IMPORTANT UPDATE: Latitude E series +Dock Fan Issue Identified

So ive been having fan issues with e6400+E/Dock for months now.
I have the dock with a 19' monitor on top and, a 17 incher attached to the left.

For some reason, after about an hour of use or when using a multitude of programs at once, my fan would kick into high gear and proceed to drive me nuts for hours. When looking up my temps, I noticed that the fan kicked in when my NVIDIA Quadro went above 61/62 degrees (occasionally going as high as 71).

Granted, I probably should have done this simple test months ago, but I finally decided to you use my setup W/O the 17 inch monitor and completely disconnected it from my dock.
Low and behold: no fan issues.
Temps remain in the mid-50's and fan stays at a low, quiet speed.

It appears that the extra work needed to drive the additional monitor is pushing the temps up and kicking in the fan.

So I have two questions as a result:

1) Didn't DELL test this dock before marketing/advertising it to be able to handle multiple monitors (without the aid of a very noisy and distracting fan)?

2) Am I supposed to just live with this now or, is it safe to try and over-ride DELLS factory settings to get the fan to remain at a low setting (how high is 66-70 degrees for the Quadro anyways)?

Multiple monitors are critical to my business and I honestly would not have dropped 2gs+ for this system had I known the fan would be this noisy and distracting.

BE FOREWARNED IF YOU PLAN ON DOCKING THE LATITUDES AND UTILIZING MULTIPLE EXTERNAL MONITORS.

 

Ah, it would be so nice if every company tested every product under every circumstance. My illusion is that this happens, my reality is that it does not. But it is great that you found this out. If we can put a man on the moon, we should be able to control the speed of a small fan here on earth.

I am not getting the dock right away although I am getting the E6400. I guess I will use it on the road first.

Congrats on getting some good clear info on the problem. I bet a real answer will be forthcoming.

 

Y'know I think a big part of the problem is that the Quadro is connected to the cooling solution by a thermal pad - if I load up the Quadro completely using something like ATI Tool - even without a dock - it runs up into the upper nineties after not too long a time. I partially regret getting the Quadro over the 4500 since I don't really use it much...

 

This is some good progress with the diagnosis.

What happens to the temperature and fan if you reconnect the second monitor but run it at a lower resolution (if that is possible) or reduce the refresh rate or colour depth? (ie try anything which reduces the workload on the GPU). A sustained GPU temperature of 70C shouldn't hurt it if that is what is needed to keep the fan noise acceptable.

Can you also check the situation using only the 17" monitor and with, if possible, swap the ports.

However, if the Intel X4500 can drive two monitors without getting into a sweat then it should be possible for nvidia to do the same.

John

 

I am going to run a couple of tests and post my results.
Maybe the solution for me is to send the unit back to Dell and have them swap out the Quadro for another card.
I dont do anything thats really graphic intensive anyways; not sure why I got it in the first place.

 

They might find that swapping the mainboard so you have the Intel GPU is easier than fixing the thermal rules in the BIOS. It's worth a try.

The Intel X4500 is more than enough for anyone who does not want either (i) nice FPS with the latest games or (ii) fast 3D graphical rendering.

John

 

my M2400 runs a little hotter on the dock than it does sitting on my desk, but only about 5C

 

Well-after using one monitor for the last day or two, the fan just kicked in at high speed again and at a GPU temp of only 56???

Im lost.

Lets see how long it spins for now.

 

Another interesting update:

I dropped down from A09 to A06.

The earlier BIOS has allowed for a significant drop fan issues; it will still kick into high speed, but wont proceed to spin for hours on end.

 

I think Dell are still trying to fine-tune the fan operating rules which are coded into the BIOS

The BIOS development will have to try to satisfy both the marketing people (who don't want lost sales because of fan noise) and the bean counters (who are worried about the cost of replacing failed nVidia GPUs).

John