Calling all Latitude and Precision owners with Nvidia cards!

Well, the tech has already changed the motherboard and heatsink.

I think things are better now. The CPU (which was not overheating) is now idling at 31/33, which is 8ºC less than before, a sizable difference. The GPU appears to be idling at 1 or 2 degrees less, but after putting it under load and stopping the load it cooled off much faster, which gave me hope. Still, this was a 5 minute game session just for the tech to see that the problem wasn't fixed. He says that these thermal pads have to be applied carefully and that they take a few days to make proper contact, so we'll see.

He also said that modern Nvidia chips usually operate at quite hot temperatures, so even 90-something degrees is acceptable as long as the card is not downclocking.

This new motherboard has the Intel Advanced Management Technology, which I didn't have before. Useless freebie

 

Yay! You finally got a working non-overheatinte E6400.

 

Nice! Now we have concrete evidence and proof!
But 90C is still relatively acceptable for a modern GPU, the tech was right.

 

Guys, my GPU is still overheating! The CPU is cooler, but the GPU isn't (or barely is).

I'll have to wait a few days to see if the thermal pads start having better contact of if I'm still stuck with an overheating GPU.

 

The first thing I have noticed is that this fan is a lot noisier at 3000 rpm than my previous one The temperatures seem to be slightly better, but not enough.

 

Hi. I have a Latitude E6400 with the Nvidia GPU. When playing TrackMania Nations, my GPU temperature went up to 105C, and kept autothrottling all the time (about 50% of the time at full clock rate, and another 50% at the lower clock rate), with the temperature oscillating between about 85C and 105C. This is certainly a sign of bad cooling. The computer is one month old, and therefore shouldn't need cleaning yet.

 

An update now that 24 hours have elapsed:

The problem is NOT solved. The CPU is indeed better cooled, about 8-10 degrees lower. The GPU is around 2 degrees cooler than before, but when playing a game I still get downclock-upclock cycles once every 8 minutes or so, and the temperatures are always around 100º (sometimes they rise to 101 or 102 and it downclocks).

My guess is that the improved cooling of the CPU helped to cool the GPU because the cooling system is shared. But the problem is not fixed.

I have sent another email to Dell Finland asking what to do next.

 

Silly, so I'm actually luck with my 92 degrees? I mean, with A13 I don't experience any downclocking whatsoever, and my machine is running with fan off under light load. That difference between our two machines is really weird, we have the same CPU, but I even got the FX 1700M instead of the FX 770M (see EDIT below) which you got. And as your CPU stays cooler than mine while your GPU gets hotter than mine and downclocks, something must be wrong. That previous HWMonitor screenshot I posted was shot after playing UnrealTournament3.
If you need any data from me, please PM me.

EDIT: Oh! I just saw that you actually have a Quadro NVS 160M.

 

Yep. Still, 92º is a bit warm but not dangerously so. I suppose you have the 3 year warranty too, just keep using it, and if it goes bust they will replace it. After the warranty is over you can do the copper mod.

The irony in this story is that I bought the E6400 over an ASUS with a more powerful GPU because I thought "well, this way it will run cooler and last longer" (and other reasons like better support etc). Oh sweet irony...

 

Well, after all they have replaced for you, getting a replacement (new maybe) should be much much easier.