extra last week to get the onsite warranty, just to have a tech come and check out my laptop. He replaced the fan and heatsink yesterday. There was a fair amount of caked up dust in the heatsink vents and fan. I am now idling in the low 50Cs now and I have all my work programs open. I cannot hear the fan...thank the lord.

That being said, I did install a program to check my GPU temp and that caused the pulsing to return. It went away though as soon as I closed it.

One suggestion to you, that won't involve using workarounds to cripple your laptop, is to open up your laptop and clean out the dust and possibly re-paste the heatsink. My temperature right now is 50C, with a bunch of programs idling, well below the dreaded 60C mark.

And to DELL, wow I just can't believe it's been over a year and a huge company like you still hasn't fixed this issue or at least given us answers. How could you do this to us? Why can't we just exchange for a model that doesn't have this problem out of the box? Doesn't that seem like the right thing to do? Give us something that works like it should. If a car had an AC/heat problem that went on and off like this, guess what? Recall!