Are there updated drivers for the E-Series port replicator/docking station?

Even if it did push me to over 50c, is that bad?
Should the fan stay on as long as it does?

Do me a favor-with the two monitors connected-play a movie for a couple of minutes or do somthing graphics user intensive and see at what point your fans kick in. I'd be interested to see if they go straight to the highest setting or not (and then stay there).

As for the I8kfanGUI tool, I have it running all the time to keep track of whats going on. Im at 40c right now; ill let you know at what temp it kicks in.

UPDATE: fan just went on at 45c. It has since dropped back to 38; shouldnt it now turn off?

 

When you say the fan went on at 45c, was that the chipset temperature? Which speed did it use at 45C? It is normal for the laptop to go to 3000 RPM at 45C chipset temperature.

I noticed that once the fan started on low speed 3000 RPM it didn't stop even when the chipset temperature dropped below 40 C while using the laptop with two monitors in the docking station.

I tried running something really CPU and memory intensive on both monitors (one of the screen savers from "Really Slick Screensavers") and the fan went to 4800 RPM when chipset/GPU/memory reached 50C. It dropped down to 3000 RPM a couple of minutes after the temperature had dropped a couple of degrees. This is with BIOS A11. I think it took longer for the fan to drop in speed with BIOS A09.

Örjan

 

It started when the CPU reached 45c.
It went straight to 4800 and has stayed there ever since (over an hour now-and now its still at about 40).
I have BIOS A11 and im noticing much of a difference.
My chipset temp is at 58-is that high?

Its weird though-HWMonitor gives me different readings than the FanGui.

 

Chipset temp of 58 C is pretty high and I think you can expect the fan to run at full speed almost all the time with that temperature even if the chipset probably can survive temperatures a lot higher than that. My chipset temperature normally stays at 43-47 C when I am not doing heavy work on the laptop. My ambient room temperature is approx 23 C and a higher room temperature will of course bring up the laptop temperature a little bit.

I don't think the CPU temperature influences the fan speed a lot on my laptop. I think I have seen CPU temperatures of above 60C without causing the fan to go above 3000 RPM.

What I have noticed is that when one of either Chipset, GPU or Memory reaches 50C the fan speed increases to 4800 RPM. This could of course be a coincidence but I don't think so. If your chipset temperature is 58 C I am not surprised that your fan runs at 4800 RPM all time considering how cautious Dell seems to be about high temperatures in E6400.

In my E6400 it seems that the CPU is sharing heat-pipe with the chipset and heat from the CPU probably spreads to the chipset. If your nVidia GPU is 60C most of the time it will probably spread a lot of heat to the chipset also and that can explain why your chipset is much hotter than mine.

Since the fan of your laptop is not running at 4800 RPM that often when undocked it would be interesting to check the chipset/gpu/memory temperatures in this case.

Örjan

 

So maybe I the move for me is to get the Intel chip?
Do i even need the Nvidia chip?
An IT friend of mine convinced me to buy it saying that Vista would run better with it-is that true?

If the answer to this whole thing is that the Nvidia just runs hot and obviously doesnt dissipate heat well (and that dell has the fans set to kick in at a relatively low temp)-well thats good enough reason for me to get another GPU.

Orjan-one more thing..is teh Chipset comprised of one memory chip and one graphics chip?
Im still learning these things...
I ask b/c my GPU temp is 48 and my memory temp is 49.
So where does 58 come from?

 

I can only speak for myself and I don't miss the additional graphics performance of the nVidia graphics. I run Windows XP so I don't have need for good 3D performance for Windows Aero and I never play games on the laptop. I haven't noticed any problems with 2D performance but some people say that if you are using programs with very complex graphics you might get bad performance with Intel graphics, especially if run the programs in a virtual machine.

The chipset includes a lot of functions like memory controller, disk controller etc. I am a bit surprised that your chipset temperature is 58 when your GPU and memory is 49. Did you measure these temperetures at the same time?

Maybe the reason for the high temperature is inadequate cooling of the chipset in E6400? I will have a look at temperature values of chipset, CPU etc of the new Thinkpads we have at work after the holidays. It will be interesting to see if Thinkpads are running cooler than Latitudes.

Örjan

 

The nVidia GPU has better capability for 3D graphics processing. For 2D desktop graphics the Intel GPU is fine. Compare the WEI desktop graphics score for the two CPUs. the Intel chip has fewer transistors and leaks less power.

The nvidia GPU leaks more power and therefore makes more heat than the Intel alternative. However, I think it is more a case of Dell trying to keep the nvidia GPU as cool as possible in order to delay the time when it dies and they have to spend money replacing it. (Read all about it here, in 3 parts).

John

 

I am a bit puzzled by the readings for chipset, gpu and memory temp you get from I8kfanGUI. I think that maybe I8kfanGUI has mixed up the values on E6400 so that 58 C is your GPU temp and the 48 and 49 values are your chipset and memory temp. Is that consistent with the value for GPU temp you get in HWMonitor?

I8kfanGUI has not been updated since 2007 and Dell could have changed the internal numbering of their temperature sensors. After all, I8kfanGUI just reads a number of temperature values and assign a label to them according to the settings on the Advanced Options page. The GPU/Memory/Chipset temperatures on my E6400 never differs more than 1 C so for me this is not an issue.

Of course Dell could have added more sensors to E6400 than previous laptops which could make all temperature readings meaningless since you don't know what value corresponds to what sensor.

Örjan

 

I have been looking for someone that has been able to set their external monitor resolution above 1280x800. What is your laptop video card/driver setup?

My setup: Latitude E6400, Quadro NVS 160M, E-Port Plus, (2) Dell 3007WFP-HC 30" Monitors using Dual-Link DVI cables.

My native LCD resolution is 1440x900, I am trying to drive the external monitors at 2560x1600 which the NVIDIA specs say is possible using Dual-Link DVI.

Tech support in the Latitude and Precision departments cannot offer any suggestion other than to return my system.

If I connect a VGA cable directly to the laptop my maximum resolution is still 1280x800.

Has anyone used an e-series docking station at a 2560x1600 with Dual-Link DVI? I found this post about success with the DisplayPort.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=308961&page=2
It seems odd that Dual-DVI would not work, but DisplayPort does. Would a DisplayPort>Dual-Link DVI adapter work?

 

This is a bit off-topic in this thread. I have answered to the same post you made in the E6400 Owner's Lounge thread.

Örjan