Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

I just played Guild Wars for about 10 mins (I use it because I can easily play it windowed and change graphics settings without restarting). The maximum reported temperature was 99º with HWmonitor and 105º with Everest. So it seems that, if anything, HWmonitor is underestimating the temperatures.

I cranked all settings to max in an attempt to force the card to downclock but it didn't. That might be because the thermal pads are making better contact or because I didn't give it enough time. In a few hours I might be able to investigate more thoroughly.

If the card runs without downclocking itself should I just let it run, even if it is at 105º or something like that? Or would it be wise to keep it under a certain "safe value"?

 

Why don't you try a Laptopvideo2go.com driver like 185.20? You'll get better gaming performance and maybe get lower temperatures as well.

 

I have tried that with the previous heatsink and it didn't work. But I can always try with the new GPU and heatsink, who knows?

 

What I don't get is why you get high temps.. I mean for me and other I overclock that GPU at crazy level, and I still don't have your nuts results.
Maybe, you have a different GPU revision which cost less for Dell but heats more, or the thermal pads are cheaper, else I really don't know.
OR your room is an oven.

Just the sake of trying, try games like Far Cray 2, The Witcher, or GTA 4 if you can, and see what you get.
My guess is that the mentioned games does something (some effects for example) that the \PU has the hard time doing and beeing limited so it heats less. But then again, it doesn't make any sense at all. Alternativelly, it could be your CPU that heats up which makes the GPU hotter and can't cool properly as it's a share heatsink.

 

The tech that was here earlier today said that these thermal pads vary widely in quality. That might be it.

He also said that the reason Dell went with the thermal pads is not lower cost vs. the thermal paste, but faster servicing. Dell subcontracts other companies to do the onsite repairs and pays them according to some sort of "average servicing time". Thermal pads are faster to replace than thermal paste and/or copper shims.

If my GPU stops underclocking under load I plan to game all I want in this laptop and if the GPU goes bust, I'll call Dell and demand a replacement. Rinse and repeat for the next almost 3 years. After that, well, copper modding time (or new laptop time).

 

Well I got the pads as well... the only thermal paste I have is on the CPU.
and putting thermal past is fast, as they go do like CPU makers, where they use thermals paste in pads which you can buy.

 

Wow! i can tell you straight away that your figures are absolutely insane! You should get normal temperature in any scenario possible (new laptop, new pads, new heatsink, and so on), as long as everything is in order. Something in your laptop is NOT in order. you either have a bad card, cpu, gpu, heatsink, contacts, virus but it is not normal in any case! I never had (using the geforce drivers) more than 90 in a game and i played gothic3, the witcher and nfsu2, for example. it usually stays at 70-80, although it might be possible, in some rare cases, to go above 90. everest, hwmonitor and gpu-z reports approximately the same temperatures, so as far as my experience goes, these progs report correctly your temperatures. i think you should be radical with your claims to dell.

 

The 6.5% wear battery story continues. Dell overnighted a replacement. I am very impressed and happy with their customer service. First is the backlit keyboard and now is the battery, within the first week of my E6400 ownership. It's a refurbished battery but it shows zero wear on BatteryBar and RMClock. They did not want my original backlit keyboard back but they do want the battery back.

What's interesting is that, just like the keyboards, two batteries are from different manufactures. The original one is Sony and the replacement is Panasonic. Sony has a slightly higher designed capacity, higher voltage, and lower charging rate. So "technically", I have 2% wear on the Panasonic benchmarked against the Sony. I am now nitpicking.

Great machine and great service.

 

That's how I feel. However, I just had my motherboard and heatsink replaced, and the problem persists, so I think that this is a fairly common problem. I still think the thermal pads are the culprit, even if some people have them with normal temperatures, such as yourself or GoodBytes. akwit in these forums had his motherboard and heatsink replaced TWICE and the problem didn't go away.

But if I want to get radical with Dell, first I have to let them try their proposed solution... I'll wait a couple of days to see if it gets better as the tech suggested (I'm pessimistic but I will wait). After that, we'll see. For now I have the GPU with an 80% underclock (i.e. all clocks are at 80% of factory settings) and the temperatures are at a maximum of 90º. This allows me to play Guild Wars, Age of Empires III and Trackmania quite decently. When I buy Gothic III (should be soon) I'll start bothering Dell again.

 

i don't think either they will improve, it has no logic. with underclocking you should have no heat issues at all, in my opinion. in any case, i wish you good luck, sadly these cases show that dell has some manufacturing problems and not some design issues, since some do work as they were designed to. a gpu that stays on the verge of its own usability limit is not at all reassuring...with some patience i think your problem will be solved.