just got my new m17x r2 and fans never turn off!! whats wrong?

hey guys i just got my new m17x r2 today and i just got done installing all the new drivers "dell drivers only" and im noticeing the fan never turns off, its always at constantly on low and sometimes refs up alittle higher. this is very strange because i have a m17x r1 and it doesnt do this at all.

when im just sitting at my desktop on my other computer the fan is on, on my r1 it isnt.

anyone have a similar problem then this? or have any idea how i can fix this? man i hope nothing is wrong with this i could return it but i really dont want to i like it, red looks so much better then the other colors.

another thing is its a manufac. refurb.


EDIT: this is the reason for the overheating, there was a damn label on the heat sync no wonder why it was overheating look at the pic, it is sitting next to the new one that was just installed, the one with the label was inside the computer, i dont no how they didnt see that when they were installing

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The fans are always on low, they never shut off.

 

no way, there is no way its suppose to be like this its a constant vibration on my hands when i typing and it getting annoying if its quite in my room.

i have a m17x R1 and its nothing like this, just sitting on the desktop the fans are on and when i open a program it goes on alot higher, like opening firefox is the same as opening a modern warefar 2 on my r1 i no its not suppose to be like this.

opening small programs are making the fan go on alot, and it never site quite unlike my r1


also my computer is like not detecting my video card, i downloaded some gadgets to look at my CPU speeds and it doesnt detect my ATI 5870's.

and when i downloaded GPU-z im only seeing 1.2G-pixel when on the pics people have like 11.2g-pixel so i no something is wrong.

im hoping its just some kind of driver issue but i need to know soon because i can send it back to the seller if within afew days if i dont like it. its a manfua refurb.

 

Well it shouldn't be revving the fans up for simple desktop tasks unless you have poor cooling, very high ambient temperatures or clogged heat sinks. You should clean the heat sinks, put on some fresh paste and then clear the CMOS. I've read that some people were experiencing a similar problem as you and clearing the CMOS got rid of the problem.

To clear the CMOS:

1. Disconnect power + remove battery.
2. Press and hold power button for 15 seconds.
3. Replace battery and reconnect power.
4. Turn on PC.

 

Lets start with something simple post a screenshot of your temperatures using hwmonitor and post the screen shot at imageshack.us and post the link

 

its not high, i dont really know what the probem is, i took the battery out and held the on button for 15 seconds then put it back in and its still having the fan issue when opening small programs.

i think it might have something to do with my video card, its not being detected. iv been looking to install VBOIS so i can go to ATI homepage and download the catalist for the 5870's i have. i think that will fix it hopefully right? where do i d/l vbois at? i went to dell and tried to install it but it said the file wasnt found when i tried installing it.

it was

Drivers and Downloads

i am trying to follow the steps of this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...70-september-2010-incl-vbios-flash-guide.html

but i cant download the correct VBOIS, im just trying to get my video card drivers updated right, how do i do this?

 

ten min later later after just sitting my desktop doing nothing the temp went up 30 degrees in some cores.
here is the new image this is ten minutes later

 

Is it maybe an adobe flash problem, that can sometimes cause higher than normal CPU usage.
If you close firefox does the temp go back down?

EDIT: Did you check task manager to see which program is using the CPU?

 

Yeah looks like you have some unusual background program chewing up the CPU and causing temp spikes.

 

Hmmm, go to task manager and set the list to sort by usage in task manager and disable the one that is triggering your cpu to be constantly used. also,try starting it in safe mode if it continues to be loud then I would recommend a paste change.

Also I apologize I meant to say grab hwinfo32 as that will give you all the temps of the mobo, cpu and gpu

here is the link post a screen shot after 15 minutes of web browsing and minimal tasks nothing to intensive, then we can see what all your temps look like
http://www.hwinfo.com/download32.html

 

actually if this doesnt work why do a paste change, i got a advanced care warranty the best you can buy, they will be happy to come out and fix it or i bet even give me a new motherboard or computer lol, dells techs are the best about stuff like this.

im going to call them later and see what they say, it would be awesome if they changed the motherboard because when the fans go down and i listen really close i can hear like a high pitch whining noise, it is very hard to hear if there is backround noise in the room but my room is very quite so i can hear everything.

ill also go see which program is giving me that high of a CPU usage spike, ill get back to you on this.

what about the temps? as is an unsafe temps? because i got 181 degrees was kind of high i was afraid of frying something, what are some safe and dangerous high temps to look out for?

 

update: the CPU usage that was used up the most was that sidebar your seeing in the image thats showing the CPU speeds on the desktop, i opened firefox and saw if that would make it spike more and it kind of did alittle, but i didnt go on any pages i just was on a blank page.

the CPU usage was at %35 when it just had the sidebar and firefox open

 

Because even if they change the mobo(which is not the problem) you will still have the issue. I am assuming 181* F not celsius and only time you wanna worry is if it gets to over 100*C or about 212*F

Try disabling all of that stuff and see if the cpu usage drops.

 

it got up to 202* F "of course not Celsius lol " last night and i got really scared so i just shut the thing off. i called dell today and they did that remote assistance thing and installed some drivers i was missing and it still didnt fix it.

so hes sending a tech to my house to install a new cooling system and i said the fans are making a weird noise so they are replacing the fans too, man the techs really are the greatest if you have any problems. iv never had any other items before where techs are so willing to replace a part, especially with just me saying it and not them having to come varify it, then send the part.

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

Why your video cards and related sensors doesn't even show up on hwinfo32?

Edit: Just realized that you are not using HWinfo32, sorry...

so to make my post usefull... i recomend you HWinfo32

 

i was using a hardware monitoring that was where i was getting the temps from, hopefully that will fix the problem but if it doesnt its fine because i no dell will do anything to get this working even if it means giving me a new computer. that actually happened to me before with one of my R1's there was a problem that they couldnt fix so they gave me a new comp and it was actually upgraded so i was very impressed with their service

 

Yes i know that dell will certainly honor the warranty. I had also a problem the first week with my CF setup, did the call, 2 days later the tech was here at my home, with both brand new videocards, no question asked (i was expecting at least some troubleshooting from him. He just told me, "shut it off" and replaced both cards ). Warranty is definetly worth every penny

 

what kind of problems did you have with the videos cards? like what was the problem doing?

 

tech came today and replaced my heat sync.

man i dont know who put together this computer but they were really retarded i would think more than one person would check it out before they close it up but i guess they dont.


on the heat sync there was a green LABEL!! just sticking to it, and now that he replaced it the computer didnt overheat at all and the fans didnt kick on at all. i even took a picture of it check this out, next to it is the new one that he installed

EDIT: now im getting a new problem, right when i turn the computer on it just freezes right when it hits the desktop and i have to crash it, it happens everytime, i even got a blue screen acouple times that said "please see a tech" or something like that

 

Wow. That is utterly unbelievable.

Regarding your other problem, do you know if your cards are flashed with the newer VBIOS? Also, if you try hitting F8 during boot, you can select the LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION option.

 

yes that is not working, i believe the tech must not have connected everything properly because i can tell he never messed around with one of these m17x before, he was staring at it forever and flipping it back and forth trying to look for screws, and when he got it open he was thinking hard for like ten minutes and wasnt doing anything, so i no he didnt no what he was doing to much. he also said "dammit" under his breath one time when i was sitting down so i dont even no what that meant but it didnt make me feel good lol. he was a nice guy though.

so im sure its a hardware problem because why would it all of a sudden not work, i had all my drivers updated ect and it was working fine besides the high temps and fans always on. it wasnt doing the blue screen or freezing at all, it just started happening.. if a hardware isnt all the way connected would it have similar problems or no?

 

Can you run memtest?

You might have a ram problem (maybe the ram should be re-seated or replaced).

 

that would happen out of no where? i just bought this m17x last week, the tech didnt touch the ram either.

 

I'm not sure if it could happen out of nowhere.

Well ok, maybe it's not the ram, but running memtest would not take too long so you might want to try it anyway

BTW did you check your bios settings, maybe something got reset when/if the tech took out the CMOS battery?

 

what should i set the BIOS to just default?


also how do i do that memram test? the tech did something with f12 and thats what i just did, i did a diagnostic test and everything passed

 

Dumb question...does it boot in Safe Mode (F8)?

 

You can download memtest86 and run it from dos (make a bootable usb stick).

The safemode idea is a good one.


I'm not sure about the settings in the bios...

 

wow yeah it runs in safemode without any freezing, what is wrong then?

with the blue screen im getting the error code 0x00000101

 

When I googled that code, I saw some threads on other forums saying something like "one of your processor cores is malfunctioning".

 

just got off the phone with them, i got remote assistance from them and did some more trouble shooting for an hour and now they are sending me a new CPU. i asked if they would upgrade it since im having all these problems and they said no! i cant believe it, my computer been down for two weeks, i been talking to tech support for over 5 hours, and had to take off work twice now to meet with the tech support guy at my house to fix my computer. i would think the least they can do is send me an upgraded CPU since they already are sending a new replacement CPU.

could it be because i called so late at night? would the tech overseas have less authority then the techs in USA that work in dells offices? because im pretty sure i got connected to someone overseas because they were taking a diff language in the background and i could barely understand the guy.

two days of work for me is $200, plus the computer down time is costing me as well because i run my own business with my computer, since its been down iv had to stop a lot of my listings on ebay. so all in all its cost me, i told the guy that and he put me on hold, came back and said they didnt have the authorization for compensation. like i said, do you think its different policies for overseas? because i would call dell tomorrow morning if you think i should have a right to an upgrade, i do have an advance care warranty that i paid extra for

 

I agree it stinks but I have always been hard pressed to get dell to "compensate" me for anything.
Just the nature of the game with big business I suppose.

On a slightly separate note (concerning you loosing business etc. due to a non-working computer).
May I suggest you buy a cheap backup laptop/desktop for those times when this kind of stuff happens?

I have an NAS with 2TB storage that I have set to auto backup all my files every night at 1:00am.
This way, when my alienware decided to take a *rap I just pulled out my super fancy $200 laptop (HP 210 MINI) pulled the files I needed off of my NAS and continued my work until my R1 was replaced with an R2.

It stunk not being able to game and having to work on such a small screen for extended periods... but my downtime was very minimal.

Just a suggestion

D.

 

Sorry for the late answer, just saw your question.

I had severe system freeze while using crossfire. This would happend with wichever driver combination, let say almost out of the box. It wasn't temperature related but i cannot tell you exactly wich was the problem since both cards along with CF cable where replaced at the same time ruling out any troubleshooting to understand where the problem was.

Since then, no problems (so far)

 

thanks for the advice however i found out what the problem was. it was a malfunctioning CPU core, so i need to get my CPU replaced.

yeah i actually have two other laptops both broke, m17x silver "its being sold on this forums for $600 now if anyone wants" and i also got a HP dv6000 that i had before i got into alienware but the motherboard went out so i only have the one for now "thats also broke." i got a desktop in my house thats how im typing but i need a laptop in my workstation to actually get alot of work done.

 

In desktops at least BCCode 101 means the CPU needs more Vcore, so if you are running stock, it is highly likely your CPU has degraded significantly.

As for compensation, they usually don't hand those out like candy, sorry. It usually takes quite a bit of damage/convincing to get something out of them. Honestly it depends on who you talk to but Dell is willing to fix the issue and work with you so be happy with what you got.

Good luck!

 

i got lucky then, i got a corp email of a very helpful guy, he sent me a replacement m17x with just the problems iv had. and it had acouple ugrades including the one i wanted. the upgrades i received were 740qm, 8gb of ram, blueray player, all those were upgraded from stock r2's