Latitude 7400 - won't trottle down

Open Additional Power Settings to get to Change plan settings. However there are lots of programs running behind the scene. Open Task Manager, Processes and also Services to see them all. 

I am aware there are lots of programs running. There are just as many running now, but with 'Power Saver' set the CPU will throttle down, the system cools down, and the fans go off. If I change it back to balanced, the CPU sits over 2Ghz, the system gets hot, and the fan comes on.

I am seeing this behavior when running dual 1440p displays with the CalDigit TS3Plus+ Thunderbolt 3 dock.  When the machine is undocked, it performs normally. When it is docked with only a clean Windows 10 1903 install running, it ramps up the fan to full RPMs and begins freezing for 10-60 seconds at a time.

Did you ever figure this out?

I raised the following, and it was marked spam by the moderator. It was a salty rant, but justified one. I am probably returning this Laptop. A valid critique and they shut down my message. Hopeless.

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I have this new, for work, Dell Latitude 7400 with Intel Core i7-8665U CPU. 90% of the time, the fan is so loud. CPU is throttled up when it is plugged to the charger or when tethered to this expensive dell thunderbolt port. And yes, I use it on a proper wooden table. Now as I type this message, even on battery the fan is blowing full speed. 

It just seems that the Laptop is more like a jet engine, or hairdryer, and believe me, it is beyond annoying to me and others around me. In this work from home time, the least I would expect is a noisy laptop driving me nuts.  

I had come back to using Dell after 10 years of hiatus. Have had used laptops from all brands from Dells, HPs, Lenovos, Fujitsus, Acers, MacBook Pro’s and never would have imagined myself to this disappointment. 

To be honest I do not give a damn how business laptops should look. This run to make laptops sexy and thin, then ask to buy all these port replicators is pure nonsense. It is like selling an electric car without charging cable. I would have been impressed if you made purely functional laptops. In our architecture and design industry, we follow this adage, “Form follows function”. No wired LAN port on a business laptop is blasphemous enough. Imagine the pain of getting it started on private networks where WIFI is locked out.

Note for Dell Product Designers:

1. Did you guys just push off an engineering sample to market without testing?

2. Please note, if you are making business laptops, do not forget a physical LAN Port, or give those USB Lan adapters free. I give you an IDEA, which you will cash on in the future. Make an attachment of LAN Adapter which could be attached to laptop chargers for portable carrying, use magnet coupling, or plastic latches or whatever.

3. Third is, learn from this another adage which states, you reap what you sow.

I am sorry for my rant, but I cannot contain my disappointment.

P.S. Ignore any typos. 

We have been rolling out 7400s this year after going through 7480s and 7490s previously.

I'm one of the remote support techs for my company so I hear about this complaint frequently.

With some models, you can run Dell command update and update the BIOS and the intel dynamic platform and thermal framework drivers, and, sometimes, this will get the fan back under control. But not with the Dell 7400 model (I mean, you can run this updates, but it doesn't help).

I used a 7400 for about 3 weeks earlier this year while still working in the office.

Immediately, I noticed that the bottom of the device was hot to the touch. Not just 'oh, that's warm' but physical hot to a point that I think if you had this on your lap it would burn your skin. I also had issues with the fan running at high speed and being loud.

Granted, I chose to run 'high performance' power plan but even with that, ad idle, the computer ran loud and hot. I also used a Thunderbolt Dock (Targus 4k) but didn't think that was relevant. I never took my laptop to meetings so

I don't know how it ran off the dock specifically. After seeing where the air exhaust was on the device, it seemed like it was obstructed when the laptop was closed (attached to a dock). I propped the laptop on end and had it slightly open in a V standing on the side of my desk. it looked dumb but it seemed to allow better airflow and the computer ran at normal volume.

We continue to have complaints from our end users in the field - some working at construction sites where they may not be working in air conditioned offices. They complain of the loud fan interfering in conference calls using Teams and being loud in general. I really don't have a good answer for them on this one.

It almost seems like a design flaw.

And I can't believe how many times I had to try to submit this response. 

It kept failing to the point that I was starting to think that Dell was preventing me from doing so!

turning off Intel turbo boost in bios solved this problem for me. even got a higher cinebench score, the thermal design of this laptop is terrible

Hi Garrak,

The problem with turning off turbo boost is that the CPU will NEVER cycle up beyond some base clock, right?

Try my throttlestop approach and see if that helps....  I don't have a docking station, so I am not sure if these issues are the same or not.

R

It's true, mine doesn't go above 1.9 ghz. But for what I do it's still plenty quick. I'll wait a fraction of second longer for something if it means a fan isn't screaming at me the whole time. 

Would love to try the software fix but my employer is very strict about software that is installed on the machines. It's not even worth asking to DL it haha. My other plan was to mount a Noctua case fan with USB power to the underside of the laptop while docked!

I have an active ticket on the speed shift issue with Dell.  I’ll share the solution if there is one.

keep in mind I do not have a docking station... I just noticed the warmer than normal temps and the high frequencies.

Based on what I see in the forums, there could be more than one issue, such as a software problem between the laptop and the dock.

R

Same on 7300. Looking forward to a solution. I hope you'll keep us up to date

What does your CPU frequency look like?  Is it always high?  Use Task Manager / Performance to watch the CPU frequency.

I am waiting for an L3 response from Dell about this.  I will report on whatever advice I get.

FYI, my fan is generally silent for the most part, when I ensure that speed shift is running.  I drive a 2nd monitor via HDMI, run several office programs simultaneously and web pages, etc.

I won't say it never comes on, because occasionally computers do work and need to run at high speed. 

R

in this moment CPU goes down, and works with lowest 800 MHz peaking to about 2 GHz. Temperatures on cores dropped to about 53 degrees of celsjus. In old one DELL's laptops in the same cases i have about 40 degrees ...

i have the same problem overheating in this laptop i have few opened tabs in chrome and fan makes noise still rounds with high RPM temperature of CPU is about 70 degress withs peaks to 99 I think that this model wasn't test eneugh has got wrong passed heatsink with FAN. I had predecessor 7440, 5450, 7470 but this 7400 in my opinion is piece of **bleep** and it's only one way to get good result with this behaviour: cutting performance, or reproject heatsing system ...or changing model of laptop and brand  

oh i losted in my mind information that i have NBD PRO SUPPROT and in my house serviceman change all motherboard with heatisink system with FAN: the result ....laptop heats the same as earlier, FAN spins the same as earlier, motherboard change only situation with coils noises: in this moment are much quieter.