M1330 downclock / undervolt nvidia 8400GS GPU

Because of the widely known "heat + fan noise + bad heat dissipation" issue I'd like to find a reliable way to underclock or undervolt the GPU (and possibly the CPU too) and reduce the fan speed.
I tried any possible combinations of BIOS and video drivers with no relevant heat/noise improvements.

RivaTuner 2.11 doesn't work with any of the drivers I tried: first it says the driver is not supported, and despite that I'm able to underclock the GPU. Unfortunately the temperature remains almost the same and also sometimes the clock goes back to the original value...
Also, RivaTuner cannot control the fan speed.

Also, I guess I8fanGUI conflicts with the BIOS: the fan switches continuously between max and min speed...

Is there any "best recipe" for underclocking / reduce heat / reduce noise?
Please consider that I will never apply the copper mod (at least while my M1330 is covered by warranty).

 

Regarding CPU undervolting check flipfire's guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

Regarding I8fanGUI:
. Set Options / Display Options / Fan setting enforcement to 20ms
Now i8kfanGUI will sufficiently quick enforce settings and your demanded fan speed will remain without going up and down.

I don't recommend using I8fanGUI at all:
. The source code of i8fanGUI is derived from disassembling a very old version of Dell Diagnostics Fan Speed test of a different and old notebook.
. i8fangui only supports three stages of fan control (off/low/high), while the BIOS supports at least five stages
. the BIOS takes many temperature readings into consideration and slopes of temperature differences to map that on the speed of a single fan. You can only do worse. The only exception my be running the fan always at full speed, though I haven't tested whether i8kfanGUI's full speed is as fast as Dell BIOS full speed.
. deinstall it. It's even considered dangerous by Windows Defender!

Undervolting is also fine. And not performing the copper mod while still being under warranty is fine as well. If that's still not sufficient: Get a decent notebook cooler such as the Zalman NC1000. Everything else is not a good idea (at least at the moment - maybe somebody comes up with a great new cooling solution).

It's possible to downclock the 8400M GS, but I haven't seen any GPU undervolting (which in my opinion would be great as well). But as you said: Only the clock speed - doesn't make so much of a difference regarding GPU temps. Lifting the laptop from the desk does make a difference.

A great tool for watching CPU + GPU temps is HWMonitor
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php
since it displays the maximum reached temperature as well (good for checking temps after gaming) and even gets the temps of the PM965 intel chipset right.

There's even a way to integrate HWMonitor's temperature reading into the Vista sidebar:



However that requires the configuration of three tools and to auto-translate a german text by means of google:
http://blog.orbmu2k.de/tools/hardware-monitor-gadget-host

I may put up a guide in the future.

 

ROFL its fully safe but will not work on XPS systems.

Read tips over at cooling central for cooling down your notebook.

 

I think you're not uptodate:
. fan control works on XPS M1330
. fan control doesn't work on XPS M1530

He has a M1330. Personally I do not trust people's claims "fully safe", if they don't get the basics right. I don't mind people using i8kfangui, but I don't recommend it. That's the difference.

 

thanks 7oby and X2P.

I also use HWMonitor and my GPU reaches almost 90C just watching a movie... I never tried 3D games but I guess that would be lethal!

My point is that I'm only looking for an easy and temporary software-only solution (plus I keep the M1330 lifted so that the fan can breathe).
I'm not willing to change or buy anything on the hardware side because IMO it's Dell's fault: they need to recognize that thousands of people are complaining and they need to find a real solution. That doesn't mean just "replace the motherboard and let's hope..." as they usually do. They should at least design a better heat sync and replace ours for free!
I would even accept to replace my 8400GS with a crappy intel x3100. I just want a laptop that I can actually put in my lap and that doesn't drive me crazy with its noise, not a small but loud and hot desktop!!!
I originally chose the nvidia 8400 because it could give me some extra performance but, since I don't play any games, the drawbacks are really unbearable.

 

There's also the chance that the Geforce 8400M GS doesn't have a good connection to the heat pipe.

90°C seems a lot to me. I'd test whether this is different for CPU and GPU based video decoding. This is how to enabled HD GPU based decoding with free software:
http://ranpha.wordpress.com/page-1/
And for the CPU based decoding I'd use CoreAVC trail or at least a recent ffdshow-tryouts e.g. contained in K-Lite Standard:
http://www.codecguide.com/

Here's a free 1080p video (162MB):
http://movies.apple.com/movies/sony_pictures/quantum_of_solace/quantumofsolace-tlr2_h1080p.mov
. right click save as ...
. rename .mov -> .mp4
. play either when having Hali Media Splitter installed or in MPC-HomeCinema (contains an older version of the splitter).

Try to find more people with reliable GeForce 8400M temps during vid playback.