NOT AGAIN! My Latitude is overheating and the CPU is maxing out:

I just watched my 2 week old outlet e6410 do the same thing (intel GPU, i5-540M, docked, dual monitors). Fan spun up and system slowed to a crawl. Opened, slowly, a couple of diagnostic tools and despite saying the temps were only mid 40s (mid 60s to Tmax) on the CPU the multi was down to 1x-2x and 100% CPU usage. Popped it off the dock and a couple seconds later it started to go up to 4x, then 9x, then back to full speed and fan spun down. Something is definitely not right. I never booted to the installed win vista, this is was fresh formatted and updated with 7x64-ult the day it was received.

 

If that many systems have the same problem, it's user error. If you use a clean Windows 7 installation, I doubt any of these problems would happen. My E6400 has had no unexplainable problems with overheating or freezing.

 

The description is here. Is someone connecting to your computer? You can disable it through My Computer > Manage > Services and Applications > Services then disable the service.

HWiNFO32 seems to pick up more sensors than most of the monitoring tools. Try running it. The info includes CPU power consumption and fan speed (on the sensor page).

I wouldn't be so strong in blaming the users. It's a rare combination of circumstances. I've not seen any throttling problems with my E6410 when docked but I've only got one external monitor. We never got completely to the bottom of what could cause the E6400 to throttle.

John

 

I agree, but with six systems, the odds are pretty astronomical unless it's a specific configuration that causes it...my gut instinct says it's from the software that is installed on the system.

 

Has nothing to do with user error or software.
Its the docking station.

The docking station does not allow for proper heat dissipation, the temp rises, the system throttles.

The "ramp" that the laptop lays on while docked suffocates the unit.
Im tempted to saw half of it off as it serves no purpose other than same basic physical support (which would not be affected if I take ouit a chunk of the center).

 

I don't think its *actually* getting hot, when it happened on mine the temps on the CPU were fine. I think its more likely something is reporting wrong, or the BIOS is screwing up somehow.
edit: with some more info. Admittedly, its got prime95 running 4 threads, but even 80*c is 25* below the Tj max. Once throttled, the temps went back down to the 40s and it stayed throttled.

 

This may be true for the D6X0 series, but the placement of intake and exhaust are completely unobstructed by the E-series docking station. In fact, I get slightly lower temperatures when docked, so I made a stand for the laptop for use when not docked.

 

Agreed.

Are you using dual monitors when this occurs? Have you tried running the second screen without the dock?

 

I agree. 80C for the CPU temperature is not hot (I've seen over 90C in my Toshiba R500 which has a ULV CPU but a very small fan). What I also find interesting in the screen capture is that the fan is still running at over 4000rpm when the CPU has cooled down. This does look like a bug: Neither the throttling nor the high fan speed are getting disabled when the system cools.

John

 

Even more strange is that after I undocked and turned off prime95, it slowly stops throttling.
I bought this laptop to last me through 2 years, and as is I'm probably going to return it.