XPS 15 L502x Constant Fan On/Off

Hey guys,

I've had my L502x for a week now, and recently this issue has been driving me absolutely nuts:

With just internet explorer open, CPU running at 1-3% load, idle CPU temp of about 53 degrees, simply opening a new tab and loading msn.com causes the fan to kick in for about 5 seconds. This also happens for everything else, namely opening a folder, searching something from the start menu, etc.

It makes no sense to me why the fan would remain off and then kick in for about 5-10 seconds when I perform any type of small computing task. I've read that some other people are having this issue as well, but I'm still not sure how widespread this is.

Has anyone had any luck with a solution or a response from DELL? I've done a clean installation of windows 7 and new drivers and the problem still persists.

Thanks

 

It could be the nvidia system tools. Uninstall them.

 

lamer01,

thanks for the quick response. I decided to remove my nvidia drivers altogether just now, and the problem is still there. I'm thinking it has to do with the Dell BIOS, but according to this thread on the dell forums,
going back to A01 BIOS also does not work either.

XPS 15 fan, on/off/on/off, gahhh!!! - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Frustrating considering my 3 year old inspiron 1520 is whisper quiet at all times and this new top of the line laptop is constantly making noise..

 

i had the same problem but it resolved itself after I completely uninstall the Nvidia system tools 6.0.6. Those are the tools that allow you to overclock.
So, make sure you uninstall those if you have installed them. They are a separate entry in the control panel add/remove programs.

 

L702x has the same problem: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/565548-dell-xps-17-l702x-fan-control.html

i think it is just dells mistake, they want to be to silent.
The fan should not by completely off (or only when the temps are really low) but for most use the fan should always just run at a silent 1000RPM, then you have a constant flow and for normal usage i think that will be enough.

 

Trust me, it's not Dell. It's the video card drivers. I installed the standard Nvidia driver instead and now the fan runs at very low speed but it runs all the time. If you don't mind having run all the time I would switch to the standard Nvidia drivers. By doing that you lose Optimus and one to 2 hours of battery life but for me it's worth it. The problem is that the fan/heatsink is shared by the CPU and by the GPU. The cpu fan control is under Dell's control. The GPU fan control is under the Nvidia driver control.

 

I have the L702X and had the same problem. Once I did a clean install of Windows 7 and my drivers the problem ceased. Now the fan only goes on when it is required. I guess I was just lucky with it. I can't think of anything else I did on the clean install that may have affected its operation.

 

i already have the standard nvidia drivers installed: NVIDIA DRIVERS 270.51 BETA

that are the latest (and the only one) i could get,
I dont have optimus anyway because of the 3D screen..

But until now the only thing that makes it a bit better is using SpeedFan and fixing it to 2800RPM (it can't go lower then that because one step lower is 0)

 

I've had my XPS 15 for 2 weeks. My fan was horrible with blowing hard then spinning down then 30 seconds later it would spin up to high for about 5 seconds. I hatted it. Looked in the Bios and saw nothing for the fan. Anyway, it seems over the last few days it has gotten MUCH better. I've done every Windows 7 update available. Maybe it included a new video driver. Who knows. I hope it stays this way and I'm not just talking too soon! I also stopped using the CPU overdrive monitor. Maybe it's little bar chart was making the video driver kick on!

 

Those drivers caused me issues with the fan as well. I went to one of the 267. drivers. Not sure which one, I am not home to look at it right now. It may have been the 267.76 from here:

Drivers | drivers for mobile cards and laptops | laptopvideo2go.com

 

The new WHQL 270.61 drivers work great. No fan issue.

 

This is getting ridiculous.

Just installed the WHQL 270.61 with the hopes that it'll solve this issue, but fan sped up twice during BOOTUP (Once during dell logo, once during starting windows). Then proceeded to spin up about 3 more times while it was loading my desktop. Then a couple of times while I searched for this thread..

I've tried the dell 266 drivers, the NVIDIA drivers, no drivers at all, and the problem is still there.

I'm leaving for vacation soon, but Dell better have something to say, and it better not be they'll send me another one (with the same issue).

 

I take back my earlier post that this problem had gone away for me. For some reason it hadn't been doing it that day and now it is back doing it pretty regularly. No changes to anything on my end. Ugh, I hate this problem. The fan speeding up and down all the time is very annoying.

 

It's back for me as well. I did install Steam and Metro 2033 though so I blame that. I made NO other changes to my system.

 

Hi All,

Had to join the conversation as I’m another on the list that concurs 100% with this thread. Just received my XPS 15 i7-2620 and was very much looking forward to getting it. The computer is awesome in every way EXCEPT, and this is a VERY BIG EXCEPT, as it relates to the fan issue.

Before purchasing, I read about this XPS 15 fan concern which is why the dual core sandy i7 was chosen instead of the quad - figured that config would be no problem.

Well, that was quite wrong. I’ve had Dells before that got too hot but were fine overall and they never had a fan problem remotely like this. With this PC, even with everything else great about it, and after having only had it for a day, it is to the point where it is about to be returned. I will call Dell before that but wanted to first see if there were any more solutions after having tried many listed here to no avail.

Currently, am on BIOS 4 and Nvidia 270.61 after BIOS 2 and earlier Nvidia provided exact same result. As far as the fan situation, it’s quite strange - there can be no main applications open whatsoever and the fan problem occurs literally over and over in a cycle. This cycle has been recreated while on the lap covering the vents at the bottom, not covering the vents, etc.

Using Speed Fan, it simply appears that the computer pretty rapidly and continually heats up by itself (takes only around a minute to heat up again after it "cooled" down). Again, this occurs while essentially nothing is happening with the PC - specifically the very temporary "cool down" occurs right around when the GPU gets to 55c and that soon triggers the “burst/spit” cycle. This is the time when, even though the fan had been on inaudibly throughout, the fan ramps up and the easily audible part starts and shoots in louder, 1-3 second inconsistent bursts/spits. This major inconsistency coupled with loud fan noise is the problem. It’s obviously even worse when just using the internet, etc.

It seems like there has to be a fix besides hoping for a new BIOS and I’ll do whatever to keep this PC as it seems great. I wouldn’t even mind a continuous low fan noise. I would even return and get an i5 but can't imagine it would be that different?

Thoughts anyone?

WanttoKeepXPS15

 

the 15 and 17 seems to have the same problem, the thing is that i think what dell does wrong is turning of the fan completely and/or turning it back on way to late...

I rather have my fan always on on lets say 1000RPM and then slowly if needed going to 2000 and then 3000 if it is really getting hotter
Because i think with my normal work, it could keep it cool with 1000RPM and maybe sometimes go to 2000..

Its a pity that speedfan currently only works in 3 modes, 0, 2800 and 4000...
because if i could just fix it around 2000 it would be fine for me (thats hardly noticeable)

 

Hi Joco - fully agreed that the computers turning off the fan completely or too late are key issues. Also, agreed that a reasonable consistent fan noise would be fine especially one that starts lower and increases as needed (kind of like how the fans on essentially every other laptop work - so I can't see how we're asking for too much).

At this point, I will try anything before sending it back. Thus, to your point, please advise on the steps within SpeedFan needed be taken for an XPS owner to manually control the fans as I looked all around in it and couldn't see how to accomplish that. Specifically I would at least like to hear what 2800 sounds like. Also, are you going to send it back or what else are you doing to manage it? Thanks much

 

I have the same bloody annoying problem with my XPS 15 L501X.

What I did as a temporary fix is automatically had the nVidia GPU set to default instead of auto select. Benefit of doing this would be at least your dedicated card would be active most of the time, running evey single program thus the fan speed would stay at a constant rate if under light usage. If you're worried about battery power you could potentially downclock the nVidia GPU.

 

I have SpeedFan 4.43 (I downloaded it yesterday), and it doesn't detect the fan in my XPS laptop. It reads the GPU, HDD, all four cores, and two other temps. However, it does not report on the fan speed. I installed the program on my desktop XPS, and it detects all three fans there.

Anyone else having this problem/anomaly? Any suggestions?

 

I just downloaded and installed Speedfan 4.44 Beta 4 (after uninstalling 4.43), and it does detect my fan. Cool.

 

for me on my L702x it the latest beta works just pretty simple
Just enable dell support in the settings
and then on the "front" page i just play with the up/down buttons (0-100%), i set it somewhere between 35-70% (2800rpm), i see that it "writes" that in the log area, then i just close speedfan, then it is fixed in 2800rpm for me

I need to close speedfan because else the mouse cursor is constantly stalling for a moment (i guess when the sensors are read, HWiNFO32 has the same problem)

 

Just posted in the "L502x fan starts up every several mins - Any XPS fan control apps?" as they are discussing the 4.44 beta 4 of Speed Fan as well.

At first it worked perfectly but now can't seem to get Speed Fan Beta to stay consistently working at 2807 RPM and if the program is closed out, it stops.

 

I just posted over there too. My fan problem just started six days after I got my laptop. Here's what I wrote over there:

I called Dell and spoke with technical support. The representative did a remote connect to my system and verified what SpeedFan is telling me (i.e., that the fan is cycling between 0-3200 RPMs every 4-6 seconds.

He offered to send out a technician to replace the motherboard. I queried why they wouldn't replace the fan at the same time, and he offered to replace that too. I said that I will not accept refurbished parts. He said that the parts would be new but would have a refurbished sticker on them, because they would be tested at Dell's laboratory and would have the seal removed. What a load of horse hockey. Well, while that is a feasible explanation, it didn't suit me. Plus, I don't want some tech tearing apart my entire system a week after I got it. The last tech who worked on my desktop didn't put thermal paste on the heatsink.

I spoke with a supervisor and argued for a while. He then offered to send me a replacement system instead of repairing the existing one. I should have it in about 15 days. Then, I have 10 business days to return the existing one. That'll give me time to figure out which is more defective.

The technical support rep and the supervisor denied repeatedly that they have heard a lot of complaints about the fan. Who knows...

 

All - just noticed something that is quite confusing as I just went into Youtube for the first time since installing the beta version of Speedfan. When the beta version of Speedfan is running and then I go into Youtube and play a video, the sound will loudly buzz intermittently (around every 10 seconds or so). Strangely, the Intel Turbo boost monitor goes up as well and essentially right after each buzz, as the processor spikes each time above 3 GHz. Further, right after each buzz, the fan would burst out for a second (put my hand near the side fan) and this essentially coincides with the spike on the monitor. Additionally, if the video is paused, the air keeps bursting out for a second and the monitor keeps spiking with most every time (not every time though which is strange) that this happens yet that blowing out does not register on at all speedfan.

To test, I then uninstalled the beta and tried Youtube again and no problem. Then, uninstalled beta and reinstalled latest non beta version, no problem either. Next, uninstalled latest non beta version and reinstalled beta version and same problem again. Fully admit to being quite confused now.

Anyone else seeing this or have any thoughts?

*** EDIT A FEW HOURS LATER – OK, after trying some other things for a while, figured why not try the most simple one, so I stopped the Speedfan program/process itself and lo and behold, the cycling has stopped and the fan has been behaving MUCH more normally for the past hour. I have even put the computer to sleep and turned it off and back on. Now, if the fan turns on, it stays on for longer than a quick burst. That said, for each program that opens, it seems that the fan still does need to “greet” each newly opened program (like Word or Firefox) for a little while so the machine does appear to run somewhat hot (or the BIOS has the fan running at lower degrees than needed). BUT, the big difference is that now, even with multiple programs open, once they are open, there are no more louder quick bursts of fan noise when the computer is sitting still (idle temp low 50s for the cores). Occasionally, the fan does go on even with nothing happening but it is much quieter and stays on as needed and for longer durations which is much more “normal.” For the mean time, I am using HWMonitor Pro 64 bit edition to show temps. Knock on wood as this is very usable now - enthusiasm maintained though due to the old fool me once, fool me twice adage so we’ll see how this continues going forward.

(Posting this in both forums)

 

Ton-80,

I hope your new laptop solves the issue! On the other hand, I firmly believe this is a BIOS and/or driver issue, as temperatures are normal and the cpu is usually barely even used. In this case however, EVERYONE who owns this laptop should be having these symptoms from the start.

Although it seems many people are having this issue, I don't think 100% of the owners do, which is very strange. Personally, I am hoping that a fix will come out soon via Dell or to have them at least acknowledge there is an issue, instead of somebody coming to my house to pull my new laptop apart. I will be making a call tomorrow and let them know this is not affecting just a small group of owners. I hope everyone will do the same.

 

Yes, everyone with the problem should call, because they are pretending that it isn't affecting other people.

I think you and lamer01 (who posted in another thread) are right about it being a driver/software issue. I'm not sure why I'm even making Dell send me a new laptop, except to make them face costs for not fixing the problem. :laugh:

 

The saddest part is that this kind of fan behavior is known since Studio XPS (through last year's XPS), so Dell has been refusing to acknowledge the issue for a couple of years...

 

This sounds like normal operation and it reflects my experience as well. Any programs that access the GPU seem to affect its operation. Regular laptop use like Browser, Office, etc. do not affect it at all. The people whose laptops exhibit the problem must have installed software that accesses the GPU at a low level (whether it's for reporting temps, fan speeds, or overclocking a bit).
At least, that has been my experience

 

ton-80,

Any updates on your situation? Did DELL replace your laptop or do a component swap?

I've changed my graphics to integrated permanently and that seemed to reduce the amount of fan kick up but the fan still spins up to max when doing the smallest tasks.

 

This is definitely worth trying. I turned off the gpu monitoring gadget, and the problem seems to have improved at the very least. The fan now seems to be running more constantly at a lower rpm and doesn't spike to such a loud rpm.

Thanks!

 

For light use, setting the power plan to 'power saver' COMPLETELY eliminates than fan spinning. To recap, Driver 270.61 + NO other GPU tools (no nvidia system tools or Nvidia Inspector or GPU-z etc) + setting global optimus setting to Intel HD + Power saver mode = No FAN at all when doing simple tasks like browsing, word processing, etc.
Absolutely silent laptop, quite amazing considering it's a quad-core with dedicated video card, etc.

 

Yes Markmark1 helped me out too! The fan throttling was so annoying until I killed that GPU Observer gadget, now this Laptop is silent. Everyone should +1 Markmark1 if he helped you too

 

I just passed on the info from from lamer01.

But thanks!

 

lamer01,

I just tried this and much to my surprise, my laptop fan finally stopped! The moment I select balanced or high performance as a power setting, the fan will kick right back up.

Thanks for the knowledge. But am I the only one that thinks we all shouldnt have to be setting our high performance laptops to "power saver" mode all the time for regular use? We are essentially capping the performance, no?

 

I spoke too soon. My fan started up again after a few minutes of silence.

 

Well yeah, that's going to happen as the notebook heats up. the problem is that the fan doesn't even run at idle speeds, and it should. The way Dell has the bios controlling the fans is tweaked. At idle the fans should always be running at about 1500-2k rpm. Dell has them shut completely off, so when temps spike, they spike faster, the fans have to rev up really high, then when temps drop, the fan speeds drop. and it becomes a vicious cycle of loud, quiet, loud, quiet, loud, quiet.

It $@$@$@%@ sucks. and it is terrible engineering on Dell's part.

If the fans are constantly running at a lower RPM then it will take longer for the temps to rise when your notebook is working harder, and there will be a more gradual rise in fan speed. and when the workload is finished it will drop down more gradually, and for doing stuff like surfing the freaking internet, 1500 or 2k rpm idle speed should keep the fans from kicking into high gear at all.

Dell is just dropping the ball... AGAIN.

WE should have control of the fans because it's obvious Dell can't do it right.

 

It'd be nice if Dell gave us options to set different fan profiles in the bios.

 

Well, it shouldn't start too often though. I have mine set to high performance right now. Fan will stay completely off for up to 5 minutes before it kicks into high gear for 10-30 seconds and then you have another 5 minutes or so of complete silence.
Again, it's important that you set the Global Setting in Optimus to be the Intel HD. Also, make sure you have no GPU utilities running. Also make sure you have the 270.61 drivers.
I don't think it's bad at all. The on/off behaviour that the XPS gets with GPU utilities is unbearable but 5 minutes of quiet with 10-30 seconds of fan noise is quite acceptable to me.

 

Strange thing is that some people don't have this fan issue..if it was the BIOS then every laptop should run this way. Has anyone tried telling DELL their BIOS needs an update ASAP?

 

I suppose some people just don't find it annoying or don't even notice it, if they work in louder environment, such as office/open space. Also not everyone is aware, that other laptop manufacturers were able to do a far better job with controlling the temperatures (i.e. Asus in their latest N series) - since one can't compare, he can't complain...

As for telling Dell to do anything, well, Dell has been replacing motherboards, fan assemblies, etc. for years in XPS, Studio and Studio XPS lines - all due to people reporting fan issues. If they didn't get it yet, they just won't!

 

mkj,

Are you still planning to buy a l502x? lol. My inspiron 1520 is whisper quiet and I didn't think their highest end laptop would have such a dumb issue. Just shows that all those reviews online don't really reflect the true nature of the laptop...almost none of them really brought up excessive fan noise.

 

To answer your question... I'm considering a lower specced L502X (i5, 525M), so I expect lower temperatures in general. I hope lamer01's suggestions will make it quite enough for light use. And this one is meant for my wife, who's not likely to load the system too much (I'm aiming for the B+RGLED screen for semi-pro photo editing). Anyway, she keeps telling me she doesn't want it (she claims to be happy with an old Latitude D600 ), so I might hold off with the purchase.

 

They are sending me a replacement laptop. Based on lamer01's comments, I'm not sure that this is a hardware problem. So, I'm not sure which laptop I'll keep. Let's see if the new one can burn recovery discs, which my original one cannot. I haven't had any problems with my fan since I stopped using SpeedFan.

 

So you used speedfan, tweaked around with the settings, stopped using it, and it..went away?

 

Just an update:

Spent 45 minutes on the phone with a DELL rep. After requesting a replacement laptop and being denied, I finally gave in to sending the laptop to their depot.

Not surprising how he said this was the first time he'd ever heard of this issue. He did assure me that these problems are recorded and monitored by "level 3" quality control. It was amusing that he admitted to hearing the fan kick in after he told me to search for sys info from the start menu.

So now my laptop's fate rests with the guys in their repair center..He said they would replace the fan and do whatever else was necessary. I personally doubt any hardware replacements would solve the issue, but at least I can get some leverage if they come back to me saying the issue could not be solved.

Currently awaiting their box for the laptop and should receive it back by 10 days they said. Hoping for the best!

 

It didn't start until after I had installed and used SpeedFan at least once. I don't believe I had tweaked any settings. I'm not sure if I was running SpeedFan in the background when the problem first started. I do know that it started when the laptop was idling (and had been for hours).

After the problem started, I tried tweaking the fan speed in SpeedFan, but that didn't work. I turned off the machine for the day, uninstalled SpeedFan the next day, and the cycling hasn't happened again. I've used it for light browsing and playing Fallout New Vegas since then. The laptop palmrest has gotten hot (warm, really) during that game, but the fan ran at constant speeds to keep it cool.

I'm pissed that Dell keeps telling each of us that our complaint is the first time they've heard of this problem.

 

I initially had this cycling problem.

After switching out the hdd for a SSD and doing a clean installed using the thread here I have not had the cycling problem for 2 weeks now.

Left palm rest is nice and cool due to the SSD and there's no issue at all (USB 3.0, cycling, etc...).

Occasionally when doing CPU intensive tasks such as spyware scan, virus scan, some gaming, etc...the fan would spin up but that's to be expected. Once the task is over fan goes back to original silent state (low fan).

I was anxious due to all the horrible reports but I'm actually quite happy with this beast of a laptop.

 

The cycling started again last night and lasted for about 15-20 minutes. The fan alternated between a low level and off. It wasn't annoying, because the TV was on.

 

i send dell a big support mail with the various threads (L502x and L702x) from here and the dell support forum itself.
Telling them that they should fix this in the bios so that there is no such thing as 0RPM ...

 

Nice... Did you send it to any specific dept. or directly to Michael Dell, as some people do?