Vostro 3550 noise

Hello

I recently bought a Vostro 3550 with i5 2430m, AMD 6630m and I am little bit disappointed by the noise it generates during low load(surfing internet/MS word). Is it normal that fan activates itself after every couple of minutes and stops again after a minute or so? I find this pretty annoying when using laptop at night or in quiet places.

Thanks

 

So there is no Vostro 3550 owners?

 

Yep. That's normal behavior. And yes, it's irritating... especially in quiet places. But, as far as I know, there's no way to stop it. When you need it to be quieter, put it on Battery Saver mode and disable the AMD GPU. With those two things done there's a much longer period of silence before the fan bursts on again.

 

Just a few days ago Dell released a new BIOS (A11 version), and apart from several issues, it addresses the fan behavior. In their words: "Modify fan max speed value to fix WBDD tool fan.exe test failed if system in high temperature".

Presently I am not particularly concerned with the fan noise with my Vostro, so my opinion probably wont help much. I'd say that now the fan noise is lowered (its rotation speed) but it comes up more frequently.

If I would like to lower the fan usage, I see two good ways to achieve it: One is to replace the thermal paste for one of the most advanced out there. Many tech sites have recorded a reduction of more than 8 °C depending on several conditions. I have been closely monitoring temps with speccy (from Piriform Company) and it is my observation than most programs increase around 5 degrees the CPU temp, depending on ventilation conditions, so that thermal difference could be quite relevant.
And two (apart from replacing your system Hardisk for a lower temp SSD), find good "green" 1,35v, low latency Cas9, 1600 Mhz RAM modules. I know they cost around $100 for 2x4Gb, but the benefits in speed will lower the fan need by itself (because tasks will be finished faster) and their lower operating voltage will reduce the overall laptop temp.

///In a year time, possibly Ivy Bridge and definitely Haswell technology, will allow for powerful 17w CPUs that will use laptop fanless coolers THAT already exist!

 

Thanks for your replies. I found a solution for myself: putting switchable graphics method to power plan basis. With automatic switching and power saving fan will still turn on quite often, but with this method and power saver fan won't turn on during low load at all. You can hear only fast spinning HDD.