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1184
XPS 15 running much hotter than usual for the last week
I have an XPS 15 laptop with SSD drive and lots of RAM that usually stays cool. Last weekend it installed a Windows 10 update (I think this was the 1607 version). Since then the fan has been running on high for the entire time that the laptop is on and it feels hotter than usual. The CPU load can be under 20% for an extended time but the fan keeps running. I managed to revert to the previous version of Windows and it hasn't changed.
The only thing that has worked partially is to limit the maximum CPU level to 50% (I tried using this setting on battery and then unplugged the laptop). This cuts the fan down to a lower level but I never had to do this before. Until now the fan would rarely run at all.
What's going on? Do we need some updated drivers?
richardg22
9 Posts
1
September 12th, 2016 23:00
This is very strange. I was looking at the task manager again trying to figure out why it's so hot when the CPU load is 20%. At the top it says Intel Core... @ 2.2GHz. On the right it says Maximum Speed: 2.2 GHz. On the left it said Speed: 2.9 GHz (sometimes going down to 2.8).
If I set the maximum processor state to 99% it drops down to 2.18GHz, if I set it to 100% it goes back up to 2.9GHz. I don't remember what it showed before this started but this seems very wrong. In both cases it stays above 2 GHz even when the CPU is not used much but I guess that's ok if it's not overheating. It's already cooled down in a few minutes and I'm waiting to see if the fan goes down.
Apparently it's been doing this for the last week and a half. What's going on here? Did Dell release an updated driver that overclocked my CPU?
richardg22
9 Posts
1
September 13th, 2016 12:00
Everything works now. I still don't get why Dell would push an update that almost melted my laptop. At least I could have gotten a Macbook then!