M17x fan noise + temperature

Well, I have this laptop for a month now and it's really great. Only one problem. The first day I unpacked it and set up all my programs everything was fine. I monitored CPU temperatures with HWMonitor and they didn't exceed 39 degrees IDLE. Unfortunately I didn't check them under heavy load. The fans were silent and I was very happy with that. The next day I booted the laptop, a very weird fan noise was coming from the right upper corner of it, like the fan was loose or hitting something. I tapped it with my finger over the spot where the noise was coming from and the noise stopped but after 2 seconds the noise came back. I was tapping it and the same thing was happening again and again. The noise is softer when the activity of the computer is low, like when I use MS office, but when I play games like Crysis and the temperature goes higher the noise becomes louder like the fan is ready to break and fly out of the chassis. The sound of the fans of the GPUs are normal under heavy duty, nothing weird about that. I also noticed that the sound becomes worse if I tilt the laptop by lifting up a little the front or the back. I also noticed that the temperature goes up to 75 degrees under load. I used the OCCT for 10 minutes under 98% of CPU load. I was wondering if these temperatures are normal for a non overclocked CPU and if this weird fan noise is common to other owners. Ι noticed that other users don't have that high temperatures. I am tempted to open the laptop and make an inspection myself but I would rather not if it is to return it back or have it checked by someone from DELL. Other than that I have no problem at all. All the drivers are up to date including BIOS. Thanx guys.

 

your temps are fine ... just call dell and tell them to fix t

ps when you tilt a fan its not gonna run perfect

 

I know but it is the only fan that makes this noise when tilted and it sounds like an old power supply with a fan ready to stop spinning. So you suggest that this noise is not normal according to my description. right?

 

yes it is not right

you can follow my gpu guide to try to reseat it or you can call dell and tell them you have a faulty fan and they will come next day to fix it

 

Thanx for the quick answers. I will call them tomorrow and see what happens...

 

The fan soudning bad when you tilt it is normal.....it gets off balance on the bearing and makes an aweful sound, I can reproduce this easily. A full power down or sleep (to kill the fan) and resume makes it work fine for me

 

I had the same thing with the right fan after only 3 days, and it got worse. Called Dell Support, and tech guy replaced both fans. Now the rumble has gone (even if I tilt the laptop). I would recommend to have the fan replaced. And check whether it runs while the tech guy is there. In my case, he had to come back because the replacement fan simply wouldn't spin up. Good luck

 

hmmm

I am pretty tempted to have them overnight me a fan (or 2) to see if I can make it stop doing that. It is pretty annoying because it happens whenever I pick it up and wont go away until I shut down

 

I was on the phone with Dell support five minutes ago. They gonna send a fan at the closest service point and a technician is going to call me as soon as he gets the replacement part. They said that if the noise comes from the upper right corner it is probably the GPU fan. That sounds logical to me too.

 

I have had the right GPU fan go bad twice now, both instances were resolved fairly easily with a call to Dell. Tho they were a tad more reticent the second time. I am certain it will happen a third time and I am curious what they will do then.

 

A couple of minutes ago I tried to stress test the GPUs. 5 minutes under OCCT and the temperature of the one GPU was always 5 degrees higher (GPU1 96C GPU2 91C) until the point were the screen turned black and the laptop stopped responding. I am not sure if the difference in the temperature is normal or it has anything to do with the faulty fan. I also tried to play counter strike source at max details which is not that hard for the 280m SLI and unfortunately the game kept freezing randomly with me pressing the power button in order to reboot all the time. The drivers used are the .91 Anybody experiencing something similar? Should I call and tell them to bring along with the fan and a couple of 280m just in case ?

 

One GPU (The left one) will always be hotter than the right one since it is the main GPU, so this is perfectly normal . However, the black screen is not normal. The thing is, is it really a hardware problem? Or is it just a software problem? Try installing all the new drivers from dell's website. About the game freezing I suspect that the problem is only software based not hardware based. Try reinstalling counter strike source or updating it to a newer version.

Hope this helps

 

I don't know if this helps, but i have discovered that the base of the M17x where the air grills are, is not rigid, therefore if you have the laptop on a surface that is slightly bowed then the table will push the grating upwards causing the fan to hit it (and it sounds dreadful). Looking at it, the symptom is accentuated because the feet on the laptop don't give much clearance. I have got around this by putting a cd case under the back of the laptop (but not covering the vents) - not ideal but most of the surfaces I use the latop on are flat enough!

 

Today I replaced my right gpu fan. It SHOULD go easy but the teh guy managed to break a small plastic part on the touch panel and now the right edge of the panel is a little loose. He would break a lot more, but I stopped him and asked if he could leave me the fan and I do it myself without voiding the warranty. He agreed and was gone for good. The whole process took me 10min, thanks to Moo's guide. I only regret that I couldn't stop him earlier. I don't wanna make a big deal of it, but it seems the guy was trying to do it for the first time in his life. That sux... I'm really frustrated with Dell support so far. I was on phone with them earlier trying to schedule the replacement, and believe it or not but the guys I was talking to didn't have a clue of the M17X (I'm in Canada/Calgary) and managed to redirect me to HP!!!!

 

Wow my tech had worked on 1 before but that was it ... I asked if he needed help

 

It's good, Moo that you made this video. Was really helpful. I did a lot of disassembling before(working in IT tech support), but I always bow before gaming enthusiasts

 

Tomorrow morning at 10 I expect the technician to replace the fan. Thanks to The Moo, we all pretty much have a very good idea on how it is supposed to be replaced and what parts need extra caution when removed. If I see that he has no idea and no respect to the machine I will stop him right away. I can't afford to loose another morning because of someone's incompetence. I have both the experience and the tools for the job, I just want to go by the rules since my warranty is still valid. Thank you all guys for the advises. The only reason I didn't try to change drivers and try different versions of the games is that right now I don't have that much free time to experiment with various combinations. One more question I have is if the right GPU fan is different from the left one. I suspect not but you never know since I read from other people that have problems only with the right fan and don't complain about the left one
I would like your opinion and for something else. Tell me if it would be helpful a thread where every owner will post in a form of a table the CPU speed, the idle temperature not OC, MAX temperature not OC, overclocked speed and FSB frequency, idle temperature OC, MAX temperature OC, as well as the info about the GPUs before and after OC along with drivers used and if someone wants to go even further, list the max temperatures during games. If we keep this in a specific format we can see which combination has better results quite easily.