Precision 7550 & 7750 Owners' Thread

Yes. Fan noise is super loud, even with quiet profile. But the machine is super fast and stable on my side. My last machine was a 7720 and didn’t have this fan noise problem.


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Are you using a 7750 or 7550 now? I was curious if the 7750 had less thermal issues due to the larger real estate.

 

7750


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I reduce fan noise on the 7530 by capping the CPU speed.
* Set max CPU speed to 99% in Windows advanced power options.
* Make sure that the power slider (appears when you click the battery in the notification area) is second from the right.

Together, these disable turbo boost.
You can enable turbo boost when you need it just by moving the power slider all of the way over to the right.

Also make sure that you have PCIe link state power management set to “maximum power savings” in Windows advanced power settings.

[Edit]
Also on the 7530, the fan definitely operates at lower speeds at "idle-ish" loads on "Optmized" mode than it does on "Quiet" mode. I've actually done measurements on this. Not sure if it is the same situation for newer systems.

 

I have 7750 on optimized mode. My CPU is on idle most of the time, so the fan rarely ever kicks in, but at the same time the chassis is rather warm. I tried cool mode for a while, the fan was on a lot more often, but the chassis was indeed cool to touch all the time.

 

When you mean 'hot', are you monitoring temperatures using something like HWiNFO64? If the fan is randomly kicking on/off, it is likely that the PCH gets particularly hot. A possible mitigation (in Windows) is to go to Control Panel -> Power Settings -> Whichever active plan you have -> Advanced power settings -> PCI Express -> Link State Power Management -> set both 'On battery' and 'Plugged in' to 'Maximum Power Savings'. This allows the PCH to switch off PCIe lanes that are idle or not in use, saving power and drastically cutting temperatures. The PCH in the 7550, unlike that in the 7530 and 7540, is not cooled at all (@SlurpJug had a few comments about this, around pages 1-15 or so). Consider moving to the 'Optimised' profile: fan noise is noticeably less obvious here. The 'Cool' profile both throttles the CPU and ramps up the fan aggressively, all in the name of maintaining low temperatures; this gives you the worst of both worlds, actually (poor performance, and loud fan noise).

This could potentially be a hardware issue, too. Have you tried the keyboard without the encryption software?

I do believe the intakes have always been on the bottom, with the exhausts on the side, so I'm not sure if this is specific to the 7550.

It is a known fact that the 8th, 9th and 10th-generation Intel CPUs are overheating, un-optimised piles of rubbish that have very high TDPs for the performance you get.

Intel has bolted on four extra cores to what is effectively Skylake, an architecture built for 4 cores, 8 threads. In 2015 a i7-6700HQ or an i7-7700HQ could be expected to hit > 3.8 GHz on all four cores; now, it is a wonder if CPU clock rates exceed 3.5 GHz, due to the extreme heat (> 90 W under load, approaching desktop TDPs).

Overall it appears like the 7550 is a worse-built machine than is the 7530/40. The PCH not being actively cooled is a giant pain point for many laptops, and it is a pity that even the Precisions have fallen afoul of poor design like this.

 

I wonder where is the contactless smartcard reader on the 7550. I do not find it, as there is no reaction of the system by using a smartcard.

In my old precisions the reader was localized right from the touchpad. There was an icon there on the palmrest. But this icon does not exist on the palm rest of my 7550.

According the device manager, the contactless reader exists and is working fine.

 

In looking at the photos in post numbers 291 and 292 (p. 30), the front edge of the top of the two laptops appears to be different. If I am not mistaken, the model in post #291 is a 7550 and the one in post #292 is a 7750. Can someone explain to me why in some photos of this line of precisions there appears to be a line that runs across the length of the top of the cover about one-half inch from the front edge?

 

Take a peek at the manual online (7550) or 7750, page 12.

Homer

 

Thanks for your response Homer. In looking through the manual I can't find any reference to the line on the cover I am asking about. It is clearly shown on page 12 of the manual as you mention, running along the top of the cover. The laptop on page 30, post $291 clearly doesn't have the line running across it. I am curious as to what the difference is.