A09 BIOS update released for XPS 1645

I'm sure you know this already, but just make sure you are preventing the fan from spinning when you hit it with the compressed air.

I'm not sure how exactly you would check for malfunction, but you could always try the burn-in tests like FurMark while observing GPU temperature and clock frequencies.

*edit: Temperatures shoot up pretty quickly for me using Furmark, but if you get insanely fast heatup (say over 80C in less than a minute), I might think something was going on.

*edit: concerning the fan, does it kick into high? I usually wear headphones or have the volume loud enough when playing games that I hardly notice it, but that thing is pretty loud when the system is under load.

 

I think that the thermal paste application you are going to do in a few weeks would be the best way to verify. If you do it then and the temps are still knocking on 100C's door, then I'd think it likely that the card was malfunctioning. The stock paste Dell puts on is A) Put on horribly (like mashed potatoes thrown on a plate, the plate being the chip LOL) B) Worse than something like AS5. Let's see what the paste reapplication does then you can go from there. Maybe even just reseating the Fan and heatsink assembly (in addition to the thermal reapplication) will do wonders .

 

I did drop the thing like a week ago...could there be a connection?

 

Absolutely. A lot of internal components could have been jarred during the drop. This is particularly bad for solder joints and, possibly more important in this instance, the thermal connection between the CPU/GPU can be affected as well. Definitely think about applying some new thermal paste as soon as possible.

 

Well Dell did want me to send it in for them to have a looksee I guess I'll do that after I'm done with finals and let them take care of it.

 

Perfect! If Dell is willing to have a look at it and fix any problems going on with it, then that's probably the best way to deal with it

 

The only reason I haven't done it yet is because I was told the turnaround time was 7-14 days >_< and on a slightly unrelated note I just hit 101C on my GPU...

 

What were you running when that happened?

 

101C . Wanna cook some eggs? Oh yes...I think its very likely that there is a connection, or lack of it . As RacingGun said the thermal connection could have definitely been affected by a drop, and maybe even the fan itself. I'd suggest first reapplying the thermal paste and reseating the heatsink/fan assembly to see if that helps temps. Also check for yourself to see if there are any noticeable damages form the drop. If that doesn't help temps, send it in to Dell. Brings back memories of my ol' m1530 that used to approach those temps...bad memories...

 

For fun, I fired up FurMark, Prime95, and ThrottleStop (monitoring only) again and this time I plotted the data... hurray for graphs!

Y-axis is either %, Temperature, or Multiplier value. X-axis is time in mm:ss

*edit: Oh, and as many people have noted already: the GPU didn't throttle (clocks locked in the 675 and 800)... I could have pushed the GPU temperature higher by turning on Post-FX in Furmark, but didn't feel like stressing my system anymore

 

So there is no GPU throttling and we are all so happy!

Is there other throttling still occurring in different areas, I havn't had time to test much.

 

@ Racinggun: Just Dragon Age: Origins...a completely real world use of my SXPS1645

@EDU there's noticeable damage, which is the palmrest being bent and my hinge splitting, which is why I contacted Dell about it...I was going to holdoff on sending it in because:
1. The damage wasn't severe (didn't seem to be)
2. I need my computer
3. It might be 2 weeks before I get the thing back.

Looks like I have no choice now, I'm not going to bother opening it up and poking around seeing as I'm going to send it in and that's precisely what they're going to do anyway. So I guess next week I must bid farewell to my XPS :cry:

 

Ya, CPU still throttles at extremely high temps (ie. much more throttling than is seen in the graph I just posted). I honestly wonder how many people will ever see the CPU throttle under normal usage now though... I can force it to happen with Prime95 and Furmark if I really want, but I think the s-XPS 16 is finally being allowed to be pushed to its limits where it is now throttling to protect against damage from overheating.

 

Your system should absolutely not be throttling (or as hot) from just that... sadly, I think there definitely is unseen damage from the drop... hopefully Dell can fix you up!

 

Awesome... Sounds like we have been handed a big dose of STFU from dell with this latest bios huh? haha

 

Hahaha ya, though now we can legitimately complain about crappy cooling!

 

That's right haha

 

Inside Intel CPUs is a bit that gets triggered if the CPU core temperature on any core gets hot enough to trigger thermal throttling which automatically slows the CPU down to keep it from going nuclear. Once this bit is set, you usually have to restart your computer to reset it.

If RealTemp reports HOT in the Thermal Status area that means your CPU is currently thermal throttling on that core. That will change to LOG if it is not currently throttling but has throttled at least once since you powered up. When RealTemp reports OK that means that not a single throttling episode has taken place since you started up your computer.

Even if RealTemp wasn't running at the time, you can start it up afterwards and it will read this bit which is saved in the CPU.

RealTemp 3.59
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/RealTempBeta.zip

 

Alright guys. I ran some tests and I can also confirm that the GPU no longer throttles after 84C. I got up to 90C without any throttling. However the CPU looked like it was throttling....(or at least the multipliers where in the low 11s sometimes 10) is that what everyone else is getting for cpu as well?

 

Yes sir, that is if you were running Prime... and you want it to be throttling when it gets too hot to prevent it from melting away!!!

 

yup was running prime..

well thats good...wouldnt want to melt away my brand new laptop haha..

I've always wondered if there was any truth to the whole "burning in" your graphics card...i know that the program is meant to stress the laptop but honestly i felt very uncomfortable when i was running these tests...you could just feel the computer giving it everything it had...and the fan was just racing

 

Intel Core i7 CPUs are designed by Intel to start throttling when they hit 100C. Any CPU throttling before this point has nothing to do with heat. It's the Dell bios trying to keep power consumption within limits. With a more powerful power adapter, Dell wouldn't need to do this.

 

Good to know!

 

Interesting... Thanks.

 

The Intel thermal shut down temperature isn't until 125C. By design, they throttle at 100C to help prevent them from ever hitting the thermal shut down temperature and the Intel throttling built into the CPU works excellent.

It knows how to maximize performance without letting CPU core temperatures get out of hand by continuously adjusting the multiplier and voltage many times a second. The bios isn't letting the CPU do this. It steps in before this throttling starts with its own throttling scheme. You can see evidence of this in the ThrottleStop log file. When you start seeing multipliers being reported that are less than the default multiplier and they are exact numbers like 10.00 or 11.00, that's the work of the bios. When the CPU is doing the throttling the numbers in the log file will rarely show nice even numbers like that. You might see one out of 100 entries but not lots of even numbers like you see now. This is evidence of the bios throttling the CPU based on power consumption.

 

So, do you think if one were to get a 150 or bigger adapter they would see an improvement?

 

Even with a more powerful adapter, the bios will still limit you just as if you have a 130 watt adapter plugged in. ThrottleStop might help a little. The 130 watt adapter is being limited by Dell to less than the full 130 watts DC. You could probably run it with ThrottleStop to push beyond the Dell limit and get closer to zero throttling.

Power adapters are designed to shut down if you try to push them beyond their rated capacity so worst case, if this causes you to go over 130 watts DC, your power adapter might shut down. Power cycling it by unplugging it and then plugging it back in should get it working again if this ever happens.

 

Does anyone have problem with Sleeping after the BIOS update? I can no longer make my Laptop sleep. Close Lid or Manual Sleep doesn't work. It just stays on, screen turns black, then I can't do anything either when I press keys or open the Lid.

 

Thanks for the info...you're always helpful. I just resumed from hibernation and apparently I'm "ok" again lol.

 

I am so upset
Was playing GTA:EFLC and the sound and graphics started crackling. I quickly did app switch and started ThrottleStop to log and played for some more time. I see severe throttling. Someone please suggest something . The temps of CPU were in 70sC...

 

With these temps and the return of throttlegate...methinks I'm going to roll back to A03 and resume 130W + TS. Wouldn't need TS with A08...but the GPU throttling is a major pain that didn't exist in A03. I wonder if it's possible to have a GPU Throttlestop? I'd donate again for that lol...

 

You should be upset because your log file looks horrible. Your laptop is running at one quarter (1/4) of the performance level that Intel designed this CPU to run at.

With this new bios, can you use ThrottleStop to prevent a lot of that throttling? With a 130 watt adapter you should be able to power through the majority of that throttling by locking the multiplier at its maximum and also locking clock modulation at 100.0%. Why not play that game again and run another log file with ThrottleStop set up like that to see if it makes a difference for you.

I wish I could help with that but I don't think it's possible with the ATI cards.

 

Those bizzare temps I was getting yesterday ~84-99C on the CPU and 100C+ on the GPU only happen when I bypass Dell's throttling via throttlestop, otherwise I hit those temps relatively quick. I don't like A09 anymore... lol it's like they alternate the throttling, and it's becoming apparent why. When you try to run this thing full blast it comes to the verge of melting itself into oblivion.

 

Well updated to A09 BIOS and have mixed results...yes the GPU does not appear to throttle, but the CPU throttles (I think) WAY worse than ever before
Ambient air temp is ~ 76F or 24.4C, have 130w AC, and laptop is on a wood desk,, no cooler yet.

BUT I may have other problems The short of it is a tech came (for the 3rd time) 05/18 to replace my fan, he put in the new fan, and a new heat sink, BUT that didn't fix the fan running constantly problem, so he put in a new motherboard (2nd one), BUT reused the new...now used heat sink without putting new thermal pads on it , so I think the thermal contact isn't as good as it should be and it seems to be running warmer now GPU Idle is 63-66C CPU is 56-61C

1st playing world or warcraft @ 1280x800 with all graphics set at 1/2 or lower GPU runs 76-80C with peak at 84C, but no GPU throttling with A09...BUT when the CPU hit ~80C (about 0.75-1.0 hour of playing) everything went to a crawl, sound became distorted and choppy. I opened throttlestop and it said the multipliers were all 7.00...this is an old game that plays on almost anything!

2nd as a test I started to play Left 4 Dead (1) in less than 3 mins the GPU hit 86C but no throttling, so i continued to play while the temp rose to a peak of 90C and hovered in the high 80s, for about 5 mins, then everything slowed to a crawl and sound became distorted, again this was about when the CPU hit 80-82C. I logged this with throttlestop and you can see the multiplier step the processor down 12.00, 11.00, 10.00, 9.00, 8.00 to 7.00...I'm afraid to turn on throttlestop for fear of melting my computer The multiplier lockout at 7.00 will go away if i restart or wait 5-10 minutes for it to cool i guess?
@ the high 80s to 90C it becomes uncomfortable to keep my hand on the left side of the keyboard.

Oh and Hard Drive is around 49-53C while doing the above and 48C at idle...

What program can i use to log CPU temps? I had everest, but my 30 day trial ran out.

Also I think i'm going to build a cooler this weekend...as it is badly needed.

 

If you add

TJMax=100

to the ThrottleStop.ini configuration file then instead of ThrottleStop showing you the DTS column, it will change that to the approximate core temperature and you can log that. Intel's sensors are not 100% accurate at idle but they are good enough to give you a ball park temperature number.

For an ATI GPU you should be able to add this to the configuration file:

GPU=2

This will add ATI GPU temperature monitoring and logging to ThrottleStop. It makes life easier when all of the damning evidence is in the same log file.

Edit: A 7.00 multiplier combined with clock modulation of 12.5% has your CPU performing like a castrated Pentium II. You're barely over 100 MHz. No wonder it feels so sluggish. The PII was a hell of a lot faster than that back in 1999.

 

It is so worse. I am damn upset .
I think I am going to roll back to A08.

I am ready to have GPU Throttling but not CPU Throttling.

Ok Mr.Webb, I loaded ThrottleStop 2.0.B18 and turned it on. Played GTA:EFLC game for 30 mins or so. I think the multi were set but Clock Modulation sucked. Check the attachment.

Thank You.

 

Okai so I ran furmark and wPrime at the same time to
1) check if it would indeed go 85c
2) to see if it throttles (worse) compared to A08

Well yes it does go above 85c now, which is good i guess.
For #2 here's my throttlestop log... comments?

 

Can anyone point me to the newest iteration of throttlestop? I'm still using 1.94 I'm getting ready to roll my bios back to A03.

 

Can you explain why exactly you're downgrading your bios and using throttlestop? whats the advantage over just using A09 without throttlestop

 

1. Way higher temperatures.
2. Annoying and seemingly random fan speeds
3. Severe A03esque CPU throttling
4. Combine all of those and I have to end up using throttlestop anyway, so I might as well go back to a BIOS with better temperatures.
5. A09 SUCKS.

 

But A03 will give you gpu throttling AND cpu throttling..

the random fan activation is part of the new bios' ability to allow higher temperature for the gpu..plus what the hell exactly are you doing on your laptop because the cpu only throttles at 100%+high temperatures...are you running prime95+furmark 24/7?

 

I think you need to check my TS log. My Cpu runs at 70sC and 80sC and I get severe CPU Thottling in the game I was playing fine in A08.

 

I'm not saying that you shouldnt adjust your bios if you're having problems but...at least as far as I've noticed..my cpu is the same and the gpu no longer throttles..and id rather have the cpu be my bottleneck rather than my gpu since im more likely to max out my gpu rather than my cpu while playing video games.

 

1. The fan is doing jacksquat for my GPU temps. I hit 101C on it in 30 minutes, a temperature I've never seen before even after 8+hrs of game play.
2. I don't even have furmark, and haven't run prime95 since I got this thing in November. I'm playing a game, a perfectly real world acceptable use of my SXPS.
3.A03 only had CPU throttling, GPU throttling was a new feature of A08 and A07 I believe.

 

Thank You for the hints on customization...works great on logging the temps, tonight i'll try a couple of games and log some data.
Now I'll have some data to show Dell there is a new problem

Sadly the in home tech cured one problem but is the cause of a much worse one...your description is very accurate Basically i can't do anything when it throttles like that...BUT I'd bet i could cook my dinner on it

 

bipul_fx: Your log file shows clock modulation going from 100.0% to 12.5%. That just kills performance whenever that happens and gaming frame rates will instantly drop and games will be unplayable. Not good.

DuranXL: That's a short log file you posted. The default 12 multiplier is being maintained so that's OK. If you tested for a longer period of time you would probably see some throttling.

ThrottleStop 2.00 Build 25
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/ThrottleStop.zip

 

How many of you have the RGB display versus the WLED?

I would expect to see more throttling with the RGB due to a lack of power, even with a 130 watt adapter.

 

I've rolled back to A03 +TS. Now I'm playing Dragon Age with my laptop running full blast and the peak temp is 85C compared to 101C on A09 and the horrible throttling.

 

That makes me think that maybe they raised the cpu core voltage with the recent bios versions. For CPU testing use a consistent load like Prime95 Small FFTs. A significant change in peak core temperature while running the exact same load usually is a good sign of a core voltage increase.

 

What would be the point of them doing that though? I'm putting the exact same load on my CPU & GPU with a massive difference in temperature, maybe it's just me, but the sensors don't lie.