Dell Latitude 6430u - Fan Speed

Hi peza,

Fans become loud or have abnormal sounds due to:

• An out of date BIOS.
• Obstructions in the fan or vent area.
• Physical Damage.
• Dust accumulation in the fan or vent area.
• Using near a heat source or in a hot environment.

Clean Air vents:

1. Check the vents on the computer to see if they are covered with dust and not allowing heat and air to pass through.
2. Turn off the System
3. Remove all power sources: Unplug the AC Adapter and Remove the Battery, or Unplug the Desktop Power Cord.
4. Use a compressed air can to blow the dust out of the vents. Be sure to hold the can at an upright (near 90 degree angle) and hold it 15-20 centimeters (6-8 inches) away from the target.

Hardware Diagnostics Check:

I recommend running diagnostics on the computer (power off the computer, restart the computer by holding the “FN” and Power button on the computer).

Let me know the status.

Awaiting your response!

Hi Dell-Rajesh R,

- BIOS have been updated to the last version A04 (www.dell.com/.../latitude-6430u-ultrabook)

- no obstructions

- no physical damage

- no dust accumulation (I'm using laptop only for tree or four days)

- no using near a heat source

I have checked the hardware diagnostics, all components (including fan) work properly. Fan speed was between 4000 and 5000 rpm due the diagnostic.

I would like to point out that laptop is completely silent directly after boot, but after few minutes (during web browsing, CPU usage cca 10 %) fan begins constantly working and will almost never slow down. I tried to change power schema to Quiet mode (in windows battery settings), but with no effect.

I wish the fan speed would be increased proportionally with the performance.

Thank you for advice!

Hi peza,

Check the status of fans in Safe mode with networking.

Refer the following link which has steps to boot into safe mode with networking:

http://bit.ly/yFE1MQ

Also, check by creating a new user account and see if the issue persists:

For more Information refer Microsoft article on User accounts:

http://bit.ly/RRLZ0N

Awaiting your response!

I do have the same problem, the fan is either on running almost full speed and very noise or it's off. Looking at the CPU temperature with a tool like Speedfan it shows mostly more than 50degree even when CPU is not used.  

Is there any optimized bios planned?

Exactly! Here is Open Hardware Monitor print screen: tinypic.com/view.php

Same problem here. I received the laptop yesterday and the noise is comparable to the one in my Latitude E6410 which is unacceptable. I am only running a browser with two tabs and the sound is loud enough that you can hear it across the room. It should not be dust since it is a new laptop.

Any advice on how to solve this issue would be highly appreciated. I love the design of the system and I would rather not return it but if the noise is at this level when the system is new, I can only imagine that I will get much worse as time passes.

Same issue here as well. Running Windows 8. As a test, I booted into WinPE and did a capture. The fans ramp up loudly there too. This is a definite BIOS bug. It is repeatable on multiple 6430u machines. This is in addition to the keyboard and touchpad not waking from sleep issue.

Hmmm - updated the graphics driver and 1601 driver but no change.  Will have to look at display link.

The only difference I note between my machine and what others describe is that I did a clean install of Windows 8 and no upgrade and I am not using the factory image. I re-installed from scratch when the new WiGig package was released. The fans are still coming on during a load but are much quieter than before and never get loud even when watching HD content using the d5000 dock.

**Just wanted to update this to make note of any differences I am aware of that may assist others working on this issue**

I also did not install the Intel Chipset package for the USB controllers. They are still at the Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller. The Intel USB 3.0 drivers installed automatically as they are in the default Windows 8 build image. My Storage Controllers are also installed as the Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller, which is the new default from Microsoft with Windows 8, and the Intel Mobile Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller. Additionally, I am using UEFI.

When I did a clean install, I purposefully installed NO additional drivers with the exception of the audio packages for Intel Display Audio and IDT High Definition Audio CODEC as well as the packages mentioned previously for DisplayLink and WiGiG. The Intel Display 15.31 package was not installed until a couple days ago when the display began to get a bit wonky, which was immediately fixed with the new version. Numerous drivers did install on their own with Windows Update. I purposefully only used Windows Update for the driver installations.

I also note that I have altered some of the Power Options but am unsure if this made any difference. USB selective suspend is disabled; wireless adapter settings for power saving mode are at low power saving; and PCI Express Link State Power Mangement is Off. Doubt those are making any difference but I did want to note them here.

I would suggest taking a peek at your list in Device Manager for the things I list above to see if you note any differences? I am curious to know if I install a package or uninstall something if the fan issue returns. When the fans do come on, again they are much quieter then before, the heat is definitely emanating from the 1601 card and not the processor or graphics.

Now running latest 1601, Display link, wireless hub, and intel graphic driver and there's no change to CPU temps or fan speed.

I've done some characterization of the fan behavior.  It looks like there is hysteresis of around 8C.  Once core (or GPU?) temp is above ~58C for ~30 seconds the fan kicks in.  Then it stays on until the temp drops below ~50C for ~30 seconds.  Problem is that this doesn't really happen - the temp is staying between 50 and 60C under normal conditions.   Also given the temp behavior I'd like to see a "quiet fan" option where it isn't running at 4000RPM.   Note there are other trip points where the fan is even faster, but I can only get that running something like prime95.

As far as drivers go I don't know - the WiFi driver is up to date.  I haven't seen any correlation between radio on/disabled and temp, but I can experiment.  

Update - I've learned two things:

1) My laptop had a bad fan which was generating more noise than what was expected.  We have another 6430U and while the fan is running it isn't as loud.  We suspect a bad bearing in the loud laptop, and have ordered a replacement fan.  It is trivial to replace the fan.

2) Our image didn't have the Dell Feature Enhancement Pack.  Once I installed that a new category appears in Power options which allows me to assign the fan profile to "quiet".  This changes the set points so the fan is much more reasonable.  On the downside it does reduce the performance slightly, but not a huge deal.

I do not have the Dell Feature Enhancement Pack installed as I prefer the Windows 8 default onscreen notifications so that is not allowing my fan to be quiet. Awesome that a part replacement can possibly solve the issue!