E6420 Owner's Thread

1. I haven't seen temperatures around 100c but I have the 2720qm proccesor.After how much time does it reach 100C?Does the frequency drop so the cpu to cool?

2)Just browsing I will say around 55

3)Thats about how much I get

Try putting on the cover not leaving any gaps while screwing it back.

 

Heads up on the BIOS issue with the E6420 and the i7-2720QM. After about a month talking with dell of the Turboboost issue, they thought it was a software confliction and sent me a new Harddrive. Obviously, this did not work as we all know it is the BIOS that is causing this issue.

I found something new with our BIOS problem however. With the A06 and A07 BIOS, the Turboboost never goes into effect, but what is interesting is that with those BIOS revisions, the Core Speed is stuck at 2.2Ghz. It will not go down or go up regardless of the power saving setting.

Also, when using A05--that does show some life in the Turboboost area--the max clock for the cores is 3.2Ghz, and not 3.4 (as it should). It also will idle to 760Mhz, but nothing lower (I have my power saving setting so that the CPU can idle at 5% maximum speeds which is 110 Mhz).

Something screwy with these BIOS revisions. Why can't they get it right?

Also my temps on the 2720 when running Prime for about 15 min. goes up to 88C, and I really don't want to test it further. Haven't had problems though with it yet.

I will say that if you are using A06 or A07 BIOS, you will probably run down your battery much faster since the CPU is locked in at 2.2Ghz for whatever reason.

 

interesting that the bios rev's are buggy, i'm used to applying them to my D630 w/out issue. I think I'll wait a few releases before upgrading the bios on my E, if it aint broke and all that jazz...

 

Dell is so good at supporting their hardware as it is bad at software.

This is what I got from Dell.uk a few weeks ago:

"Thank you for your email.

I check our records and found out that this has been reported and Dell is currently working on a new BIOS. I would recommend that you check Welcome to Dell Support from time to time for the release of the new BIOS."

Apparently, they know the issue. BTW, dell precision M4600 (very similar machine) got a BIOS upgrade at the same timeframe as we got A07, which fixed the turboboost issue that was also affecting their A06 vesion. For some strange reason Lat. e6420 and Lat. E6520 did not get a similar bug fix. But dell definitely knows the problem and, looking at precision bios history, it also knows how to fix it on our machines.

Crossing finger for the next bios release

G.

 

Because I do not need the power of nvidia, and with Intel the battery time is longer...

 

Just shipped mine off to Dell today to see if they can fix the bottom case and the CPU heat issues. Will report back once it returns.

 

This is exactly why I disable nvidia and use Intel: I loose some performance but gain a lot of battery life (it is easy to reach 6 hours with the 6 cell batteries). Here is what I do:

1. In the BIOS I enable optimus

2. then I start linux in console mode (I do not have any kdm/gdm/... installed and just use startx to enter the graphics environment, see below)

3. I took acpi_call from git:
git clone http://github.com/mkottman/acpi_call.git

4. compiled it and installed it

5. I load the module (modprobe acpi_call)

6. from root I do:
echo "\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.VID._OFF" > /proc/acpi/call
to disable the nvidia card
If this step works you should see an immediate drop in power consumption (use:
watch -n .5 cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state
to monitor it under battery)

7. I launch X using startx and enjoy it.

8. before rebooting I re-enable the nvidia card:
echo "\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.VID._ON" > /proc/acpi/call
This last step is important to avoid the BIOS to get confused on restart

I hope you succeed and like your E6420 with Linux. The more people use Linux the more happy I am

 

H, thanks! I've tried it too, but after echo ... command I still can see nvidia in a list of pci devices, so not quite sure if it's disabled or not

 

Try the watch command in step 6...

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

 

I don't have /proc/acpi/battery, but anyway, just acpi -V or checking info from my /sys/bus/acpi/drivers/battery/... I can see that battery life is the same ~3-3.30 hours (6 cell battery)

So, obviously, nvidia card is not disabled, just wondering what I am doing wrong.