173 Posts

October 2nd, 2004 17:00

OK,  I used the non packeged version of the bios and it flashed back to A03, now my fan runs all the time and its a lot cooler

192 Posts

October 4th, 2004 10:00

you're talking to yourself firstly

secondly if your fans are running the whole time, your fan will pick up too much dust, and your machine will overheat and shutdown.

dell released the new bios for a reason, its to deal with the dust collection issue of having your fan running all the time.  keep the new bios or pay the price later.

173 Posts

October 5th, 2004 11:00

I would rather pay the price later than sooner, this thing already broke once after 10 days, I'll just make sure I keep the heatsink dust free

October 11th, 2004 01:00

Someone opined: "dell released the new bios for a reason, its to deal with the dust collection issue of having your fan running all the time. keep the new bios or pay the price later."

But this is like saying a defect is being minimized by introducing another level of risk (more heat than originally designed in).

Would not the proper solution be to concede there is a fan durability issue here, and actually FIX that issue? Dust will eventually get the fan; running it less is merely driving the Titanic slower so that it does not sink as quickly.

And I wonder whether this is less a fan dust issue than one of too-little clearance beneath the Dell notebooks. With so little clearance the bottom fan is almost designed to draw up the desk rather than the air above the desk. Perhaps less dirt would be ingested if the intake were not so low that it acts more as vaccuum cleaner intake.

The effete rubber feet on Inspiron 1150 leave very little clearance between the computer and whatever it sits on. I have BIOS A05 in my Inspiron 1150; it is my impression that the fan kicks in a little less when it is sitting on my lap with lots of space underneath it, then when sitting on a desk.

Perhaps Dell should consider increasing the rubber foot thickness as well, so that the fan underneath has more air getting to it.

Since the rubber feet are falling off my 1150 I am replacing them with thicker stick-on feet. I well run a hard drive temp test using my Hitachi driver test software before and after applying thicker feet, to see if the airspace affects the temperature.

19 Posts

February 24th, 2005 05:00

I know this thread is old, but did the higher feet make a difference Polar?
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