Urgent help needed with Studio 14z!

Hello,

I purchased my Studio 14z about 1.5 years ago and I am starting to have some problems with it. Other than the battery finally needing to be replaced, I have noticed a lot more "whirring" coming from the machine than in the past. At first I thought it was just some dust, but now I am starting to get worried.

Today I updated to BIOS A04 (via Dell), and I also updated the driver from the NVIDIA GPU (via NVIDIA). I am not sure if the updates did it, since the whirring was around before the updates, but shortly after the whirring suddenly kicked into high gear. That is to say it got really loud and the machine started to noticeably vibrate. I shut the machine off and performed a system restore, but the problem is still occurring.

Is this a driver-related issue, or is my machine about to buy the farm? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

So have you actually tried dusting out the heatsink and vents? You could also try reverting the BIOS to whatever revision you previously had?

 

I have tried dusting (compressed air), but I have not actually opened up the machine, and I am a little bit nervous to do so.

I will give the BIOS rollback a shot (along with the nvidia rollback), although I am concerned about the whirring that I was having even before the updates. Is that common?

 

I would guess that dust was clogging up the system, the fan was working harder, and then the BIOS update created a more aggressive thermal table, so now the fan is cranking all the time... so no, it's not common under normal circumstances, but having a system full of dust is not a normal circumstance.

Of course, if there isn't any dust in the system, then that's a different story.

 

It's actually doing the whirring right now, and I just realized that the fan seems to have cut off. What would cause this?

 

Maybe the hard drive? I'd say optical drive, but I don't think the 14z has one?

 

That is correct, the 14z is sans optical drive. I also expected it might be the HD. Is there any way I can take care of this without actually opening up my computer, or is that just what must be done?

Also, is there any way to manually control the fan speed on the 14z?

 

If the problem is indeed with the hard drive, I don't think there's a way to fix it short of replacing the drive. That would require opening up the machine to some extent (though it might not be much). It's weird that a BIOS update would do anything to exacerbate the original issue, though.

I don't think there's a way to manually control fan speed on the 14z, as i8kfangui doesn't work anything newer than an Inspiron 1420 or 1520.

 

All right, well, I am going to try to clean out more grime today (really hoping it is just the fan) and see if that helps things.

By the way, what is the average temperature from the 14z to be running at? Is 50-70C too hot for this machine?

 

Wouldn't know specifically about the temps... but if you're 50C idle and 70C load, those aren't great temps, but they're still safe.

 

I'll chime in with my Studio 14z experience of 1 year. After a year with no dusting the system idled at 52C, Hulu etc 65-72C, and max 92C on the cpu. Dusting brought everything down 3-5C. Dell putting a brand new heatsink/fan assembly on brought everything to 42-45C idle 52-55C Hulu and max cpu of 82C.

As far as the noise, put your ear over the "Enter" key b/c that is right above the hard drive. Hard drive replacement is 5 minutes, not kidding. Pop the keyboard bezel, 2 screws on the keyboard and another 4 to unsecure the hard drive. That is it.

My 250gb Seagate that came stock with my 14Z clicked/beeped and was starting to fail. Toshiba 250gb reman from Dell fixed that problem.

 

Ah, if the HD is under the "Enter" key, then I think it must be the fan/heat sink assembly. Still, thanks for the HD tip, I will remember that if that particular problem comes up.

Okay, so I tried dusting the machine without going into it; no luck. I guess I need to get inside and see what must be done. How does one get access to that part of the laptop, anyway?

Actually, never mind, I think it might be the HD, too. So how do I do both of these things?

 

Documentation

 

If I may borrow a phrase: Good news, everyone!

I finally managed to get the BIOS to revert (A04=>A01) and my system seems to have re-stabilized. The fan is back to normal, all the whirring has stopped, and I did dust it thoroughly just to make sure it was working.

Thank you for all of the advice, though. If anything does go wrong with my laptop in the future, I know where to go.

One more thing: Given A04's tendency to destabilize the machine, why would Dell include that as an update for BIOS without an easy way of reverting? I had to figure out how to "trick" WinPlhlash64 into letting me "downgrade". It just seems a little ridiculous is all I am saying.

 

Very good news. There still seems to be an underlying problem with the fan though at higher rpms. I don't think it's fair to say A04 has a tendency to destabilize all Studio 14z laptops. As to the reversion option, I don't think it's necessary if most 14zs don't have a problem.

Anywho, glad your laptop is doing well.

 

UPDATE: Well, it looks like I got excited over nothing. After a few hours of running, the fan started going wonky on me again. I had to take the old girl into the shop and am still waiting to hear back. Fan replacements are not too expensive, right?

 

The fan itself probably costs next to nothing. The shop is probably going to charge you a fortune to replace it nonetheless. This is, of course, assuming the shop also thinks the problem is with the fan, which, according to your previous posts, may or may not be the case...

 

Well, the good news is that it seems the problem is with the fan. You are right, though. They do want to charge me a fortune for the replacement. They claim the fan costs USD 110 to replace. Can anyone find a quote for me on this to verify the claim? I have been looking for replacement fans to no avail. I do not mind paying a repair fee, but I do mind being swindled for the parts expense.

EDIT:

Ah, actually according to this page it is that expensive: http://www.laptop-seller.com/dell-studio-14-14z-parts.html

Why is this fan so expensive? Other laptops are one-quarter of this cost. What is so special about the 14z?