M11x R3 Fan issues

Hey guys,

I just received my m11x r3 yesterday and have been playing with it ever since. I've done everything on it so far (games/surf/watch movies) and the fan was relatively calm and silent. I decided to do a windows update (All updates including SP1), and now the fan is always on no matter what i'm doing (surfing the web, doing some work, even idling!!). Anyone experiencing the same issue? or have an explanation on why this is happening?

 

Haven't gotten mine yet. Kind of surprised they didn't use a SP1 version of Win 7.

Does the fan come back full blast as soon as you restart?

 

Not full blast, but very noticeable. It was almost completely silent before the windows updates.

 

Seems odd, no one else is reporting this behavior.

 

Remove Service Pack and see if that fixes the issue

 

I have this issue too! I am so confused. I installed 15 updates and now I can hear it no matter what.

 

Add me to the list as well. After installing these recent Windows Updates the fan runs continually in the background. Never did that before.

 

I just got mine and thought nothing of it since I never used it before doing updates. I just figured it was a noisy little system, especially next to my MBP. If it was indeed an update that made it this noisy then hopefully it will be dealt with. You'd think web surfing on the intel chip wouldn't cause enough heat to make the fans noticeable except maybe now and then when it turns up a bit to cool some.

It isn't annoying when I'm plugged in, gaming on my monitor with external speakers or headset. But when I'm out somewhere running off battery just browsing forums or something it is.

 

Just got mine today. fan is always on loud. Doesn't bother me cause all my games run flawlessly in DX10/DX11 so idc. Especially when I have my G35 headset on.

 

This is really annoying, Im just on the internet and stuff and its at like full throttle. Somebody please find a fix or I will to my sadness have to revert to the factory condition

 

Oh its not at full when I'm browsing. Only when gaming.

 

Update: It is no longer at full throttle but very noticable while doing EVERYTHING

 

Well, I found the answer. This is the way the computer was made. It was meant to go full rpm in order to keep up with the high performance of the 540m and i5/i7 sandy bridge CPUs.

"Heat and Noise
I spent a number of hours trying to come up with a polite way of describing the level of noise produced by the cooling fan inside the Alienware m11x R3. After all that time, the nicest thing I can say is that the M11x R3 sounds like a pulsating hair dryer. The simple reality is this: The vent fan inside the M11x has to either turn on (at a relatively high volume) and off in regular intervals while the notebook is idle or it turns on full blast (at extremely high volume) while you're gaming in order to keep the relatively high-performance Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors and Nvidia graphics cool inside such a small laptop.
All that fan noise means that dangerous heat isn't roasting your laptop components, but it also means that the M11x R3 might be disruptive in a quiet office or classroom environment. The external temperatures on the M11x R3 are a little warm but are still fairly "lap friendly" as long as you stay clear of the heat exhaust. All temperatures shown below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit and were recorded when the CPU and the discrete graphics were working hard playing The Witcher 2 for about one hour.

Source: Alienware M11x R3 and Battery Life, Heat and Noise

 

That makes sense. I kind of figured it was just a noisy thing but I still find it kind of odd how it can be so noisy just running off the intel chip. The aluminum case of my MBP and dual fans must really make the difference because that thing is dead silent while browsing even on the 330m.

 

That's odd, i never hear my fan unless i am gaming. cam you check your temps? usually it turns on at 71 C GPU temp

 

That isnt the answer at all. Until I installed this last batch of Windows updates my fan rarely ever came on when just browsing. Now it runs constantly at a low level. When gaming of course it runs full speed but never before has it done this when not gaming

 

Sitting here on just the intel chip, browsing this forum and doing nothing else, my temps are around 50 C for the i7 and 40 C for my HDD. The nvidia isn't listed right now, since it isn't active I guess. But my fan is very noticeable. Nothing like when gaming but louder than you'd think it should be. I even have it sitting on a laptop cooler. I'm plugged in and using the high performance power plan, but that shouldn't matter.

 

Yeah that's weird my fan only is noticeable when my you exceeds 60 and even then it's bursts like it said.

 

mine kicks in at full rpm at 69C... other than that it turns on for 30 secs every 5-10mins. I have not experienced any difference in fan speed between the sp1 update for windows 7...

 

Me either. As I paid more attention it'd be full blast in cycles. It would go for about 2 minutes and stop until it reached a temp and continue again for 2min. Nothing crazy.

 

I only have my M11x R3 for a week. I noticed that the BIOS version for my R3 was actually A04. Anyway it's now back down to A02 as I ran the "update". I didn't know about it (no BIOS info from the updater) and it only takes 1 click to run the "update"... When it's on A04 the fan's like on and off, but now it just runs at low speed most of the time (even GPU at 42C and cores around 47C). Maybe that's the reason why there's a difference at which the fan kicks in, who knows... Temperature wise is similar anyway. I dunno why they don't put the latest BIOS update on the web if it's actually ready.