Inspiron 6400 fan/cpu throttle issue

Hi Guys,

I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 6400, with the T2500 Core Duo, 2GB of RAM, 100GB 7200RPM SATA HDD, WSXGA+ TruLife LCD, ATI x1400, 9-cell battery, BlueTooth, WiFi, etc. I had been googling around for a notebook for about a year, and with the help of NotebookReview, ended up deciding to go for the dell (I was thinking of getting the LG S1, but couldn't get one easily where I live. )

Anyway, I've got a quick question. Occasionally, say every 4-5 boots, the computer will throttle the fan up to maximum speed from boot (it kicks in right as the XP splash screen fades in). For some reason, when it does this it seems to throttle down my CPU to be intolerably slow. Windows takes about 5 minutes to load to the desktop when it usually takes less than a minute. I know that SpeedStep throttles down the CPU to 997MHz when it boots like this, but it has throttled down that much before during normal operation and never felt as slow as it does when it does it from startup. It does this both on power and on battery. Is there some problem here, or is that by design? It's not like the laptop could be hot, the ambient temperature is quite a bit less than 20 degrees celsius, a literal cold boot.

Note that I've taken all the necessary precautions, and reformatted with a clean copy of XP and installed all the latest hw drivers, except I haven't updated the BIOS quite yet, and my machine doesn't have any spyware/virii or any other nasties on there to slow performance. It's quite a fast machine when it doesn't throttle up the fan on boot.

So is this just something I should tolerate, or is there a problem?

Thanks for your help,

--Ben

 

I don't have an answer to your questions, but I do have the same problem.

The same thing happens for me whenever the computer is cold - which usually means first thing in the morning. It does not work at proper speed until I reboot.

I have spent a lot of time on the phone to Dell about it. Initially they came and replaced the motherboard and fan, and eventually they replaced the whole computer. but nothing has changed, and I am a loss to know what to do next.

 

Yeah I've been talking to a guy from Dell support via email, the things he has suggested to me so far are to update the BIOS to the latest (A07) (i haven't tried it yet) and to check a few options in the BIOS which I think I've tried before (ie. speedstep enabling)

A very frustrating problem indeed...

 

They got me to update the BIOS a few weeks ago, then they decided that was a mistake and I had to go back to an earlier BIOS.

I found someone in India with the same problem. He said he thought it was related to the radio networking, so I disabled that.But it did not make any difference.

 

I've got this problem as well - and it's getting worse. It has taken up to 20 restarts to get the fan to shut up. My only work around is let the system hibernate - when Windows resumes the fan rarely comes on, and if it does it only takes 1 restart to get it to shut off.

 

In the end I just returned both of my 6400s (the original and the replacement) to Dell, got my money back ( I hope - i haven't seen the money yet) and bought an ASUS instead.

 

Hi BenBenMan!

I don't have answers for you. But I noticed that your system came with cables. Mine didn't have cables. Is the E1505/I6400 supposed to include cables? How many cables are included?

 

i may have the answer for you. i use a program that sense the temperature of cpu, gpu, hdd and chipset and controls the fans speed acordingly.

this is it

so:
1.install the program
2.set it up to take absolute control regarding the system fans(top right - 'automatic fan control' - 'enable temperature control')
3.click 'options' - right menu
4.click tab 'temperature control'
5.create a policy that suits you best, considering the sorounding temperature and the future load
6.return to main menu and select that policy
7.set the program as the single startup program and restart the windows

the program shoul dtake control as soon as it loads on startup and shut down the fans if the temperature is ok(which is, considering the cold boot)

and if this doesn't work, at least you can shut down the fans yourself from the program.

late edit: no, i dont have an inspiron e1505, but on my 1300 this program is the second best after the antivirus, i just love it. it gives you total control.
now if THIS doesnt work, you should change the bios version so it suits you. if this issue is not solved by bios upgrade/donwgrade nor this program, then you should return the piece.