M4400 heat & noise questions

Now i installed the A03 Bios, and it works.
I get the issue with the Framedrop too, but im not sure if its loading textures for 1-2sec or if its a heat issue again...
I sent an email with that first solution to dell, lets see what happens.

 

What works? With A03, do you still get the frame dropping issue?

 

Thanks for the numbers and translation. Do you know of any numbers for the M6400?

Agreed 47dBA is way to loud. Anything at and above 40dBA impacts concentration. Not to mention we are talking about a device that is most likely two feet from the users head.

The following ratings are from:
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/TableOfSoundPressureLevels.htm

50 dBA Refrigerator at 1 m distance, bird twitter outside at 15 m distance
45 dBA Noise of normal living; talking, or radio in the background
40 dBA Distraction when learning or concentration possible
35 dBA Very quiet room fan at low speed at 1 m distance
25 dBA Sound of breathingat 1 m distance
0 dBA Auditory threshold

 

Games are the only thing that make my fan go at max 5000rpm,it is noiser than I like at max.
Everything else,Solidworks,cosmosworks,office,video encoding,even at extended 100% cpu usage will not make my fan go over the slow 3000rpm speed which is quiet imo.

Watching a dvd or surfing the internet,the fan will come on occasionally for a few minutes and then turn off,I use the dell coolslice now which makes the fans come on less often when doing anything but games,for example,I have been on the internet for two and a half hours and the fan hasn't come on once tonight......I use powermizer set to power saving and notebook hardware control set to max battery when doing low req tasks....average ambient temp is around 18 degC in my part of the world,this time of year.

If I disable powermizer,the fan will stay on low speed almost all the time,even surfing,watching movies etc.

Edit:fan just came on as I was finishing this post and stayed on for 5 minutes.

 

Weegie, thanks for your detailed description.

 

On paper the M4400 is one of the best notebooks around but I must say I've been quite disappointed with it. The fan is constantly running and though not insanely loud is definitely noticeable. Occasionally it runs at max and though not insanely loud is very irritating.

 

@Cruisetown

This is a known issue, switch to an older BIOS (A02 or A03) download it here http://ftp1.us.dell.com/bios/

 

I have similar problems. When I use one display (laptop OR external) the fan is ok with bios A03 (low with some middle speed jumps). With A11 it is mostly middle and high. The big problem is when I use two displays and the fan is running high speed almost continuously (both A03 and A11).

What is your experience with one vs. two displays and fan speed?

 

Never noticed it really so i guess there is no issue here, i'm using A02 though

 

New Dell drivers out today for M4400. A13. I installed it a few min ago, and it sounds quiter than the previous one(A11) i had.
Any experts out there can let us know if it really is better..