I too have experienced that the new BIOS reduces the fan speeds on my Inspiron 9300. This is weird, as there was no mention of any change in fan speeds in the information about AO5.. Is this an error, or is it safe to continue using A05? How can I check whether my computer is getting too hot? And what exactly is "too hot" anyway? Should I revert to A04?
An increase in heat = shortened lifespan
My lap received a permanent tan from the bios upgrade and I went back to A04 and all is well.Dont understand why Dell would allow this, other than to increase battery life span. Which was increased about 30 minutes but at the expense of my CPU?
NO THANKS
Jeez - that sounds pretty bad!! Guess I'll keep A04, then... All of this seems really weird. How can Dell justify releasing A05? If people's computers are damaged, won't they get a lot of complaints / insurance claims etc?
Im using windows XP and looked in My Computer -> System Properties it tells you what what speed the CPU is doing Im not sure how accurate it is though. But id say slows down to 800 mhz when idle and max 1.99 GHz when im playing games. I have to say battery life increased around 30 minutes but performace wise its not good enough.
The machine became too efficient no need for the fan to kick in? :).
When i updated mine to A05 it also made my 9300 very hot but the thing I notice which is weird is the CPU clock stays at 797 MHz and wont increase even playing Half-Life 2 and also burning and ripping a movie which at most take 30 mins now took 2 hrs . I revert back to A04 and everything is back to normal.
I just got my new 9300 today. Jumped on the support site and got the A05. Loaded it up and when the machine rebooted, it only took 5 minutes for it to freeze up solid. I was very fortunate too be able to shut down, let it cool off for 10 minutes and then quickly download A04.
I froze up again before I could run the download, so after another cooldown, I restarted the machine and restore the 04 bios. Been running flawlessly for a few hours now.
Stay away from the 05 bios release on the 9300. Hope Dell will pull it off the download site before someone really thrashes their new Expensive Notebook.
I darn near called Dell to complain, but didn't want to wait for tech support. Maybe a little support chat is in the cards.
I am glad other had this problem too, for a second I thought it was just me being silly, but the temps increased by 20 degrees after this Bios update. If I was gaming that would be one thing, but I was doing basic tasks like emaling and web surfing. The laptop would get very uncomfortable heat wise.
I downloaded A05 BIOS. The fans stopped running continuously and instead they frequently cycled on and off. Plus the bottom plastic got warmer. The 1.6 ghz processor runs 10 to 20 deg C warmer and the fans going on and off all the time was annoying (I prefer the constant quiet whoosh), so I reverted to A04. The plastic under the RAM has always been warmer but I guess that is normal.
I never keep the 9300 directly on my lap because I don't want to block the bottom fan vents and I want to keep airflow moving under the case. A good solution I use is the Xbrand laptop lap desk, which just barely fits the 9300.
bacillus
2 Intern
•
14.4K Posts
0
October 16th, 2005 11:00
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
2fluke
15 Posts
0
October 16th, 2005 13:00
bacillus
2 Intern
•
14.4K Posts
0
October 16th, 2005 17:00
The Fjonis
6 Posts
0
October 19th, 2005 13:00
2fluke
15 Posts
0
October 19th, 2005 18:00
My lap received a permanent tan from the bios upgrade and I went back to A04 and all is well.Dont understand why Dell would allow this, other than to increase battery life span. Which was increased about 30 minutes but at the expense of my CPU?
NO THANKS
The Fjonis
6 Posts
0
October 19th, 2005 19:00
mhick
4 Posts
0
October 21st, 2005 00:00
Im using windows XP and looked in My Computer -> System Properties it tells you what what speed the CPU is doing Im not sure how accurate it is though. But id say slows down to 800 mhz when idle and max 1.99 GHz when im playing games. I have to say battery life increased around 30 minutes but performace wise its not good enough.
The machine became too efficient no need for the fan to kick in? :).
2fluke
15 Posts
0
October 21st, 2005 00:00
Question: How did you monitor your Cpu clock speed ?
Thanks
mhick
4 Posts
0
October 21st, 2005 00:00
2fluke
15 Posts
0
October 21st, 2005 18:00
Thanks
Draconia7
23 Posts
0
October 29th, 2005 07:00
Hey Y'all,
I just got my new 9300 today. Jumped on the support site and got the A05. Loaded it up and when the machine rebooted, it only took 5 minutes for it to freeze up solid. I was very fortunate too be able to shut down, let it cool off for 10 minutes and then quickly download A04.
I froze up again before I could run the download, so after another cooldown, I restarted the machine and restore the 04 bios. Been running flawlessly for a few hours now.
Stay away from the 05 bios release on the 9300. Hope Dell will pull it off the download site before someone really thrashes their new Expensive Notebook.
I darn near called Dell to complain, but didn't want to wait for tech support. Maybe a little support chat is in the cards.
Drac out
robucf
96 Posts
0
November 3rd, 2005 11:00
Thanks for posting the link back to A04.
Cheers!
goinwireless
1 Rookie
•
39 Posts
0
December 27th, 2005 07:00
I downloaded A05 BIOS. The fans stopped running continuously and instead they frequently cycled on and off. Plus the bottom plastic got warmer. The 1.6 ghz processor runs 10 to 20 deg C warmer and the fans going on and off all the time was annoying (I prefer the constant quiet whoosh), so I reverted to A04. The plastic under the RAM has always been warmer but I guess that is normal.
I never keep the 9300 directly on my lap because I don't want to block the bottom fan vents and I want to keep airflow moving under the case. A good solution I use is the Xbrand laptop lap desk, which just barely fits the 9300.
http://www.xbrandproducts.com/sp-bin/spirit?PRODUCT=55&PRODUCT_LAYOUT=detail_4_5_sale&PAGE=33&CATALOG=5