E6540 Owners Thread

The fan in my machine has become audible during normal use (such as internet browsing), rather than near silent as it had been since I bought it last summer. Temps don't seem any higher, but noticed the CPU clock is constantly fluctuating and briefly hitting TurboBoost speeds of 3.7Ghz every couple of seconds. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it's always behaved that way.

 

If it's spiking to max Turbo speeds every few seconds, then there is a transient single thread chewing CPU like mad. Possibly a driver updated and pulled in a new, broken helper app, or something else similar.

Most likely explains your louder fan than usual as well.

 

And tips on how to identify which process/thread is causing this behaviour?

The clock changes by the second typically like this...

1-2 1.5Ghz
3-4 2.4Ghz
5-6 3.7Ghz

 

I've upgraded the BIOS to A08 and trying a power profile that the clock speed down a bit, but my once quiet machine (during general use) is now almost permanently blowing warm air. Piriform Speccy is showing CPU 46c, which I'm sure is a similar temp to what I've always had.

I'm at a loss to why it needs to use the fan so much more now

I rebooted and checked diagnostics, and noticed the CPU temp was 66c. This is only moments after showing 46c in Windows?!

 

So even though I thought things were very clear that sending another E6540 wouldn't be acceptable, that is exactly what was sent. I'm not sure what magic word you used Forge, but this lady still repeats they can't send models from another line.

 

I still haven't had mine be anything other than "In Production", so they may be feeding me a line as well.

 

Forge, do you still know the service tag from your e6540? The person I am talking with wanted to know one from someone who has been offered an exchange since she obviously doesn't believe it is possible.

 

PMing you, don't want to post that publicly.

 

A 20 Degree jumping temperature is a typical sign of a misconfiured thermal paste.

Example (before and after repaste):


Results: CPU Air Cooler; Low Mounting Pressure - Thermal Paste Comparison, Part Two: 39 Products Get Tested

 

It is also an example of the E6540