M1330 A10 BIOS - Serious Problems

Right, I downloaded CPUID Hardware Monitor (as suggested above). The readings are:

CPU: 41 (min. 35, max. 50)
GPU: 50 (min. 43 max. 56)

I will assume that is more accurate than ik8fangui (although I'm not sure why.) A GPU temp of 50 is still tolerable, I imagine.

 

thanks i got it
how do i let it show my gpu temp

 

tabten, congrats on your temps
your system should survive...

mine @ Bios A11 idles at 55-57C CPU and 66-68C GPU - with vista power setting @ 100% cpu max state.

So to save on enegy and lower temps, when i do word processing, i set the cpu max state to 50% which would entail a 7-9C lower temps

 

HWMonitor is a free windows hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, fans speed. The latest version is 1.10 released on 06/27/2008.

HWMonitor Web Page
Download HWMonitor 1.10 32-bit version
Download HWMonitor 1.10 64-bit version

Just extract the compressed file and run the program. No installation required.

 

YEah, HWMonitor is good for monitoring temps, there's another one out there with a 64bit binary or driver but I can't think of it off of the top of my head. I recall it giving similar temp readings to Everest.

BTW, tabten, Everest does a LOT MORE than temp monitoring. Download the free demo to find out It's the ultimate program to find out all kinds of information about your system. I think it used to be free once upon a time but sadly the developors (Canadian, I believe) decided to start charging for it.

 

I was referring to k8fangui. The readings are off by 10C, therefore adding 10C to the GPU temp offset would solve that problem.
I like using k8fangui as it also displays fan speed, temps for both CPU/GPU neatly in the taskbar.

 

Hi, sorry if this is a too basic question but how do you set the cpu state? That would definately be a useful tool to have !

 

Use RMClock to limit the frequency on the processor. There's never any need for always using maximum clock though and the speedstep feature should be used to get the best of both worlds. My CPU is undervolted, dropping idle temps to 33C and the clock ranges from 600Mhz to 2.5Ghz depending on load.

 

Ohh, okay, thanks. I shall look for it and download it asap . Much appreciated!

 

Installed A11 bios... Working well so far.

 

Two posts later and you still can't take 30secs time to post the actual link???

Sorry, all out of reps...

 

I think this is something in the lines of teaching a man to fish (macreyes is teaching to search) rather than giving him a fish (providing the direct link)

 

Man, this is a great BIOS update, I don't think I will ever need to update again unless there is a drastic change. Everything is working wonderfully.

 

Mine has A09 installed and I've never had a problem (mainly used for Office suite/Internet browsing).

Do you guys reckon I should update to A11?

will run HW monitor 2nite on A09 to check readings...

cheers

temps from HW Monitor:
CPU: 49 MAX
GPU: 61 MAX

running IM, firefox and outlook (Vista SP1)

 

I noticed the heat increase after flashing to A10 and just went to A11 last night, now the fan is constantly on..
Sure, temps are down around 5c for both the cpu and gpu but I kind of prefer my laptop more quiet..

 

That's why I still haven't flashed mine yet.

 

This whole thing sounds scary -- burnt GPU???
Guess everyone is within warranty as its just the m1330's launch anniversary.
But any way to measure if there has been any damage (heat stress) to any part? I did use the A10 for 24 days and was wondering why there was some much overheating. Luckily I use Notebook Hardware Control to reduce CPU Mhz if there is too much heating (which is usually when I am on the bed). Since I have a room air-conditioner, I have actually kept the XPS on it for a whole minute to cool its faster (Looks nice when the CPU is 30C)

Plus, had invested in Zalman NC-1000 for regular table-top use. Right now, CPU is 36, GPU is 39, Memory is 48C. Room temperature I guess is 28C or something.

 

Ah... could you be a little more specific, please?

Like:

• What BIOS did you flash from (A09, A08,...A0n)?
• What temps increased due to A10 exactly (CPU, GPU, chipset, area under your palmrest, etc)?

I like Sinstoic and his generally-speaking, "above & beyond the call of duty" input here on NBR, but I'm not a big fan of this "BIOS killin' me GPU softly with heat, luv" conspiracy theory.. .

Considering all the problems we've had with the 8400M GS and 1330, I can't imagine Dell's designers churning out a BIOS revision that raises the fan's temp trigger value or similar...

 

A06 to A10, temps raised by around 4c for the cpu, 6-7c for the gpu, and area under palmrest felt warmer. Went to A11, dropped around 5c for both the cpu and gpu. Might not have been a problem for you, but it was for me

 

Thx 4 for the info.

 

Here my input, I know this may not be relevant to most of you guy due to OS difference.

Using A09 bios (default) with:

45C CPU
55C GPU

I am currently running Arch Linux (Openbox) and its under load on battery with no laptop power optimizer. Ever since the annoucement, nvidia did release a new driver but they support the 7XXX and 8XXX series.

 

A12 BIOS out:

http://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/M1330A12.EXE

Fixes/Enhancements
------------------
1. Added enhancement for thermal control.
2. Update GM965 Graphics VBIOS from 1466 to 1588.
3. Update Intel CPU family name.

Please report who thermal control differs compared to A11!

VBIOS Update fixes an important data corruption bug for X3100 users:
http://softwarecommunity.intel.com/isn/Community/en-US/forums/thread/30250940.aspx

 

wow new bios out already?

i wonder what's in store for us M1330 users... hope they are able to further lower the GPU temp

 

I don't really see any evidence that A10 was burning people's computers at a quicker rate than previously described. Where's the evidence? There are reports in this forum of the GPU running very hot (and eventually dying) on just about every bios this computer has had? Not trying to pick on the OP, and he very well might be correct, but I don't see any data to back up the idea that A10 was killing computers in a week (my computer shipped with A10, ran as hot as others have reported for other bios, but not hotter and still works fine). With A10 the fan still comes on max in the mid 70's and the GPU downclocks when it hits around 100 C. I mean we all have our annecdotal experience, mine included, but this doesn't make this a fact. No one seems to post any hard data regarding how the A10 bios is screwed up leading to dead computers in a week? Is there a glitch and the fans aren't coming on at all for some people? Is it not downclocking for some people? I'd just like a concrete reason for A10 killing computers.

I've read just about every post on every thread dedicated to this overheating issue--its my obsessive compulsive nature. What I have read--and again, this is the experience of users of this forum, not hard science--is that people have dead GPU's from all bios revisions (except A11 and A12, which haven't been around long enough for meaningful data), dead GPU's on every motherboard and heatsink revision, and dead GPU's regardless of the nvidia drivers installed. Gamers and light users alike both have dead GPU's, as do people in both warm and cool climates.

Dell's thermal pad solution, combined with what seems to be a massive amount of Nvidia GPU's with thermal issues (see recent headlines) leading to dead GPU's in a matter of weeks up to about a year. I was ready to blame this soley on Dell, but apparently Nvidia put out a chip that can't handle the thermal stress its rated to handle, although the details about this are still sketchy.

A11 and A12 may indeed be better and I am not discouraging an upgrade, but I think the fundamental problem still remains that the computer has a poor cooling solution combined with a problematic GPU. I think--if nothing else changes--then you'll be seeing dead GPU's with A11 and A12 in a few months as well.

FYI: Atitool, Ntune, rivatuner, GPU-z and everest all show about the same GPU temps if people are looking for multiple monitors to x-reference their temps. I8kfangui is about 12-13 degrees lower than all of these on my rig.

FYI#2: I hope I don't come across as being critical of the OP. He's put a lot of good effort into this problem. I just think people need to post facts--specific temperature readings, specific fan behavior, downclocking behavior, graphics drivers, ambient temps etc when comparing two different bios.

 

my 6 month old m1330/8400 just died 1 week ago showing the typical GPU-failing symptoms first, and then shortly after total failure. got an on-site repair and the engineer replaced the motherboard and cooling unit.

as far as i can remember, i have approx. the same GPU temperatures with the repaired lappy as before with the defective one. both running on A11.

idle temps are CPU:47/48 GPU:72 (env. 25°C)
since A11, fan is constantly on @medium, also during idle.

i think my GPU temp. is probably higher than normal as i drive an external TFT with 1900x1200 + Vista (glass effects) + closed notebook (=more trapped heat).
i dont game, but max GPU temp i can get (around 90°) is by using the FF piclens plugin (3D picture wall).

will soon try A12 to see if GPU temp gets lower at all. we'll see.

i have a feeling that this was not my last repair because of the GPU. i certainly will extend warranty if i haven't sold this thing within the next 6 month already

 

has anyone experience BIOS problems with the m1530 as well...or is it just the m1330

 

Mate this is really similar to what has just started happening to me, but in a different kind of order.

I brought my Dell XPS m1330 laptop in December 07 and it came with bios A08 installed, around Feb I updated the bios to A09.
The laptop had been fine for everything I was doing, surfing the web, word apps, general vista stuff and playing 2D games such as Age of empires etc...Anyway's around May I installed a 3D game called Rollercoaster tycoon 3, it was the first time I'd played a 3D game on the laptop. The game settings were on high, I started the game, played it for no more than 10 mins before the game just froze then the laptop would crash and re-start. I originally thought maybe I had the settings too high so I tried RCT 3 on low settings, same situation occurred again. So I tried other 3D games such as Half Life 2 and team fortress i hit the same problems as before. Actually around the same time as the in-game freezing problem I started hitting problems with my system not recognising my hard drive. One morning I turned on my laptop as normal when I got an "Disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart" message, so I checked the bios everything was fine, restarted, got the same message again. This went on for about 15+ restart attempts then it just worked, windows Vista loaded as it normally would, I was a bit bemused by this but it seemed fine. The Rest of May and June the laptop was pretty much working fine apart from the odd, random "disk reads error" at start-up but it only occurred occasionally so I didn't make an issue of it.


So 3/4 weeks ago I installed the new bios A12 and latest nvidia (175.97) driver, that's when the MAJOR problems started to occur. First of the disk read error problem, it started happening a lot more, I'd say 1/5 of the start-ups.
Once I get past the start-up issues vista seems to all of a sudden start running really slow, almost to a standstill. It can happen at any random stage, from 1 hour to 3 hours later, it just starts running really slow. I may add this doesn't happen all the time but once or twice a week, a restart seems to sort it. What is more disturbing is the last 2 weeks I have started getting the problems "sinstoic" had. I'd be surfing the internet when I'd get weird dots, almost as if you'd lowered the colour to like 4 bit, then it would degrade and I'd just end up with artifacts then the vertical lines in many different colours. The laptop then freezes up and restarts. This is now happening 2/3 times a week. What is concerning me more than anything is the short burning smell I have noticed Thursday and today when the problem re-occurred.
I've re-installed vista, drivers and bios but the situation seems to slowly be getting worse. What is more concerning it seems to me that ever since I installed the latest bios A12 and nvidia drivers these problems have exculated. If this continues I am going to have to contact Dell, the reason why I have kind of put off contacting dell earlier is because I need my laptop as I have no other computer at this moment.

The question is do I have a hard drive problem as well have a graphics card problem or is it just the drivers causing this....

How long will it take if dell take the laptop for repair...as I really need a computer...

Advice would be much appreciate.

az

 

I would talk to Dell asap; regardless of the cause, something dire is going on that will not be fixed by anything you can do alone. I would also get my data backed up asap if you have not already. If you have the usual US in house warranty then they will come to your house with the appropriate parts. If they decide to rebuild then I believe you can keep your computer until the new one arrives and then send it back. At any rate, the longer this goes on, the longer you run the risk of your data being corrupted or not being able to be backed up; I would call asap . Good luck.

 

Hi, how to know what board I am using?

Thanks

 

I know this isn't the threads main topic but I have a 1330 6 months old, barely used and I just purchased the new samsung SATA 2 64gb flash drive. We took out the orig. hd and did a ghost image of the whole thing. Then put in on the new drive, although the bios sees the drive, it won't boot up, doesnt recognize the new drive, any ideas?? I know the new drive isn't bad because I can run dell diagnostics from it when connected to the computer that I installed the ghost image from and read write data to it. But when I install it in the laptop, I can't get it to boot up? Any ideas, this drive cost me 700 bucks and I can't get it to work, please help!