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The other question you need to ask is which version of the BIOS.
The latest BIOS update has attempted to reduce fan noise (among other things) and the fan in my 6024W stays off for much of the time when under normal use. However, there are occasional bursts of fast fan activity.
So you stayed with the latest BIOS then?
My fan sometimes does what I think you mentioned somewhere else. It keeps switching between highest and a lower setting, presumably in some sort of temperature fedback loop. Like it needs a setting in between.
It doesn't do that very often though.
I have made a movie with my mobile phone and I will upload it for you!
But it changes the real view of the sound of the fan, because it's not annoying!
On factory settings my 6324 tries to keep the temp between 38 to 46. That means when it hits 46, the fan kicks in and it takes it about 5min to cool down. When it's cooled, the fan stops, the temp start rising and about 90sec later when the temp is 46, the fan starts again.
I'll try give the new bios a go, and tell how that works out for me.
I just want to say that it's depends on the OS too.. My friend installed XP instead of vista and the fan got quieter... Didn’t spin that much... Think vista uses more cpu power than xp and makes it warmer... Don't know how other laptops (like IBM, Dell etc) fans works (how much fan noise) in vista with aero and all the effect ON that vista offers! Anybody that have an idée about this ? (Just a thought)
I've just received my 6224.. what program are you using for the CPU temps? I tried speedfan and it was showing 60 degrees when just browsing.. thought it was a little high.. Haven't been able to see how loud the fan is as housemates have had tv on all day
Yes, I haven't changed back yet. In fact it seems that the fan is off most of the time when the CPU is on light load but the CPU temperature is around 63C. I was using it on my knees earlier today and the underside was starting to feel a fit warm, even through my trousers.
These bursts tend to be one or two seconds. Sometimes several of them, as if the fan trigger temperatures (on / off) are too close.
I think you have the latest BIOS (005) in which they raised the temperature at which the fan comes on in order to reduce fan noise and give a few more minutes of battery operation.
I'm using
RMclock for the monitoring (it will do a lot more as well). visit
their forum for the latest beta.
While the same BIOS is applied to all the 6x24 series, it may well be that the different thermal characteristics of the different GPUs result in different fan operation, even under light load conditions.
Haha, doesn't seem bad at all. I had to play the movie 3 times:
#1) My laptop's own fan was on, couldn't hear anything (VLC)
#2) My earphones didn't play anything either, VLC can't play the audio (VLC)
#3) Played at max volume, my laptop's fan was louder than the movie when it was running, I had to put on my earphones again to hear it. (Real Player)
Well, the new bios changed some settings with my 6324. First off, the fan runs at a lower speed during non-intensive work, so lesser noise. But now the temp swings between 54 to 59 (before 38-46), and the fan is on for a period of 6-7min and off just over a minute.
I'm not sure I would call that an improvement, gonna try changing some bios settings to lower it.
Regarding CLB-NL recording, around 70% volume I couldn't hear my own fan anymore.
We are testing a BIOS at the moment that incorporates C3 Deep sleep and Super Low Frequency mode (CPU running 800Mhz when idle). This should also help regarding the CPU temps and battery life.
I like my Vista without the eye candy which, I think, makes the display less clear. I just go to the Advanced system settings and set the Visual Effects to best performance then select smooth the screen fonts. My windows have nice square corners and clearly defined edges. [While on the subject of clarity, I tried the Vista Solitaire and found that flashing cards with fuzzy edges almost made it unplayable. Fortunately, the XP Solitaire works fine under Vista.]
I'm glad to hear that you have found the missing C3 state and the 800MHz mode. That should help reduce the heat generated when a computer isn't working very hard.
Will the C3 state be enabled for both battery and mains operations? This is my preference to minimise heat but some manufacturers leave the C3 state disabled when on mains power because there is a theoretical performance reduction due to the time taken for the CPU to wake up. A solution would be a switch in the BIOS to disable C3 on mains power for those owners who want absolute maximum CPU performance.
And I should point out that dropping into the C3 lower power state is something which takes place for very short periods of time. My old Samsung Q35, when running under light load. would typically show 90% of the time in the C3 state.
While we are discussing the missing CPU functioonality, what about the Dynamic Acceleration Technology? To quote from the Intel data sheet (Intel document 31674503.pdf).
I understand that this speed increase is just one frequency step and it probably explains why the T7300 in some notebooks gives a SuperPi (which is single-threaded) 2M time that is around 3 or 4 seconds faster than on others (including my 6024W).
(If this isn't already in hand, get the BIOS with better power management issued first and let this aspect follow).
I have now “reviewed” the new bios and have been jumping between the new and the old one for a couple of times...
The old one have 4steps (slow, medium, fast and, super-fast) of fan speed and the new one have 3steps... the slowest (and most quiet) does not “exist” anymore in the new one..
Anyway...
The new bios, like other have said is switching between “off” and “medium” in fans speed, which I see very annoying under ideal use (internet, office, pdf and vista aero ON).. the burst are on for about 5-10sec and then stops for 2min, while the old bios is on slow and sometimes off.
In game they work the same.. under heave use the fan is on fast, sometimes super-fast.
The “medium” burst are pretty annoying and loud when the are switching like that… and the keep the cpu –temp around 65 ‘C, while the old one keeps it around 45’C.
In the end I downgrade back the bios to v. Z14004a, with DTS-Calibration Off (but DTS ->On, only calibration off), which I like more because it keeps the cpu cooler and the “slow” fan is barely noticeable if you don’t sit in a dark quiet room where you can hear your own heart-beat! And if you running the computer under “Power saver”-setting the fans stops and give “slow” fan-burst sometimes... Just like the new one does!
So for you that haven’t upgraded to the new one I recommend to not.
I see that Zepto is working on a new bios, maybe that will do it in the end…
I suspect there will need to be more than one more BIOS update to get the right balance. The ideal solution would be a software application similar to
I8KfanGUI which enables users to set their own fan operation preference within the limits fixed in the BIOS. [I was actually an I8K owner when that application was developed - Dell went through about 20 BIOS updates in less than one year while trying to get various things working properly.]
Yes the 6 cell. I have changed all the power options I can to squeeze more time from the battery but that seems to be my limit. It might be that the aero interface on Vista is partly responsible for such poor battery performance.
One thing I have noticed is on my desktop machine (essentially same processor and RAM) it seems to idle at 1-3% according to the speedo gadget. My laptop however seems to idle at 7-17% implying something is using clock cycles but task manager doesn't suggest any culprit.
Part of the short battery life problem is that the current BIOS doesn't put the CPU into the C3 low power state. Apparently it was there in the original BIOS (when Zepto did their own battery life tests) and got lost during a revision. The next BIOS version (which has been under testing for several days) will re-enable this feature.
However, the dedicated CPU will always leak more power than the Intel integrated GPU. At the moment I can squeeze about 2.5 hours from my 6024W but I would like to get at least the 3.5 hours given in the datasheet.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
