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504260
XPS 15 fan, on/off/on/off, gahhh!!!
My new XPS 15 L502X fan comes on for a second then turns off for a second, then repeats. it does this process half a dozen times... then stops for 10 secs then repeats.
I get this issue when just doing light stuff like word/internet/etc...
Is this by design or a fault? My temps ussualy lie between 55-60C when this is happening...
Is there a setting i can adjust?
Also is 55-60C too hot for an i7 2720qm thats doing literally nothing?
nganka
6 Posts
0
April 15th, 2011 18:00
frankfletcher wrote the following post at Sat, Apr 16 2011 7:49 AM:
There is a copy of A01 available here: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R297342&SystemID=XPS_L502X&servicetag=&os=W764&osl=en&deviceid=27126&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=1&typeid=-1&dateid=30&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=446147
I haven't tried installing it yet so I don't know if it works. :)
Hey Frank, are you going to try A01. Interested to know if it solves the problem. And if it does, what other BIOS updates do you miss out on by going back.
OllieKM
11 Posts
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April 16th, 2011 08:00
The real question is, can you downgrade the BIOS once you've gone to A04.
The major ehnancement that I can see with the A04 BIOS is that the SMBIOS was upgraded. This may be relevant to the fan constantly spinning up.
Jack Marcus
6 Posts
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April 16th, 2011 08:00
If anyone has tried to downgrade the BIOS from A04 to A01, please report if there's any noticeable improvement with the fan issue.
Jack Marcus
6 Posts
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April 17th, 2011 14:00
A01 BIOS didn't work for me.
Shogoot
15 Posts
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April 17th, 2011 14:00
bump
OllieKM
11 Posts
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April 17th, 2011 17:00
Whoever put that YouTube video up, has demonstrated the issue.
I am going to forward this thread to Dell Support and determine what they have to say about this behaviour.
Obsidian88
2 Posts
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April 17th, 2011 18:00
I also have this issue, I thought it might have been related to the NVIDIA drivers, but even after uninstalling them, the problem was still there.
Any type of CPU activity causes the fan to spin up. Temps are in the low 50's, and the fan does not seem to have any effect on the core temperatures.
Even at idle, the fan sometimes comes on for about 10-15 seconds...makes no sense.
I hope after Dell sees this thread, they will investigate it and provide a quick fix. This issue is ruining the overall experience of this otherwise great laptop.
A_1502_Buyer
3 Posts
0
April 18th, 2011 07:00
I, too, have had this problem since the arrival of my XPS on Friday. But now it's been almost 24 hours though and the fan is working properly. All I did was uninstall the nVidia drivers (264??) and install Dell's 267.21 nVidia driver (R300420.exe) and left it at defaults. That has been the only change except for uninstalling some of Dell's preloaded software.
I've tested this by running Folding@Home vigorously on and off for several hours, playing a few games, and anything else I can do to heat the CPUs with and without the GPUs. It's worked for me so is mine a fluke or has anyone else had any luck? I am running the A04 BIOS as that came from the factory.
OllieKM
11 Posts
0
April 18th, 2011 08:00
Hi there,
Thanks for the update.
The NVIDIA drivers are 265.x (I don't have the exact version number, since I am not on the XPS 15). Again, I did try to update the drivers but from the NVIDIA UK site and found no generally available drivers. Therefore, I will have to check the package that you referenced.
Could you be more specific with regards to which preloaded Dell apps you uninstalled (in case that is a factor as well)?
Anyway, thanks again.
A_1502_Buyer
3 Posts
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April 18th, 2011 13:00
Well, the pre-loaded Dell software I uninstalled was done before I even started working on the fan issue. I really don't recall but I can tell you the only Dell apps left are:
Dell Support Center
Dell Stage
Dell Webcam
...And that's it!
Pretty sure the fan was "misbehaving" after those apps were removed. I can definitely tell you that once I updated the nVidia drivers to 267.21 the problem went away. And the fans are still behaving "normally". Any more questions, please ask!
Shogoot
15 Posts
0
April 18th, 2011 14:00
As you. It work on Dells power plan. Havent yett experimented with the other plans.
OllieKM
11 Posts
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April 18th, 2011 14:00
Hi and thanks for the info.
I did install the 267.92 but there was no change until I did changed the Power Options to the Dell plan (I had Balanced before). The fans either stay on quietly (watching a YouTube video) or are off (general web browsing without Flash or any other multimedia features). I have not tried games as of yet.
This was a significant improvement so thanks for the help. Has anyone else tried A_1502_Buyer's suggestion?
A_1502_Buyer
3 Posts
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April 18th, 2011 15:00
I have had it on the Dell Power Option and High Performance and the fan still functions normally. Just tested it again by switching to High Performance, running FAH for awhile, letting it cool down to see if the fans cycle down, and then switching back to the Dell Power Option. It's still functioning normally.
frankfletcher
11 Posts
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April 18th, 2011 22:00
Unfortunately, I'm on the latest drivers supplied by Dell. (I just checked again)
I went back to the Dell power plan and even reset the plan back to defaults.- but my computer still turns the fans on and off randomly.
Of course I didn't make it sleep or shut it down after switching. This has been known to help (see my earlier posts). So I can turn the fans off - but I want them to come on full blast when they are necessary like when I'm gaming or compiling code or running an emulator and the cpu is getting warm. I just don't want them to be erratic.
Obsidian88
2 Posts
0
April 19th, 2011 10:00
Just installed the latest NVIDIA drivers (270.61) that support the GT540m. Fan still goes crazy even when I load a webpage.
I want to tell Dell to switch my laptop, but so far from all these posts I have assumed I will just get another one with
the same issue. This constant speeding up and down of the fan cannot be good for the internals of the laptop...