weird problems with XPS 1710

I have an XPS 1710 which is about 3 weeks old, 1st I had the dreaded bsod, the other day the screen resolution was changed from what I had it set at, yesterday I started it up it sat at the dell screen, I turned it off restarted it the same thing happened so I turned it off again and it booted fine. Today when I was using it the lights for the fan, speakers and the cover turned off, I went into Dell quickset and they came back on for about 30 min. then they went out again, if I go into the quick set to the gaming settings they come back on? Any ideas? I didn't do the fresh install and I am wondering if I should do that to see if the problems go away.

 

Maybe your GPU is overheating? The fans come on when the temperature of a component reaches a certain level... I'd do a support chat with Dell and have them run you through some tests. This could be a big problem starting up.

 

Most likely it isn't because of the fresh OS. I would guess that it is overheating also. Couple of solutions. If you are using it on a desk, you might try a laptop cooler or a desk fan.

You might also need to adjust your fan controls. Dell has them set to come on at certain temperatures, but you can use ik8fangui to change that. If you haven't already, i would make sure that all of your drivers are up to date and reflash the BIOS.

 

I will make sure that all the drivers are up to date and the BIOS, I can't see that it would be from overheating because the times that it wouldn't get past the boot screen it had been off all day. As far as using a laptop cooler I don't think that I should have to use one on a laptop that is only a couple of weeks old. Also I was only surfing the net when the lights were going off, and the fans were turning on. I will have to call Dell tonight as I don't have the laptop with me at work. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

If the cooling system is not working properly it may only take 30-60 seconds for your laptop to start overheating. Even if your laptop is new it can overheat if there is some kind of problem with the cooling system or if you aren't letting enough air circulate where the fans are located.

Cooler pads are a generic solution to the problem of laptops that have poor heat dissipation, it has nothing to do with the age of your unit.

 

Just as otak suggested - it has nothing to do with how old your laptop is. There are several factors to determine overheating and age is not one of them. For one, you have a gaming system, so I assume you have nVidia graphics card. High end graphics card produce a tremendous amount of heat. Second, dell's design as well as laptop design in general does not allow enough circulation of air to your laptop. The bottom area of your laptop will become very hot especially if you have it on a desk or blocked by something such as your legs, blanket. Third, Dell controls the fans by using the BIOS, and generally the temperature settings are set very high. Your laptop can be hot but the fans might not turn on or be at full speed. It happens.

You can call dell but even if you get a replacement, you'll most likely still have the problems.

 

I called Dell this morning so I will run the diagnostics when I get home and see if there are any errors. I have my laptop either on the coffee table or the desk so I don't have the vents blocked. I will let you know if anything comes from the diagnostics. Thanks for your help.

 

Hi just an update on the laptop, I checked the BIOS it is current, the video drivers are all current, I ran the quick diagnostics from Dell they came up okay, this morning I am running the extended diagnostics to see if there are any problems, the fans cut in so I am still at a loss of what is going on. I checked in the BIOS settings for the fan setting but there wasn't anything in there, where else would it be to change the speed?