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    l502x - fan starts correctly but NEVER shuts down

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by toomuchdumb, Aug 23, 2011.

  1. toomuchdumb

    toomuchdumb Newbie

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    Hello,

    I have got the i7 2630qm cpu and 540m gpu.

    When the laptop gets hot the fan turns on,
    but it wil NEVER stop even when I can feel
    that the air coming out is cool.

    I already tried to set max cpu value to 99%
    and even 10% but nothing works.

    Is my laptop broken or is this normal?
    Is anyone else having the same problem?
     
    toomuchdumb, Aug 23, 2011
    #1
  2. concat

    concat Notebook Consultant

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    Have you monitored your temps, or are you just going by the feel of the exhaust on your hand?
     
    concat, Aug 23, 2011
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  3. zjacobss

    zjacobss Notebook Consultant

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    on what power plan are u using the laptop?
     
    zjacobss, Aug 23, 2011
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  4. southdrexel

    southdrexel Notebook Enthusiast

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    My laptop is the same. Well, the fan does shut down when the laptop is still fairly cold; but once it warms up, the fan will just stay turned on. (there are some ways to turn it off, try launching Nvidia control panel for instance.)

    I actually prefer the fan running all the time at low speed; it keeps the laptop cool (including the hard drive, which is heat-sensitive). The fan is fairly quiet at low rpm, so the noise doesn't bother me too much.
     
    southdrexel, Aug 23, 2011
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  5. toomuchdumb

    toomuchdumb Newbie

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    The fan is currently running with all temps in the 40 degrees celcius range.


    Mostly balanced or power saver, but I dont notice any diffrence between the two concerning the fan.


    For me personally, I find the fan noise to be just a little too loud to not be annoying.

    The laptop is very nice but this problem really bothers me and I'm wondering if there is a way to fix this.
     
    toomuchdumb, Aug 23, 2011
    #5
  6. southdrexel

    southdrexel Notebook Enthusiast

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    Okay, a laptop cooling pad may be a solution.

    I got myself one yesterday and I've been using it since. I didn't buy the cooling pad because of the fan problem - I am fine with the fan running all the time, as I said before. I actually bought it in the hopes that it would drive down the hard drive temperature further (which used to hover around 41C). Well, what happened since I started using it was that the cooling pad does keep the bottom of my XPS cool, and, seemingly because of that, the fan always turns off completely when I am not doing anything cpu-intensive. Because the laptop fan is not running all the time now, the hard temperature actually rose a little bit (42C from 41C on average), which is not at all what I intended.

    But it seems to take care of your problem. So if you don't mind using a laptop cooler, try getting one that is effective in cooling the bottom of the laptop. Of course, if you are sensitive to noise, bear in mind that the cooling pad itself can generate quite a bit of noise.
     
    southdrexel, Aug 24, 2011
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  7. sevenofnine

    sevenofnine Notebook Guru

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    I'm also having this issue but I don't really want to go down the route of a laptop cooling pad. It seems really strange behaviour.

    Could this be fixed by a subsequent BIOS update?

    Thanks! :)
     
    sevenofnine, Aug 27, 2011
    #7