Latitude 5480: Noise Issue reported with cooling fan when connected to a Dell dock
Summary: This article deals with a perceived loudness issue with the fan on a Latitude 5480 Thunderbolt 3 laptop when a Dell dock is attached.
Symptoms
Does your Latitude 5480 fan get louder when connected to a Dell dock?
Some people are incorrectly diagnosing a fan noise issue. This occurs when a Latitude 5480 laptop with Thunderbolt 3, discrete graphics and HQ processor is connected to a Dell dock. When measured at first, the fan is only spinning at 2400 RPM. This can occur when connected to either Thunderbolt 3 or USB Dell docks. Sometimes it is only noticed after the laptop has been running for 25 minutes. (Depending on how much the laptop is being used and whether the battery is charging.)
Cause
The laptop is running exactly as it should. It is well within the laptops specifications, as is explained further below.
Resolution
What does this mean for system performance?
The laptop is not showing any hardware or software issues. This does not affect the system performance and is well within the laptops environmental specifications.
Increased power usage makes the laptop warmer, which starts the fan to cool the machine. Using the correct measurement tools this reports as 2400 RPM. This is only the first step on the fan table and simply means that the fan has started spinning.
The noise given off by the laptop is only 0.1 to 0.4 sones. (Less than 30 dB.) Which is well within the loudness specification of a Dell Latitude laptop in idle Central Processing Unit (CPU) mode.
