1420 - Warm Palmrest

I notice on my new Dell 1420 the left palmrest gets pretty warm. I know this happens on many notebooks. Just curious if this bothers other people?

I have a Dell 6400 and the palmrests stay pretty cool which I like.

Would like to hear some other opinions.

Cheers.

 

Look at what is under the left palm rest. If HDD then yea it is going to produce heat. You could insulate it preventing it from dissipating heat and causing damage to what ever produces it, then have system failure. Install NHC if you are concerned your system is running hot, it will tell you.

 

There actually isn't a hard drive underneath the palmrest which surprised me that it gets so warm. The copper looking tubing that expels heat from the cpu runs very close by however, which I believe to be the culprit. I don't think it was designed very well.

 

I agree mines gets pretty hot also. I brought a cooling pad to try and prevent it from heating up to much

 

Does it help any? I have a notebook cooler that I happened to already have, and it didn't help one bit. I'm probably just too critical, but it really bothers me.

This is interesting. It's a pcmcia cooler. I think this might help quite a bit, however I couldn't find one for the express card slot that the latest notebooks including the 1420 use:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/3DCOOL_LaptopCooler/print.html

Also thought this was interesting. On a past model (600m) which also had a warm palmrest, apparently dell made a revision to the case which included some type of heatsink to reduce the heat:

http://www.dellcommunity.com/suppor...ddrive&message.id=31727&query.id=54797#M31727

Not sure if I'll keep this notebook just because of that heat. Like I said, my Dell 6400 palmrests stay cool and comfortable.

 

Is this the case with all 1420's? Or just some.

 

I would imagine all. Do you experience this as well?

 

I just realized that you haven't gotten yours yet. You'll have to let us know if yours gets warm too. This is really unfortunate, because beyond this, I really like this notebook. Some have complained about the 9 cell battery and how it's loose a little, but that doesn't bother me as much.

 

I haven't received my 1420 yet. And I'm a little concerned about the matter...does it bother anybody (who's experienced it)?

 

Doesn't bother me. I only notice it if I'm typing a long document, and I usualyl write it off as being caused equally by my sweaty hand as by the hardware.

 

How warm are we talking? Like luke warm or hot...?

 

Well for me it noticeably warm. Nothing to the point where it hurts or anything, but warm enough for you to recognize, hey that's kind of toasty...

Good idea on ordering the blue. The black really shows fingerprints.

 

I didn't find my 1420 the least bit warm, particularly compared to my old Inspiron 6000, which used to warp the top of my lap desk.

-LQ

 

What CPU do you have in it? I'm wondering if the 1.8Ghz doesn't produce as much heat?

 

Overall the 1420 (Duo Core 2 2.0/4MB) is definitely faster and cooler than my old Inspiron 6000 (1.8Ghz PIII-M) .

-LQ

 

So you don't find the left palmrest on the 1420 much warmer than the right side?

 

Minimally....

The only warm (not hot) spot is the left rear, where I would expect it.

Wondering if the software/configuration/speedstep might be contributing to the disparity...

I haven't run any fan/temp benchmarking software on mine yet.

-LQ

 

Can you please run some fan/temp monitoring software and see what the temps are?

 

my 1420 doesnt have heat problems on the left or right side palm rests; the only heat that i get is the heat off my hands as i type. and i know it is from my hands because as soon as i take them away for a couple minutes and put them back, the palmrests are cool to the touch. i have a USB powered cooling pad and also run i8kfangui to monitor and control the fans. my fan settings arent anything great, they are somewhat close to the stock Dell BIOS settings but i just like have more direct control in my hands as opposed to the BIOS taking over. as for the cooling pad, i would say it helps but i really dont know by how much or how little since i have done no number crunching. when i run on battery without the cooling pad, i have no heat issues either with the palmrests.

 

I've been running I8kfanGUI and the temperatures don't seem abnormal or anything. Usually around 115 or so.

I also notice when I kick the fans into their max, it doesn't seem to make a big impact on the temperature. However, when I get the fans on max on my Inspiron 6400 I see quite a decline in the CPU temp.

 

that sucks

 

I have a dell vostro 1400, 8400m and i have it overclocked to about 670/800 and heat isn't even a problem with gameing really. on my left palm rest ois the only warm spot i can feel on my computer, but even then... the warm spot is about 100 degrees... which isnt all that warm... u have to lay your whole hand on it to really feel the warmth... maybe i got lucky