E6400 overheating throttling

One user on Dell's Community Forum seemed to have made some headway into this issue with Dell's tech team. (Go here and checkout the last couple of posts by "JoeB7")

Hope something worthwhile comes out of this.(Fingers crossed)

 

Well, my plan is to just try out the system (e6400) when I get it and see if I can make it throttle/overheat. I'm planning to run virtual PC, google earth, play a DVD, and maybe some other stress tests all at once to see if I can make it throttle.

If it does, then I'll most likely be sending it back and either getting a D630 refurb or Lenovo T400. It's still good to know that Goldeneye's seems to be working perfectly though, even with playing games (I'm not a gamer).

I did chat with tech support though and they said that there's no restocking fee if you return it within 30 days. That seems to contradict their return policy on their site which is 21 days I think. Either way, the overheating is a clearly a product defect, so in any case the restocking fee should be waived.

 

Like I said earlier, I have been getting some "Event 7's" at startup every once in awhile, but haven't noticed the performance difference. The event log say the only last 9 seconds max. I checked my brothers laptop and he also gets them at startup (HP Pavilion) so it must be a regular thing to throttle for the short times during some instances. However, I have never noticed anything even close as bad as what people list on the forum here and on dell. I am willing to be you will be very happy with the laptop.

 

Well as said, if you get the Nvidia option, you won't have any problem.
I do what you said every day (ok not the google earth part, but I do compile large programming projects). As I compile projects several time per hour, use VPC, take breaks and play some light games, I can see when it trottles, and it never had.

About the Event notification. My guess is that it is because it's a laptop, and automatically, your CPU, GPU, and northbridge won't go at full speed to reduce heat. In my case, I set to disable Nvidia Power Manager while I am plug-in (not in battery) for the best Aero and gaming experience, as heat is no problem for this laptop.

Did anyone tried to have their laptop to high performance, and plug-in and see if they get the event.. I wonder is forcing the CPU and northbridge to max power will not show this event message.

 

Thanks for the feedback. However, I also ordered the E-dock and after re-reading the dell thread it looks like that e-dock can escalate the overheating/throttling. I'm guessing you don't have the E-dock?

Anyway, I hope you are right and I don't have any problems. But no worries either way, as I have a backup plan .

 

That seems to be the case for many, but not everyone, as some folks still have the problem even with NVidia unless I misunderstood. Anyway, I hope you're right. I don't think I've ever been so worried about a laptop I don't even have in my possession yet .

 

Most people (all?) that had problem with nvidia solution, have it solved by having either the motherboard and/or heatsink replaced.

As for the Dock station, if it causes problems (no I don't have one, and never tried), well I think it won't be a problem to manually connect a few cables to the system. Well anyway, personally I don't see the value in such high cost accessories.

 

Good to know, thanks.

The advantage of the dock is that you can just pull the notebook directly off without having to unplug anything. Just more of a convenience thing, really, but if you have a lot of cables like I do (speakers, external hard drive, external monitor, mouse, keyboard, monitor usb plug, etc.) it's a real advantage.

I was going to have to buy a powered USB hub anyway to support all my peripherals so I decided to spend a little more for the full docking solution. I have the dock for my D630 at work and it's awesome.

 

Ah I see. Good to know. Thanks

 

I have it with the nvidia. As soon as it hits 58 on gpu, it steps from 9 to 6 (multiplier).