XPS 15 fan, on/off/on/off, gahhh!!!

My new XPS-15 is doing this too.  Fan comes on for only a few seconds then right back down again.  Sometimes does this several times a minutes while doing nothing but browsing!  I find it REALLY distracting and would love to find a cure.  I've updated everything I can think of and it still does it.  Hope they address this in the Bios or a driver soon!

Given the fact that idle CPU/GPU temps are 55-60 celsius, I wonder if a re-application of thermal paste may alleviate the symptoms.

55-65°C is perfectly normal for idle temperatures.

Has anyone tried to set the cooling mode to "Passive" i one of the energy plans ?  I am using my laptop while on battery and it is silent.

I'm thinking of doing this while it is plugged in.  Apart from possible hardware failure does anyone have any objections with regards to doing this ?

The passive mode, as you found out, keeps the fan off while lowering the processor speed when the temps get too high. If the temps finally get to the limit after the CPU is clocked down to the minimum, the fans will go on. Reduced processor speed will not really show as a slow down for most applications; games and processor intensive programs will run slower.

You should monitor processor speed and temps and compare both options.

I am chiming in here so that if Dell looks they will see that it happens to all of people. From what I can tell, this is definitely caused by software, not hardware. It seems to be a combo of drivers, power setting and possibly even 3rd party software. I know mine does it when I launch nvidia inspector. It also did it with Nvidia System Tools installed. When I used a non-dell driver that did not use optimus (the nvidia card was used 100% of the time), this problem was non-existent.

I have the same issue with the fan.

It solves the problem every time I disable my Nvidia GT 525M card. When I enable it the fan goes crazy again.

Any solution?

I have newest drivers.

I have resolved my problem.

1. Install 270.61 drivers

2. Uninstall ALLL GPU and Fan related tools like NVidia System Tools, GPU-Z, NVidia Inspector, speedfan, etc.

3. In Optimus, set the Intel HD as the Global Default.

Now you have the choice of:

1. Go into power settings and choose 'Power saver'. This will make it so that the fan NEVER goes on at all

or

2. You can choose 'Max Performance'. This way the fan will go on for 10-30 seconds and they it stays off for 5 or so minutes before the cycle repeats.

Of course, if you start up games and stuff, the fan will run continuously but for everyday tasks like email, browsing, etc, the behaviour I described is what you should see.

This might be a dumb question but where do I find this 270.61 driver to install?

I am on my THIRD L502X because the Dell technician keeps wanting to replace them thinking the fan noise will be better on new models, but it isn't. I really like everything about this computer except the fan noise. I did change some power settings that seemed to quiet it down a little bit, because prior to the change everytime I changed webpages that annoying loud fan would kick on.

Thanks for any help!

I don't consider my solution a hack. The Fans are software control, either by the bios or by the video card drivers and other programs that use low level hardware access apis to change clocks, monitor fan speeds, etc.  By removing all unnecessary software you remove the variables that make the fan operation unpredictable. My L502x had the problem and without changing any hardware it now operates fine. I've never had it shutdown. I only had the on/off issue which has been resolved by following the steps I outlined above.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-270.61-whql-driver.html

Has anyone tried i8kfangui with the XPS 15?

This program, unfortunately, has not been updated recently, but the fan control may work on some newer models. Temperature readings are usually OK, but some units will not work with the fan control. My E1705 works great. I can set both fans to run independently to control the temps. Fan control is very smooth, allowing for increased cooling when needed. Much better than the BIOS fan control program, which often allowed the temps to get too high, then ran the fans on supersoinc.

All of these are fairly good.  But I believe that a BIOS fix with a possible OS re-install may be the answer.

I will need to try Lamer01's idea.

Thanks for suggesting you will try my solution which by the way is not an idea. It's an actual solution.