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504238
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?
Kerio_Orisa
18 Posts
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July 30th, 2016 16:00
Thanks. Well, among the many laptops that I have owned over the years, there were three models that never gave me the heating problems, and were reasonaly comfortable to keep in a "lap". for many hours
They were:
HP Probook 4330s
HP Probook 4340s, and
Toshiba Satellite L755-167
The HP Probooks were exceptionally cool, and the older one, 4330s was so simple for upgrading CPU or repaste. Just one pannel in the bottom, and you had everything in front of you. Literally a total of 5 screws to replace the CPU , in contrast to about 35 screws to get to the CPU in XPS15 L502X :-)
Toshiba was probably just as complicated to get to the CPU as XPS15 L502X, but I never needed to open that one.
dellxps15annoyi
17 Posts
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July 31st, 2016 09:00
I've had my L502X since summer 2011. It's in heavy usage as I take it to and from work as well as have it in use after work. It's my everything computer; 5 years and still kicking. I've done my fair share of maintenance on it, which is what helps keep it going.
I could go on forever about little things I've had to do, like replace the subwoofer 2 times, keyboard 3 times, etc.
The main thing I have to do to keep the fan from going into "ON/OFF/ON/OFF drive you crazy mode", is tear down the laptop and clean out the dust blocking the exhaust fan. My temp is at 60C right now on an i7 cpu with a room temp of 25C. I can tell when I need to do a tear down, it's quite hard to not notice or drive you crazy. Imagine someone with a hair dryer beside you and turning it ON & OFF for hours. It's like water torture. I've gotten my tear down to 15 minutes, as you know you basically have to take out every screw to get to the CPU among other components as well. The tear down and clean out is the only thing that temporarily solves this.
Now I did pay Dell for their extended warranty service a few years ago and they sent a technician to my office and he replaced the whole heatsink and put a new fan in. Once it got clogged with dust, back to the ON/OFF pattern again.
In my 5 years, I would say 90C+ is normal for this laptop while gaming and unclogged of any dust and 60C is normal for idle.
I would also add that this laptop would be in the garbage if I wasn't an IT geek. For a normal person this laptop would have been pronounced dead and in the garbage by now.
Kerio_Orisa
18 Posts
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July 31st, 2016 13:00
I see your point :-) Idle temperature on mine is also in 60's, and goes up to 80s with about 20-30% cpu usage, and sometimes touching 90's. That is after cleaning, and changing thermal paste. I don't play games, so never I don't think I ever used the CPU for more than 50%.
I've done the cleaning part throughly, and unfortunately that didnt help in my case. Also tried the other solutions like changing Nvidia control panel settings (user defined with quality max), and setting the fan settings to passive instead of active., etc None of them helped so far. I rather put this quad core procesor in my Hp Probook, as that one is far more pleasant to use (if cpu swap works, i'll just have to try), except the *** matt screen :-). This laptop (L502X) is just not a "lap"-top. I'll see if I use it as a stationary computer on table, if not, this one goes to garbage after taking out the processor. Frankly, the only reason I kept it so far is beacuse of its excellent screen (I have the best one they offered back than). It is such a delight to watch movies on this one with head phones--so that I dont have the sickening fan noise :-)
dellxps15annoyi
17 Posts
0
August 1st, 2016 17:00
The B+RG LED screen with 95% colour gamut & the speakers were/are a killer combo. I still enjoy both. I added a 512GB SSD & 2TB hdd. Upgraded the wireless nic and RAM. The battery life is horrible, but I'm always near a plug. I've replaced multiple parts, multiple times. 3rd subwoofer, 3rd keyboard, 3rd battery. This laptop would have been considered "broken" by most people a long time ago. It still survives through my daily life with no slow downs in my work and also provides a good entertainment experience.
Kerio_Orisa
18 Posts
0
August 9th, 2016 06:00
I have narrowed down the annoying fan noise problem. It is something to do with hard disk. My XP215 (L502X) came with a 750 GB WD 7200rpm hard disk. I created an image of my system on a portable drive, and restored the image on a 500 GB Hitachi 7200rpm, and well, the fan noises were gone. I don’t know how and why, but the fan behaves much better. To make sure that it is something to do with hard disk, I used the same system image to restore Windows on another 500GB hard disk (5400rpm), and the fan noises were back on that one. So, the only hard disk (among the three that I have) without fan noises is the Hitachi 500gb 7200rpm. I can’t explain why is it so. It is not a Windows issue, since I used the same system image, and did not re-installed a fresh Windows 7. Maybe some sort of software incompatibility with some hard disks, or something else.