m1330 & Bios A12 - Fan Permanently on?

If you do a bit of reading, you'll find out it's not the cooling system that's the problem - it's the way the chip itself was made. 

It's a bit of the chip design and a bit of the cooling heatsink design. Poor design all around...

 

Please read about it yourself before you bash others.

I've read on a couple of sites that the main batch of cards affected are the 8500's, but the BIOS/driver update seems to be almost across the entire Nvidia range of laptop GPU's. 

 

It's no shock that Nvidia are not stating exactly which cards are effected (in my opinion it's much wider than just the 8500's), but I'd like to know if I'm updating to 'be on the safe side' - and in the process get a noisier laptop - or whether I have a real need to protect the 8400 I have.

 

I'm reluctant to install A12 on my M1330 if it means the fan is on all the time for no reason than covering Nvidia/Dell's backsides.  One of the reasons for buying this model was because it was quiet most of the time and had a class leading battery life!

 

Also, this seems like a bit of a band-aid solution. If there's a design flaw with the chips surely it's a case of 'when' it fails rather than 'if' it fails.

 

If this is the case will Dell extend the warranty to cover this?  What if the problem does not manifest for 18 months - where does that leave the people with a 12month warranty?

It's frustrating knowing I have paid good money for a machine which may have a fundamental design flaw.  Which may fail earlier than anticipated. And the 'solution' is to create a noisier laptop and possibly reduce battery life.

I appreciate this is in no way Dell's fault, but it would be reassuring to know that Dell have our backs if Nvidia's GPU time bomb explodes!

Will this happen with my Intel GM965 ???

 

I´m kind of a noob  : )

 

 

I confirm that the fan is much more on than before

 

WITH BIOS A11

1. I've turned on the laptop (fresh, well.. normal house temp)
2. waited the Vista login screen
3. at about half the way (not a fresh system..) the fan turned on
4. waited about 5-10 minutes
5. after some times the fan switched automatically back off

WITH BIOS A12

 

1. I've turned on the laptop (fresh, well.. normal house temp)
2. waited the Vista login screen
3. just a few seconds later the fan turned on (much sooner than before)
4. waited the fan to turn of, but it didn't even after a while
5. log on in vista (always on battery saving mode) and until now it never turned off, even leaving the system relatively not busy, and keeping the airflow holes free

I know this isn't at all a precise mesurement, but I think it could mean that in everyday use the fan probably will not stop running. ever.

 

 

I didnt, however, notice an increase of the noise level (speed) of the fan. I must say that it seems by ear just the regular minimum fan speed noise, which is far from being really annoying.

And, probably, would have started working anyway sooner or later during the even most light usage of the cpu (think about visiting a flash site nowadays)

 

 

So, to sum up: with A12 BIOS the fan will start running sooner and stop running later. if ever.

 

Is this a reason enough not to upgrade? mmmm I don't think so.. my rule of thumb with laptop BIOS is to keep them up to date no matter what, and not choose what upgrades apply by the maybe undesired side effects.

If the video card overheats easily and there's a risk it will break down, I can't afford that to happen. Not for how much I need my laptop for work. So I don't regret the update. At least for now

 

 

I sincerely hope that DELL and NVIDIA will keep working on the overheating issue with a smarter way than "well, we just keep the fan going all the time", maybe underclocking the gpu a little, or finding a way to recognize affected cards from the safe ones or ..well, something else.

 

 

I'd sincerely like to know if anybody who upgraded to A12 bios have *EVER* noticed their fan automatically stop running at some point.