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Inspiron Duo Netbook: Help w/ Issues & General Observations
First, let me say I'm confused as to why Dell would name this thing the Duoe when they already have a chipset known as th Duo. It's virtually implossible to search for answers about the netbook w/o returning thousands of unrelated results. Based upon my early impressions, I'm starting to think this is by design...
Issues I'd like help with before requesting a return:
Main Issue: The Amazingly Loud Fan. The fan runs inconsistently, albeit it near-constantly, at full speed. This occurs even when the Duo is closed and in hibernate and in no way being used. The fan will kick on and run at full speed for 2 minutes, shut off for 1, then fire back up. When the Duo is docked in the JBL Duo Station, and running as a clock, forget about it. The fan runs even more. Not only is the fan louder than my 2 full-size Inspiron laptops it can be heard across the room. It's actually loud enough to wake me up, especially considering the inconsistency of it (read: not a constant noise. very annoying). Keep in mind that no other applications are in use as the fan kicks on and off. If I launch Task Manager, I can watch the CPU usage randomly spiking to 50% while it's just sitting in the dock. Anyone else have this fan issue?
The Touch Software: Very slow response times and overall inaccuracy of touching something as simple as an onscreen button.
The Battery Life: In the couple of weeks we've had it, we're barely seeing 2 hours out of it. My guess is that it's a direct result of the fan issues.
Thanks for any comments, suggestions, or links to solving these problems. This a rather expensive netbook to have these kinds of flaws.
jjschneid
6 Posts
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January 8th, 2011 12:00
YES!
(thought i'd yell so you could hear me over the fan. lol)
Of the 15 or so laptops I've had over the years, I've never had a device with this problem.
vans113
53 Posts
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January 8th, 2011 12:00
has the fan always done this since you bought the netbook?
jjschneid
6 Posts
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January 9th, 2011 11:00
Update: 40 minutes of Dell Support later, the initial suggestion was to change the power management settings from the "recommended" Balanced to Power Saver. The rep said to see if that helped and we'd resume the call Monday. Immediately upon putting the Duo on the sound dock, the fan fired back up to full.
It almost seems like when you get the occasional "System Idle" process issue where the CPU and fan spikes for some reason.
That's where we stand...
JaJaWa
3 Posts
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January 9th, 2011 17:00
I think it just has a noisy fan ;p
Mine does - I don't think they'll be a "fix" :(
jjschneid
6 Posts
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January 11th, 2011 07:00
Update #2: Another hour with tech support and the new remedy is to have on-site support install a new fan and heat sink as they think it's hardware related. We'll see tomorrow...
Another thing I was told, re: the lack of accuracy and responsiveness to the touch screen, is that it's a "known issue and there will eventually be a software update to correct this.". My response is that if you are going to release a hybrid touch/netbook, the customer is obviously purchasing it for the touch interactions (if not, why waste the money?) and the unit should be ready to be used as such. That said, I'm happy, so far, with my interactions with Dell's tech people.
@JaJawa: yes, it's a noisy fan, but i can run IE or Chrome with multiple tabs open, along with other apps, and the fan will be quietly "normal". it's the idle, docked, or even closed up and hibernating, times where the the fan will run at absolute, and exceedingly loud, high speed.
I hope this isn't an XBox type issue where the design doesn't facilitate a good enough heat exchange. If you look at the bottom of the unit, the vents are very, very small.
jjschneid
6 Posts
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January 13th, 2011 15:00
So a Dell Technician came to my home and swapped out the fan and heat sink. He noticed, as we do, that the unit seems to be excessively warm without any effort. He seemed as pessimistic as I that it was likely a software problem. Unit was swapped and the exact same issues remain. Fan spins to the loud maximum off and on all night long in the dock, off the dock, whenever...
spaceengineer
118 Posts
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January 13th, 2011 18:00
You nailed it with the name resulting in all kinds of unrelated items during search.
Anyway, I have had mine for almost a week and was just as frustrated about the lack of accuracy when using the touchscreen. Fixed it, though, be recalibrating the screen. Go to Control Panel->Tablet PC Settings. Then tap Calibrate and follow the instructions. Took a couple tries before I was happy, but now I can actually close windows using the "x" without the "tap" snapping to the edge.
Also, I found that using an iPad stylus makes it more accurate.
I have not noticed any lag or slow response time using touch, though I have heard others complain about their units. Maybe I am just more forgiving.
Fan does run a bit more than I would have thought and it gets a little warm, but I used to use a Dell Studio XPS 16 that ran so hot the touchpad could scald and the fan never turned off. This device is ice cold and quiet in comparison. Hope you get yours straightened out.
Good luck.
Schtuperman
2 Posts
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January 16th, 2011 17:00
I have had my Marlin Blue Duo since 1/07. I have NOT had any issues with the fan being noisy. Mine is very quiet, in fact, and the unit stays very cool. Out of curiousity, what BIOS is installed on your Duo? Mine has A02, and I have already noticed a BIOS glitch where you can't activate the BIOS Computrace (LoJack) support. I asked about the BIOS because I have a Dell Studio 19 desktop system. The original one (had a flaky motherboard and had to be exchanged) sounded like Darth Vader breathing as it constantly cycled the fan from slow to "hyper drive." The replacement did not do that, however, recently I updated the BIOS and ever since when I first power on the machine the fan is in hyper mode until Windows begins to boot. I rolled back the BIOS and it stopped.
Using the touchscreen straight up (on Windows directly) works fine. The DuoStage apps, however, are an entirely different matter. It isn't really the touch that is slow, it is just the apps! Some of them take 30+ seconds to open! I am not even using them because they are just too damned slow!
I am getting about 2.5-3 hours battery life. I have the screen backlighting set to about 25%. A real annoyance I have noticed about the Duo's design is, like the camera, the light sensor is on the inside bezel. Thus, when you are in tablet mode the sensor thinks it is dark and minimizes the backlight!
Someone commented about getting thousands of hit when searching for Duo. Try searching for "Inspiron Duo" instead. I got only a handful.
jjschneid
6 Posts
0
January 18th, 2011 09:00
So...I'm on hold now for another 1:30 and counting...
Now they want to send out another on-site tech to replace the motherboard and LCD.
Can you say, "Throw something against a wall and see what sticks."?
Depressing...