E6540 Owners Thread

Hi I just brought my e6540 i5-4200 4GB w/ Radeon a few days ago. Installed a SSD and a clean Windows 7. I read about 2/3 of the info in this thread.

I am using Speccy to check my temperature and CPU-Z to watch my clock speed.

I have been using Prime95 to run the torture test for 45 minutes. The CPU temperature is only about 66 Celsius and the clocks speed only went from 3000MHz down to 2700MHz. I want to confirm if I am reading this correctly. Is it Celsius or Fahrenheit? Is the clocks speed you guys talking about is the core speed on the first tab or CPU-Z? If I am correct, why is mine not overheating?

Please advise

 

I've been getting these overheating problems and Dell's gotten me several exchanges, but they still have these problems. When I mention this thread to them they still refuse to swap me another machine, say precision m4800. How did you do it? Could you share the rep's email address who helped you with the exchange?

 

I've been having the same throttling issues with all the e6540s that Dell tries to exchange for my e6520. I've escalated and escalated and gone to the BBB but no rep would swap the latitude for a different line. Can you also PM me how you got a response? I'd really appreciate it.

 

How did you get Dell to change their minds? All the reps I've got refuse to dispatch anything other than the faulty e6540s.

 

Can you share some tips on how you got your reps to swap your machine for something other than e6540? (Can you PM me the agent who helped you get a m3800?)

 

Sorry, I don't have any information on the rep. It was quite a while ago and I got transferred around a bunch. Try calling and getting a different rep..? Be firm in what you want, but don't get angry (they don't respond well to that at all). Be friendly, you want the lower level reps on your side as much as possible. I also spent hours on hold so don't start if you have to go somewhere later.

Always get the name extension of the rep before you start anything. Some of them won't give you an extension (esp higher ups) so ask them to email you while you're on the phone. Keep detailed notes so you have a record of what was said.

If you'll still have enough warranty time, call back, take the exchange. Then when you get the replacement and it's still throttling because of poor design, call em back. That way you'll have more leverage. I they had to swap my system for a different reason so I had two machines that exhibited throttling. Then they still wanted to swap out the fan/heatsink so I let them do that. After all that didn't help, I was able to use that to prove it was poor design.

They have steps they have to go through, they can't just give out upgrades. I will tell you that the person who ultimately approved my exchange was not happy. He was rude and basically said, "here is your only option or we're closing this case".

Be glad this is a business warranty! Attempting this with a basic consumer warranty would be way worse!

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the tips! When I told them about the throttling, they deny the problem actually exists. How did you get them to acknowledge it?

Also, do you think going through the chat agents will be better since everything will be on paper?

 

I just kept repeating what the issue was. I ran all those tests and could show that my machine was throttling and by modifying the cover/removing the cover, I could show the temps dropped which implies a design flaw. I hate to say it, but I think part of the reason they caved was that I had already had so many other issues starting with the tech that smeared thermal paste all over everything, then sending me wrong parts, rude/poor customer service, etc. Just keep following up and asking to speak to a supervisor. Maybe run some of your own tests. You're not getting the performance you should out of the machine. You paid for a laptop that advertised a 2.7ghz i7 and an 8790M and you're not getting what you paid for.

I've never had good luck with chat support. The ProSupport chat was a bit better, but ultimately they would follow up by phone. You could advise them that you'll be recording the calls, or ask that the rep send you an email summarizing what you talked about. Always keep your own notes though with dates, times, names, etc so when you finally do get to talk to the manager who's reasonable, you can look back and tell them all the crap you've been through.

Finally, have you tried emailing Michael Dell? Just the generic [email protected] or via his Twitter.. There's a PR team or something that reads all those emails and can sometimes get things moving along for you.

 

Long time since I checked in....

I was having massive heat problems... still do, but I've AT LEAST found a combination of workarounds that eliminates the throttling and the hot lap syndrome.

1) I took the thing apart, piece by piece and checked EVERYTHING.
2) I removed the pads from the CPU/GPU contact points and replaced them with custom fitted and lapped copper slugs.
3) Reassembled the heatsink/slug combo with AS5.
4)Now resting the laptop on a Coolermaster NotePal X3 with fan on full speed.
5) Added a neoprene gasket to the surface of the cooler to stop airleaks from air injection, and to keep the laptop from slipping off cooler.

No more throttling; no more hot lap.

I ran both a CPU stress test and a BitCoin miner on the GPU (all cores on both).

The CPU/GPU never throttled due to heat....

PS - If you haven't gone to a Samsung EVO 500GB SSD or better, you are missing out.

 

Is it possible to install 32GB of RAM on this machine?