LATITUDE OWNERS: Dell has finally solved my problems! BIOS 19:

Many here know of the issues i have been dealing with, with the numerous e6400's ive owned this past year.

With a great sigh of relief I can finally say that DELL has finally gotten it right.

Not sure what they did exactly with BIOS 19, but I magically have no more spikes in temperature, no more cpu throttling and NO MORE HIGH SPEED FAN NOISE!

Hopefully other disgrunted owners can find some relief as well.

 

double post

 

i hope its the same for my precision. i'm seeing more fan noise and a bit higher temps on A18 on my precision, A15 worked best for me i think. needs more testing though

 

Question is what is "magic" behind this solution. John Ratsey mentioned:
- added 3600 rpm speed for fan
- fan always on (please confirm someone)

Secondly, akwit does Dell changed cooling meantime when you reported problems - I mean do you have somehow thicker heatpipe? etc?

 

This post reports that there is also a new 4000rpm fan speed.

These additional fan speeds increase the likelihood that the temperature will stabilise at one of the fan speeds slower than the noisy 4800rpm.

John

 

I looked into that when I first received my fourth replacement and, actually posted pics of the heatpipe and surrounding area on this site. Apparently no difference from my previous materials/setups.

Now that you mention this, I have been hearing a very low fan noise on somwhat of a constant basis.
However, it is a pleasure as compared to the 4800 speed and the temp has yet to go above 39 degrees. The systme is constantly cool and quiet.

John-what kind of drain do you think this new "fan always on" will have on the battery?

 

I'm thrilled that your problem is finally fixed, akwit! Now you can actually use your computer...
More fan speed steps are generally a good thing. Consider the alternatives - either the system is constantly switching between a lower step and a higher step, which is extremely annoying, or you're always on the higher one because that's what's required to keep the computer cool.

I've looked up fan power consumption on Sunon's site (who I believe makes most, if not all, E6400 fans, including mine), and although I'm not sure of the exact model, the fans in the size range of the E6400 tend to take up around 0.7W to 1W, and I'm fairly sure that's on full blast. If your fan is just "lazily" turning (although it's hard to call 1000RPM lazy), it really should be negligible. A much smaller impact than having your bluetooth on/off.
I think it's a small price to pay.

 

The fan is not always on. I think the low speed fan trigger is as before (my fan is off at the moment but the computer has only been running for 45 minutes and hasn't done anything demanding).

The big difference is that instead of the next fan speed being the fast 4800rpm, Dell have added at least one intermediate speed which makes less noise and uses less power than the 4800rpm speed. While I still think that the allowable chipset working temperature could be increased, intermediate fan speeds is a compromise. This also reduces the extent of thermal cycling which is no bad thing for the nVidia GPUs.

John

 

Just flashed with A19 Bios. Works great! Tortured with Google Earth and ... it kicks in but is less audible than earlier. Seems John that it in deed works on lower level but steadily for longer period. Those settings are better.



Temps dropped faster and stayed on lower level longer (kicks in when GPU: 55, CPU: 50 ... immediattely drop temeprature to: 40 GPU, 32 CPU ... although mine is on flat surface so it has more air).

 

You know with what in hindsight seems like such a simple, interim solution-you would think the rocket scientists at DELL could have come up with this solution a year ago...