Troubleshooting my new 1420

This was first posted in another thread, but it seems more logical to create a new one for my specific issues.

My first main issue is that the fan to the left of the keyboard seems to always be running at full speed, pushing quite a bit of hot air. This is actually my first laptop (so perhaps I'm not used to this), but from what I have read in the past and even phobos' review here at NBR , I suppose I was expecting a much more silent experience with this new notebook line. Is this typical of the Inspiron line, or is there perhaps something inherently wrong with my machine? It's rather loud, and as I said, always on. I have not been engaging in particularly demanding tasks; much of the time with this machine has been spent browsing the internet.

Second, when I first received it Friday afternoon, it started up fine and I went through the various Windows Vista steps. After the initial setup I tried closing the lid, which turned off the screen and put the laptop in some sort of sleep mode. Upon opening it back up, there was a strange dinging bell sound, screen flickered, and all of a sudden my resolution dropped to a much lower setting (I have the WXGA+ 1440x900 screen). I had to manually reset the resolution, and this continues to occur almost each time of opening/closing the lid.

Later on, I tried the Fn+F1 function, which is supposed to hibernate the laptop. It did, and I left it as is for a number of hours. Upon returning, I could not get it to wake up. So I pressed the power button and the system went through its startup procedure but instead said "Resuming Windows"; the screen went black, and after a minute or two, just completely shut off. Could not get Windows to boot. Called Dell Saturday morning and they led me through a Safe Mode restart + system restore, which seems to have fixed the problem. But closing the lid still causes the resolution to drop on its own. Any thoughts?

Additionally, I attempted to update the 8400M GS drivers directly from Nvidia's website, but that was a no-go. I'm currently using the drivers supplied on Dell's support site. Has anyone been able to install newer drivers? The standard Nvidia control panel is severely lacking and was hoping to find a decent color calibration function.

Lastly, for whomever else here may have a 1420 in-hand, do you find the power button to be flaccid, with little to no tactile feedback when pressed? It almost doesn't even feel like a real button as there is no click to it.

Thanks in advance of any feedback on these concerns.

 

The fan on my 1420 is running quietly and I can barely hear it. Try the Notebook Hardware Monitor or Speedfan to check if the temperature sensor is registering high temperatures. In any case, call or chat with tech support. My CPU temp. is usually around 50 C

I'm having the same sleep issues. I configured Vista to sleep/wake-up with the lid closing/opening, and the resolution on my 1440x900 screen is reset (with a flicker) to 1024x768 on waking up. Any help on this would be appreciated.

However, my hibernation works without issue.

I agree the power button has no tactile feedback. I'll have to see if the power light is on to confirm I did press the power button. Also, I find the creative headphones I received for adding the webcam have good sound, but there is noticeable hiss when plugged in to the jack--even if the volume in Vista is muted. Other headphones like a more-expensive Sony ones I have do not have this issue.

I don't know if this is a Vista problem or something with hardware, but before any audio--Vista sounds or music--plays there is a click. And there's another click after the sound ends. It gets annoying

 

i'm having my own problems with a basically DOA display on my 1420 that worked for the first few hours.

i did not experience the change in resolution when i closed the lid and reopened it however. also, the power button seems fine to me.

 

i noticed my fan was running a lot when it should not have been running. i'm not quite sure what happened because in the beginning uses of the laptop, it didn't do that. it would run when it needed to; but the other night the fan seemed to be on endlessly in which the air being exhausted wasn't even hot, it was room temp. because of that i installed the I8kfangui program that allows the user to manually or automatically control the fans of the laptop. i adjusted my settings a bit through the program and since then my fan only comes on when necessary per the temp ranges i specified. i would try to install that and see if it helps that issue. as for sound, nothing is 100% silent, so you will still here some noise from the fan or the sound of the air being exhausted out.

i know someone else on this forum had that problem because i remember reading it. however, i dont remember the topic it was covered under. someone else may be able to help there and direct you to the solution. i think it maybe had to do with the DPI settings? i dont remember exactly, sorry.

as for the system shutting off like that, i would just label that as a glitch for right now. if it continues to happen then that is a very different story. for now, i wouldnt worry about it not resuming. i periodically had that problem on my Inspiron 700m where it wouldnt resume from standy-by and then pushing the power button in effect turned off the machine.

i havent tried to update the drivers from anythin other than the ones on Dell's site. maybe i will try that in a bit. you can always try and update through laptopvideo2go.com. some people have had good successes with those drivers. i think there are a few threads on here dedicated to the use of those drivers.

yea i noticed that when i 1st pushed the button. i didnt even think i pushed it because i didnt feel any sort of pushback or resistance. however, that is not to say i dont like it. it is certainly different but i dont think it is a bad different.

 

I'm assuming the newest I8kfangui version 3.1 is the best to use? What is an appropriate or acceptable temperature range I should be looking for or to set my fans to maintain?

Hopefully whoever else had the screen resolution issue can offer up some assistance, as this is getting quite annoying.

I searched through laptopvideo2go.com but unless I'm looking at the wrong thing, they don't seem to offer the latest ForceWare drivers as found on Nvidia's website. Then again, the official ones on Nvidia.com didn't work anyway. I suppose if the drivers supplied by Dell are fairly up-to-date I don't mind, so long as they provide decent Vista support for current and older games. Is it worth looking into that Rivatuner program or something else for enhancing the performance of the 8400M GS card? People seem peeved about the downclocked cards found in these 1420s.

As for the power button issue, I don't mind it much myself - I asked more out of curiosity just to ensure there wasn't a build quality issue with my particular laptop. I suppose in finding that certain troubles are endemic across the board, it makes an individual less suspicious that he/she was sold an inferior product.

 

yea the 3.1 version is the latest and best to use right now. as for what to set your ranges at, that is really up to you and how you use the computer. for my CPU settings i have:

Level 1 - on @ 46C, off @ 43C - OFF
Level 2 - on @ 55C, off @ 46C - SLOW
Level 3 - on @ 65C, off @ 55C - SLOW
Level 4 - on @ 75C, off @ 65C - FAST

 

My school has lots of (meaning over 1,000) dell optiplex gx250's or whatever and they are super-small form factor (like a textbook), so their heatsinks are like notebooks: attached to the case and processor, and in some of the new machines (like 2 out of 30), the school has to call in the dell tech guys to look at them because the fan goes full speed all the time (so it distrubs the classroom).

their solution is to change the mobo and reseat the heatsink. You might want to send back your lappy so they can redo the heatsink (which might not be properly seated, so your CPU is overheating, and the fan is blowing, but the heat isn;t getting to the heatsink), and in the process, they might replace the mobo (which allows them to change the hardware monitoring/control chips)

so, if in your case your cpu isn't overheating and all your fan is doing is going fast, then i guess you could use I8kfangui, instead of sending it back.

 

Well I just installed the program and here's what it says:
CPU temp hovers around 42/43C
Peak: 49C

I have the T7300, and my CPU load is currently around 8-10%

The fans are running around at the "slow" setting, based on what sliding the fan controls around sounds like. If indeed that is the slow setting, it's still quite loud.

Setting the automatic temp control to "Meeting" does turn the fans off, as I guess the current temp is not in the range to warrant running the fans. If indeed things are overheating because of bad thermal paste or something else wrong with the build of my laptop, I surely don't want to damage it further by forcing the fans into a lower mode. But if the fans are coming on unnecessarily, then of course I prefer my laptop to run as quietly as possible. What do you think?

 

i'm not quite sure how quiet you want these fans to be. but then again, i dont know how loud they are running at this point either. i'm not really sure what else to tell you here. the only thing i can suggest is to maybe contact Dell and tell them about your situation and see what they tell you to do. have you adjusted your power schemes at all? are you running on balanced, high performance, battery?

 

Update: switching to Meeting setting caused my temps to raise to 56/57C with a peak at 60C. I then switched to Office and the fan kicked in a little - what's odd is now it seems to increase and decrease in short bursts constantly.

 

My power scheme is set at Dell Recommended, as default. I've only been running on AC power without a battery even plugged in.

edit: I guess Dell Recommended is "Balanced"

 

Dell recommended? i don't know what that means. i have 3 power scheme settings on mine: balanced, high performance and power saver

 

Now Dell Recommended has disappeared and it just says Balanced. What are you running yours at and are you running off of battery power or plugged in?

Taking any controls off with the fan control program and just monitoring the temp, I'm getting around 43/44C and the fan is back to running constantly at it's medium setting (or slow or whatever they want to call this speed).

 

mine runs primarily on balanced. however, i did modify some of the balanced advanced settings to suit my needs more. currently i am running on AC power. if i switch to battery then i change my scheme to power saver.

within fangui, i have my policy set at normal where i modified the temp controls in my post earlier. under main operating mode, i have it set on automatic temperature control as well.

 

And are there 1 or 2 fans on the 1420? It shows 2 but it won't allow you to control the second one. I tried your fan settings brianj - the way it is now, the temp rises to 55C, then the fan kicks in at slow setting, takes a minute to cool off to 46C, fan shuts off, another minute it's back to 55C and fan starts, and over and over. Is this typical?

 

i believe there is only 1 fan on the 1420. i disabled the reading of the 2nd cause well the 2nd doesn't exist. i dont know if that is typical because i also have my laptop sitting on a USB powered cooling pad. so i know that helps my cooling issues.

 

Anyone else finding the fan in their 1420 running non-stop? I just compared my new 1420 to my sister's 3 year old ThinkPad T42 and found hers noticebly quieter.

 

still having problems Rowen?

 

I just created a poll to see how many 1420 owners have fan issues... so far only one person has participated but their vote was that they hardly notice their fan being on... idk if one vote is enough to form conclusions but maybe you should send the computer back or have a tech rep look at your computer and make dell fix their f*up. Good luck.. but along with brianj, i too am curious about the status of your fan issues...still having problems?

 

Hey, thanks for the poll, I was considering starting a new thread dedicated singly to the fan issue. If by "problem" you mean, am I still curious as to why the fan seemingly runs non-stop at its low, yet quite audible setting, then yes, I'm still having the problem.

To be fair, I am a new laptop user, having always previously been a desktop person, so perhaps my experience is such that I am that much more critical of every new feature and circumstance of this notebook. That said, I did compare it to another notebook, though aged and perhaps with issues of its own, and found mine to be noticebly louder. When I force the fan down/off or keep it at an automated temp range with the I8kfanGUI program there is a large difference in sound level between the way it's running now and when it takes breaks.

 

iucandi - can you post a link to that poll you created, cause I can't seem to find it.

 

nevermind, I found it

 

here is the poll link for any others who are having trouble finding it or want to check it out

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=146627