New XPS M1530 overheating - fan problem

After a long wait for my notebook due to parts shortage, I'm beginning to enjoy my Dell XPS M1530.
Everything was perfect except for two very disturbing overheating incidents. Once I left the notebook (just idling) and a hour later that the panel felt hot. I opened up a temperature monitoring program and noticed that the two cores were over 80C and the GPU was over 90C - but the fan was not blowing. The lower part of the notebook was blistering hot and you can even smell the odor of melting plastic. I shut it down. After 30 minutes I powered it on and the fan came on immediately.
THe next two days I was careful about monitoring the temperature on the unit. It works fine - the fan comes on whenever the CPU hits 50 and keeps evering in the lower 40s - no problem even when I run a benchmark program like superpi. Then it happened again, while I was just browsing. Again the fan stopped working and the temperatures shot up rapidly till they are all over 80C even without any appreciable load. This time I rebooted and ran the Dell diagnostic program and it failed the fan test - it just will not come on. After the notebook cooled, I carefully opened the panel and examined the fan connector. It was tight. The fan turns freely - no obstruction. Once cooled, I ran the diagnostics again and this time it passes the fan test at all speeds.

During the failure it seems like the sensors worked - I was able to read the temps off it using two different program - but somehow the fan controller did not activate. This problem did not reoccur during the last day of constant use - so it appears to be an intermittent issue.

I'm bummed as I need a notebook to work on and hate to go through the whole process of returning it / repairing / reordering and long wait. I'll hang onto for the next two weeks and see if the problem reappears before deciding what to do. Has anybody encountered this type of problem before?

 

Good think you have a XPS Just call up (or even chat) with XPS support and they will send a Tech to your house to repair the problem, if the tech has the part instock it will be next day service. If not, it will be next day after they get the part.

You COULD also try updating the Bios. Might be a little far fetched, but the Bios is responsible for controlling the fan. Worth a shot.

 

I've had the same problem except for my CPU core was around 90 and GPU core was over 110 C. I think its a little BIOS or software quirk that causes the fan not to come on after standby mode or something.

The dell "Premium" XPS support told me to ran the same freakin diagnostic over and over again even when I tell them that it isn't a constant problem and happens only in long periods of use. He doesn't even try to replicate the problem, tells me to update the BIOS even though i tell him its already updated. Then he tells me to reseat the WHOLE heatsink even though I don't have problems with the temperature 90% of the time, and that when the computer overheats the fan is barely running, but of course he doesn't listen.

The overheating actually melted off two heatfins in the exhaust vent in the back left of the laptop.

I eventually gave up and just promised myself to not put the 1530 in sleep mode as often as I did.

I recently called dell about my very loud Optirac optical drive, and told them about the heat fin, and they are going to replace both. I think we will have to wait until the next BIOS update for the overheating problem to be fixed completely.

 

I think you just described what happened. It occured after a couple of sleep/standby cycles. I just can't reproduce it at will and believe me I tried.

I did reinstall Vista as I hated the way it was originally partitioned. I took care to install all the necessary chipset, ahci drivers etc so I'm pretty sure I did not leave anything out.

As it is I dread leaving the notebook alone unattended as it might decide to get into that weird nofan state again.

Here's my dilemna - I can call Dell and they will probably call somebody over to change out the fan assembly - but if it is a BIOS or software quirk it will not fix the problem. If the BIOS is buggy, I'm sure they'll be a lot more people seeing this problem.

I hate to return the notebook because it is perfect otherwise, I dread getting another notebook and see stuck pixels or some other issue. In the meantime I have I8kFanGui running constantly with the temperature boldly displayed on the toolbar icons to alert me.

 

Just call dell and say your fan is malfunctioning - works sometimes and doesn't work at other times. If you want to be guaranteed a result say it makes noises or something too.

The way dell support works is simple, the problem is resolved between you and the person you talk to on the phone or via email. The technician that comes out has only one responsibility, and that is to replace the part/s he is instructed to and to bring the old ones back. He will test the new part but he won't test to see if the old one is defective.

Most people just don't know how dell's support system works, it really is very lenient as long as you communicate your problem to the support desk properly. If you don't get the result you want, hang up, and try again with a different person.

Good luck.
PS. It won't be a BIOS/Software problem or like you said everyone would have it. A 90+ CPU or GPU core should never happen, and not too far beyond this damage can start occuring. Consider yourself lucky and get it fixed ASAP. If the problem continues after a fan replacement I suppose the next step is getting the motherboard replaced...

 

I recently had a very similar problem on my m1530. I came back about 45 minutes after my computer had started up. The only thing that I had opened was gmail in Firefox. So pretty much nothing was running. The computer was burning hot and I freaked out. It was pretty hot that I couldn't place my hands on the palm rest. The bottom was like a frying pan. It would have burned me for sure if I had touched int unaware of it's heat.

I opened up CoreTemp and HD Tune to check some temperatures a couple of minutes later. The Core temp reported the CPUs at around 75 C. The HDD was at 62 C. I believe this is way too hot. I assume that is the problem. I don't know what temperatures they should normally be. I turned it off right after that. It occurred a couple of hours later when I turned it on to see if it worked then. I just called up Dell and they took it back. I have Complete Care so I am glad for that. It was quite strange since it usually is just mildly warm.

It is at Dell right now and I am on my 5 year old laptop, which is painfully slow. All I can do is browse the web. Hopefully it comes back fixed up!

 

I have the EXACT same problem as all of you. And I never noticed it was after it had been in sleep mode for a while until i read this thread. The bottom gets burning hot and the fans do not come on. Has anyone figured out the cause of this? And is there a fix? It seems like this is a widespread problem with the newer laptops cause I just got mine a a little over a month ago. There must be something causing this.

The overheating causes major fps drops in games so when it gets that hot I have to shut down until it cools.

Let me know if you find a fix for this... Would getting Dell to put in a new fan fix the problem? Or is it a problem with the bios? The motherboard?

 

Ok it finally happened again. After many dozens of sleep / hibernation cycles - somehow the ACPI driver, or the BIOS gets into this strange state where the Fan never turns on and the temperature rapidly soars into the 80s and 90s with the notebook just idling. When it got into this strange state, I carefully tapped the notebook around to see if it is an intermittent fan connection. Nope. All other devices work. Temperature sensors are reading ( high! ) and the bottom plate gets blistering hot.
Powered the machine off by pressing the power button and holding for a few seconds. Immediately power on - fan comes on instantly blowing searing hot air out.
At this point, and seeing the experience of others - I'm pretty sure that this is a serious bug in the current firmware (BIOS) of the XPS 1530. It is not easily reproduced. It only happens after many, many sleep and hibernation cycles.
I'm totally bummed by this problem as it is hazardous defect. Its not a fan problem so the usual "replace-the-fan" routine by a service rep will not fix this.

 

And I'm almost sure you're completely mistaken (this is a good thing). I've built enough pc's recently to where I've seen fans that only power up intermittently. The fix is always to get the bad fan out and put another in. If this were a BIOS problem, a lot more people would be seeing it. Get Dell out there pronto to replace the fan/cooling assembly. If it still happens, follow what Udi says and get the motherboard replaced.

 

Agreed. More likely a bad mobo or fan than a bad BIOS.

 

I have same issue, GPU 100+, after back from Sleep sometimes.

I guess I need figure out it is a BIOS problem or fan problem.

 

I have had my M1530 for just over a month now, and have encountered the same problem discussed in the forum, in that after a number of the sleep / hibernation cycles, the GPU core has reached 108, and the system shuts down, or reboots.

I have had the Dell technician out, who replaced the fan, and the motherboard, which had a later BIOS than the one on the system: in addition, Dell have just released another BIOS 09 that allegedly fixes, "thermal issues"....It Doesn't!! I sit here with the machine at 100 degrees without a fan blowing , and will have to shut it down once again.

There is clearly a serious problem, and I am obviously not the only one experiencing it. I note from some of the other posts that every suggestion made I have had done, but to no avail.

Where do I go from here?

 

(I just posted this on another thread, but it could be the same problem you guys are having, so I'm copying it here. Hope that's all right...)

I had this problem and it seems to be related to the Dell wireless card...I noticed that when it hibernated, as soon as it shut all the way down it would restart and say that Vista had shut down incorrectly. Then it would restart and get to the login screen. After a while it would sleep, then hibernate again, then go through the whole restarting process.

The first time I noticed this was one morning when I picked it up and it was blistering hot. I opened it up and found out that the screen was on, running the screensaver.

I searched around this forum and found a thread or two that pointed me to the Dell wireless card, of all things. People said they'd had it repaced with an Intel card and the problem stopped. So I tried shutting off the WiFi switch, and the problem went away. Turned the switch back on, and the problem came back. (I set the computer to sleep after a minute and hibernate after 3 minutes temporarily to test the problem.)

I got in touch with Dell and the first tech wanted to replace the wireless card with an identical Dell card. I didn't like that answer so I got in touch with them again. The second tech just said he'd replace the whole system. I thought this was overkill, I mean, an Intel card which would've cost $7 more would probably fix the problem. But then I thought that since the computer had sat out all night slowly baking to death without me knowing it, more than once, even though the computer seemed to be working fine it would probably be a good idea to get a new one with unfried components, so I didn't argue. (Plus I'd just found out I could use 64-bit Vista on this computer, and was thinking of reinstalling everything anyway.)

The replacement 1530 had the same problem. People with a Dell card might not notice the problem, since it only happens on hibernate, and since your computer's set from the factory to not hibernate for 1080 minutes, so it may be a while before you notice this problem. But setting the computer to sleep after a minute and hibernate after three brought the problem back. Shutting off WiFi again fixed the problem, turning the switch back on brought it back. (I had to completely shut down and restart between each switch change, or it would keep restarting anyway.)

So I got in touch with Dell again, and this time I got someone who seemed to have some sense, and he had me go to Device Manager and go to Network Adapter and click on the properties for the Dell wireless card. There was a checkbox at the top of the Power Management tab that said 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'. He had me turn that off, and that seemed to fix the problem.

I'm a little worred that this might cause me to drain the battery more quickly, since apparently this means the wireless card'll be on all the time, but it's too soon to tell whether the battery's dying quicker or not.

 

I dont know if this is a bios prob or a fan prob but i have the exact same problem and did not know until just now what happened. Exactly right, after closing the lid, and opening, it goes into sleep mode, but everything is super hot when i open it again. the screen is blank and comes on when I open it and if it wasnt for the black screen, id think the screen was on the whole time and heating up the keyboard and such. and then the fan never comes on. then I did as above, hit power button off and on, and fan came on and cooled from 85 degrees celciius to 45 degrees.

 

thanks for this, i just tried this and we'll see if it works too...

 

Man I cant beleive I m one of the unlucky ones too! that too after multiple system exchange/refunds!
This was my new system a month old n i was very happy with it when the stupid fan went dead on me. Is there a freaking software that will help me manually switch on/off the fan n control its speed?

 

Yeah i just got the same thing my GPU temp was 106C

I am going to call Dell So they can send someone to check it out, i reversed to the A08 for a while then to the A09 again and its working fine now.

This is the second time in a few days (3approx)

I dont know what it's caused by but i think a defective Fan is the answer.
Because it was running when it was 106C

 

can the people who have had this problem say whether they have a dell wireless card, or an intel wireless card?

 

Yes i have a Dell mini wireless card.

Do this it actually fix the problem (did for me at least)

Works, try and report back.

 

i dont have a 1530....im thinking of buying one though....now ill get the intel card...i just wanna be sure that the wireless card is indeed teh problem

 

Yeah there is, you can use SpeedFan 4.34 I think, just google it. Then to control the fans, just increase the % values, you might even hear the change in fanspeeds as you're cranking it up.

 

I had the same problem. 2 days ago I received a notice that a new version of the bios was available (A09). I installed it and have not had a problem since. I do have a Dell wireless card.

 

I also Have an XPS M1530. I have had sleep mode turned off since i got it and have the overheating problem. same symptoms as the rest of you blistering hot to touch no fan operation after power up as of tonight i upgraded from BIOS "A08" to "A09" and so far i have no problem with overheating and the fan seems to be operateing somewhat on a more "normal" Basis. But to fill you in on my past Experiance... as i said i have sleepmode turned off and i always shut down when im not using my PC. but mine was getting very hot while surfing the web and playing my MMO's as well and would not cool off untill i rebooted and then the fan would kick on for a short time bloing out very hot air. But with "A09" so far so good ... i will post in a few days again and update yall on my PC's Status in this situation.

 

Wow! You just describe exactly what happened to me too - it so eerie those are precisely the same things - hibernate, fail to shut down, restart - followed by a non-functioning CPU fan so the notebook gets blistering hot.

And yes - I have a Dell Wireless card too.

Lately I have it switched off the Dell wireless card and I have non seen a single instance of this problem since. I'm glad you posted here and vindicated my theory that this is not just a faulty fan - but a problem with some weird interaction between a device ( in this case the Dell wireless card ) and the ACPI services.

The Dell Wireless card sucks too. It was not able to connect to a Buffalo Wireless G router and its range is pretty pathetic. I'm thinking seriously of picking a cheap Intel card on fleabay and swapping it out.

Thanks for shedding some light on this one!!!

 

I tried using SpeedFan 4.34 but it doesnt support the FAN feature of XPS1530

 

i have had dell come out to my house and repair my motherboard for a faulty fan, the diagnostic test shut down my computer.-
then my hard drive died on me a few months later and i got the part to replace it.
-
now im getting the same fan problems with overheating. dell must of gave me a messed up m1530 , like screw me take it. check this out, none of those games run smooth, really bad fps 14-30 fps on a bad a drop.

 

I had a similar problem about a month ago. Call Dell and have them come out again to fix the issue. They changed my motherboard, heatsink-fan assembly and my wireless card (who knows why? But eh), and it's now much cooler. My temps were similar to yours, now my CPU hits 75*C at full load and the GPU hits about the same.

 

Ditto to all the complaints above. I received my M1530 from Dell December 2008. It overheated in January-- yes, blisteringly hot with CPU approx. 110 degrees. Dell replaced the motherboard, heatsink, and fan. I reinstalled Vista and things were good as long as I didn't leave my laptop on for more than 3 hours. In March '09, I left my laptop running and the same thing happened-- crazy hot, which damaged the hard drive. I called Dell support and they replaced the processor, heatsink, and hard drive.

July 3, 2003, it has overheated again and another hard drive bites the dust. Just got off the phone with Dell support and am jumping through all their diagnostic hoops (so far, error 0142 on the hard drive). I am going to press for a new laptop. This has been the worst laptop I have ever owned. It's been nothing but trouble. For perspective, I've supported thousands of laptops and servers over the course of my career and this is the worst quality story of all-- even over Compaq in the late 90's!

 

Hate to post in an old thread, but it seems like the right place.

My M1530 has started randomly deciding not to use the fan at obscene temps, Dell have replace the mobo and HS/fan twice, CPU once. Still does it, most of the time it requires multiple sleep and hibernate sessions before the problem appears, but sometimes it'll start 30min after a cold boot.

I have the Intel 4965AGN WiFi card, so it's not related to that. Anyone know a fix that works, or should I be pressing Dell for a replacement system, because I can tell this is going to end up with lots of pointless repairs unless there is a proper fix, and I really can't afford to lose use of my laptop for much longer.

 

Just call technical support, tell them exactly what happened and request a motherboard and fan and heatsink replacement... Just to be on the safe side, even tho ur fan is failing its very likely due to motherboard... so make sure they replace your mobo and fan! As for sending ur product for repair, u dont have to! Thats one great thing about DELL, they will send a technician with parts from dell to replace your parts at your own home, and thats it... you can enjoy your system without having to send it out for a month of repairs.

So call them fast before you burn your CPU chip

 

Hi Guys, just to let You know that the problem is caused by the Dell wifi card. Remove it and the fan will work as normal. Obviously You wont have wifi and to solve that You need Realtek 8137se (or a USB/PCMCIA card). Fan works perfectly fine with it. I've tried two other wifi cards(one intel and one broadcom) and fan did not work but it works fine with Realtek card.

 

excuse me for bumping an old thread...

katar83, exactly where do you get that information from? Please, do post a link, because I was under the impression that the GPU overheating was caused by a faulty GPU die. But no, the GPU overheats because of the wifi card. That makes so much sense.

 

Katar hasn't made a single post since February, I doubt he'll read your question.