XPS 1640/1645/1647 heat vent issue

Any update on this? My GPU is still overheating and i cant use my laptop for gaming unless I place it on a air-friendly construction with the LCD down (external monitor)...


My next laptop will be a non-dell

 

Heard that. I bet the 5730 won't have the same heat issues, too bad we won't get one.

After having issues with monitors from dell and now this laptop, I don't think I will be buying from them again.

 

Will there ever be successor to Studio XPS 1645 line, perhaps XPS 1655 is the works at DELL labs....?

....any insights anyone ?

cheers!

 

I'm not sure if this has been suggested of if it would even work.

But has anyone tried reversing the fan? Instead of blowing cold air in from the bottom. How about sucking hot air out to the bottom?

 

Hot air rises. Push hot air out the bottom, it'll try and get back in, giving you a certain amount of back pressure that will decrease the efficiency of your fan.

Ideally, cooling would use a natural chimney; open at the top to let the hot air rise out of the machine, it would draw cold air in at the bottom as it did so.

But there isn't room for that, nor is such cooling enough, so laptops use fans for forced cooling. But they are set to augment that natural bottom-to-top, cold-to-hot, chimney effect. Reversing the flow would be fighting nature (or physics).

 

What do you guys expect? You bought a thin and light notebook with workstation level hardware. How can you expect a quad core + enthusiast level GPU in such a tight space would run cool? When you buy something like this you have to prepare, I dont plan on doing any heavy duty tasks without a cooler in a well ventilated area when mine arrives.

 

Please go back and take a look at the actual issue here and not generalize.

Summary:
1. The XPS 16 has a very powerful, loud fan.
2. The XPS 16's fan keeps the laptop cool when the lid is closed.
3. The laptop runs hot when the lid is open and the fan is blocked, and the fan must then run louder.
4. When the laptop temperature reaches a certain value, performance is reduced in many configurations.

 

Again Im sure alot of the extreme issues are due to a) not using a matched cooler in gaming or heavy multitasking b) using on lap c) not well ventilated bottom or back ( too close to a wall or any object. I know the screen partially blocks the vent, but taking certain precautions should remedy the situation (for most cases).

 

My belief is that a properly designed computer should never require the purchase of a separate cooler as long as the computer is provided a flat surface, plenty of room for ventilation, reasonable room temperature, and is not being abused (i.e. prime/furmark).

 

...abused. That's funny.

Why is it that manufacturers such as HP, Clevo, Alienware, can run these exact same tests without throttling, and without hitting their thermal limits?

The problem is the design of the machine, and the limitations of the system bios.

 

While I agree, the idea of using the hardware in these thin and light notebooks to the max and not having extra airflow almost seems like asking for heat issues. User's fault? No, but knowing how much power is packed into such a thin chassis should promote the thinking of getting more airflow. I am surprised they blocked the vent like they did, but Im hopeful that my modded NZXT will flow more then enough air during heavy tasks to negate that issue mostly.

As for HP, every one I have supported or owned has either failed to heat or ran so hot it either slowed down or felt like it was going to fail.

 

I certainly don't object to the idea of being able to run these tests continuously without throttling, but Dell already says these are not "real world" tests and they don't care whether your computer can run them or not. That can be its own discussion topic, but complaining about those type of tests here won't help.

 

I don't really consider the XPS 16 thin or light. It's not an ultra-heavy weight like many 17+ inch laptops, but it's a full sized regular laptop. I think it's large enough to support a better cooling system. Dell has a ton of experience (#2 laptop seller by sales, I believe) and the XPS 16 is their flagship laptop. They could have done much better from the cooling perspective.

 

Well after watching this video I noticed that the intake vents on the bottom were completely blocked. This may be part of the problem with heat, as I had a similar issue with an old acer I had that had similar vents. As for the thin and light discussion, well this will be fully opinionated at best. When I saw the i5 version they had at Best buy I was surprised at how thin the notebook is. Granted I cannot comment on weight coming from 17in workstations to a 15in workstation. But thin it is. When I get mine in I will check for these vent covers and promptly remove them.

 

hi guys,

My 1647 is currently on order, and will arrive in another 2 weeks.
My spec is considered low when compared to what was being discussed above:
1) i5 430 with 2.26 GHz
2) ATI 5650
3) 15.6" 1080p WLED

In light of the overheating issue (and on a more serious note, poor vent design), is laptop cooler gonna help?
I know one laptop cooler in Harvey Norman Singapore, brand is the Cooler Master.. will this be good enough?

 

A good cooler will always be nice for extended use or heavy use times, but honestly I think with the new 5000 series GPUs the heat will be significantly lower then the older versions.

 

I'm not sure if I have a 1640, 1645 or 1647 - how do you tell?

Anyhow, mine is Core 2 Duo 2.8ghz, RBGLED, HD4670 and I had trouble with CPU throttling when gaming.

I reported the problem to dell (I have NBD warranty) and they are going to perform an onsite service to "replace the motherboard, heat sink & fan assembly and will also bring the 130W a/c adapter and power cord to resolve the issue"

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this done, and if so, did it work? Sounds a little hopeful anyhow

 

Those who have everything replaced like mobo/heatsink/fan didn't have the issue fixed... It isn't hardware-base per say..

 

I agree. I'm surprised Dell would bother with this BEFORE trying out the 130w adapter which takes about 10 seconds to "install" (plus the time of a BIOS update if you are way behind). I'm almost certain the 130watt adapter will help (probably not a 100% fix).

The other stuff is probably a waste of time, but if they are replacing some stuff with "new" parts at least it will extend the life of those parts (not that that will help with CPU throttling).

 

My 1640/T9550/4670 almost melted last week, while waiting for a replacement (which has been an ordeal) I've been using my wifes 1640/P8600/4670. Noticing huge throttling to the point of making it difficult to use for work. Contacted support and initially they were sending out a 130 watt power supply, then asked if the laptop gets hot which it does. They then decided to replace mb/hs/fan and about half the plastics.

 

Waiting for my replacement and needed something to do so I let furmark and prime run for a while while I just listened to the POTUS's speech just now and this puppy got to 98C...

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4350/98ch.jpg

EDIT: The laptop was sitting on the desk, room temp @ 75.

 

After having the work carried out it seems better - the only thing that is actually different is the 130watt adapter.

I tried gaming and this time there was no CPU throttling as before, so that's great. However, the GPU 4670 is only running at 450mhz and 600mhz memory according to GPU-Z. I'm sure it was 650/800 previously (as it should). Have they given me a clever motherboard that will restrict the graphics, or is there something I can do?

Thanks

 

Sorry to double post,

The GPU was working at full potential after installing catalyst 10.6...

However, my CPU throttled during gaming - GPU got to 85'c, but CPU got to 89'c and throttled back to 1.5ghz... which is absolutely crippling.

I guess there is nothing that can be done about this?

 

is this forum abandoned?
cause its been 2 months and no one has posted any replies.
just one question: what is the critical temperature for 1645?
cause im getting 95 degrees C on GPU and 94 on CPU.

 

We'll find out when it explodes..
I've hit higher GPU temps and it's still alive

The reason why no-one has posted is because we know the XPS gets too hot because of the heat vent issue but we can't do much about it.
The throttle topics are still active as well as some other heat related topics