Got XPS 15 replacement laptop, still the same FAN problems....what now?

Hello,

I got a replacement for my XPS 15 and it has the FAN noise aswell, the fans run for no reason even at idle.

Should I send the replacement back?

What should I do now, ask for another replacement?

 

Contact Dell again,maybe they will send someone out to look at it rather than go through all the waiting. Tell them you cannot keep sending it back all the time as you need it to work on.

 

Where was it documented that the fan should be silent all the time when the computer is "idle"?

I understand that it would be better if there was no fan noise, but we all know that the fan isn't "running for no reason at all." The fan is running because the CPU/GPU hit a temperature which is designated by the BIOS to to set the fan to run.

Is Dell bad at designing BIOSes? Yes.
But is the laptop working as Dell intended? Yes.

 

My Studio 15 is silent all the time, but have another 2 Toshiba Laptops that screams loud every 2/3 minutes until the temperature goes down (by design on the 2 units).
It seems that for XPS 15 is a random behavior, maybe is a sligth overheat caused by too much thermal compound as it was detected on other threads here.

 

Well as others are not having FAN problems, I thought why not ask for a replacement?

The fans start and off all the time, which is very annoying if your in a quiet enviroment.

I sent my replacement back to Dell already, was disappointed, going to call today to see what they say.

 

It's just going to be the same on whatever replacement you get.

My suggestion is to invest in a good pair of headphones.

 

Hi BitHeroes do yo have the same issue with your XPS 17?

 

Correct. Mine turns on and off.
Doesn't blow like a shopvac every few minutes, but it turns on and is audible, even when I'm "doing nothing".

I expected it when I purchased it though, so no surprises. Its an XPS with hot running hardware.

 

Have you tried with any notebook cooler base? Maybe it can decrease the temperature some degrees more, and the fan can be less audible, theoretically.

 

Well I know the fan can be annoying, but to explain the mystery:

Different people's ambient temperatures can easily have a 7C difference. This means that one person's laptop will be about 7C cooler than another's, and a 7C difference can be the difference of whether or not the fan triggers.

 

Haven't gotten it yet, it's en-route - currently in Warsaw, Poland.

 

If I apply the thermal paste, do you think the fans would stop going on and off all the time?

 

Both my XPS 15 with i5-460/gt420 and XPS 17 with i7-740/gt445 have fans that cycle on and off even when idling or light surfing. It doesn't bother me at all. I don't expect my laptops to be completely silent and would rather they stay cool than quiet. I agree with the poster that suggested headphones. To me this sounds like someone looking a bit too hard to find faults. If the fan was not running and waiting till your CPU was above 70C and then starting up at 100% would you be happier? To me that would be way more annoying and also more likely to cause premature failure.

 

Did not work for me. My fans actually went on and off every few seconds and it was annoying to the point you want to throw it across the room. So I sent it back.

 

Exact same issue, did you send it back for refund or for replacement?

 

Refund. I decided to wait for sandy bridge which is coming out in less than a month. If not for that I'd get a replacement because the 1080 screen and audio quality is just awesome. Not to mention you can get 435m performance out of the 420m by overclocking.

 

Correct. Go for SB as it would be a big performance increase especially in the quad category. But you should always know that the noise coming from high performance laptop is inevitable.

 

Hmm, Im having the same exact issue, where the fan just goes on and off every few seconds. I have a technician coming this week to install a new fan...I'm hoping its the actual fan and not the temperature sensor, I don't want to send my laptop back and then get a replacement/refurb with an inferior screen or something. I would just rather just return it for a refund and wait for sandy bridge but Im already out of my 21 day return period.

 

No broda, its not an issue with the actual fan, but its the BIOS itself which turns the fan off when the laptop is cool enough. Infact, these are known as 'cycling fans' which cycle automatically between on and off. It'll only turn on when the notebook gets hot.

If you don't want a cycling fan behaviour, look for some older BIOS updates on the dell support website. It might resolve the issue, but those old BIOSes might have the problem of screeching static noise from the speakers/subwoofer.

As the cycling behaviour of my XPS 14 got fixed by flashing to an older BIOS.

 

On mine, the fan kicks in at 54 degrees celsius and that can be considered normal behaviour. The quick pulsing on/off is not normal behaviour but it's not the laptop's fault. When mine did that it was the Nvidia system tools causing it.

 

Look here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/570946-xps-15-l502x-constant-fan-off.html