Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

6.14.11.7626 latest on Dell's website.

 

Hey all,
I found this nice GPU burn software and have been running some test. http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/#Download My GPU slowly heats up to 102 max then I think it downclocks as the frame rate drops. I'd love to hear what types of results everyone else gets. I also am running CPU burn with all cores maxed out and the gpu burn at 1186X875. Under normal use I never really see the GPU get above 78.

 

Yes i know. Cinebench and even better Specviewperf will load your system in the way 3D apps will. I mainly use my lappy for 3Dsmax and only the occasional gaming and while the drivers may not be optimized for gaming the card doesn't perform any less than a 9600 GT with "gaming" drivers.

Still, if you want to see what temps your GPU can reach, 3dmark06 does a good job at that. This test is stressing the GPU more and will get you higher temps at higher clocks while rendering tests will hardly see a difference in temps.

Try Specviewperf to get a real good idea what your system can do in various 3D apps environments

 

Just placed my order for a M4400.
T9600, 4gb ram, FX770M, RGB Screen, 12gb 7200rpm hdd.
I should get it next week with a bit of luck.

A quick question, (thats probably been answered numerous times) will it come pre-installed with a load of crap-ware i will need to get rid of?

 

I am going crazy trying to get spdif passthrough in Vista.

 

What did you do to reach that!?! Which BIOS are you running....if it's not A02...switch to A02, simple. With that assumption i find it unbelievable if people have heat issues and just keep running the later BIOS versions while it's a well known cause for these temps. Not for all but if you run A03 onwards and have hogh temps: THE BIOS CAUSES IT!!

I've been running the app you linked to for almost 45min @ 1920x1200 and it hasn't gone over the 81c i also reach after hours of gaming...absolute max.

 

i did not have temp problems with A03, or the latest bios, which im currently running.

older bios versions report the temps wrongly (according to dell) and its not advisable to use them.

 

@afhstingray

I thought the remark made by Dell about the temps and BIOS was a bit vague wasn't it? It was also the only mentioning by Dell of the issue at all so i doubt the guy was that well informed while most higher level reps/tech guy's never even heard of it. Besides that i can't really see how the BIOS would read a 20c difference between A02/A03 and A06 (where the issue started). If that was the case the people running older BIOS versions should've already fried their GPU by now, including me since i'm also OC'ing quite a lot And...that would mean the BIOS versions that had the laptop and GPU overheating are actually the fixed ones!?! that is wrong by default i think.

 

i cant answer those questions, i think only dell can. but the guy i spoke to was a part of the precision dedicated support team, he has a whole lot of qualifications CompTIA, dell, microsoft etc.

and i was told the same thing by 2 ppl frm dell.

i have to say, all this is quite confusing. im hoping to get my notebook finally sorted out (fingers crossed) next month when im a bit less busy. (travelling at the moment).

i miss my D410. It was really so solid and ran really cool. Its screen sucked big time though, lol.

on my current m4400, the bottom panel dosent really fit flush with the sides. gonna have to try and see if i can slide it back in properly. I havent opened this one up before, it came like this frm the factory.

 

FWIW - running on BIOS A11 here.

System idles at 36 to 38 for the first two cores, and about 33 to 35 for the third & fourth cores.

With normal usage, like web browsing, composing emails, file transfers etc., the CPU temps remain stable at about 40-42 for the first 2 cores & 37-39 for the other two cores, and ~50-52 for the GPU.

The fan does come on once in a while, spins on low/medium for about a minute or so, and then turns off.

After an hour or so of gaming, the CPU temps are about 50-52, and the GPU is approx 80; takes about 2 minutes each on High, Medium & Low before the system reaches idle temps, and the fan turns off.

My hard drive is always less than 35 under normal use; the highest I've seen from it is 38 after installing COD5, and running a series of drive tests - this with the 500GB WD as the primary drive using IRRT.

Ambient temp is ~23, laptop is undocked, and I'm not using a notebook cooler.

Power setting is "Balanced"