1420 Fan Poll

I just got done reading Rowen's thread regarding her fan issues and was wondering... for all you 1420 owners, is the fan loud, obnoxious, and does it run constantly?? Or is it quiet and hardly noticeable??

Thanks for participating!!!!

EDIT:: If you are using a FAN MONITORING PROGRAM then may you please tell me which one you are using?? Until today I never even knew there were such things :::embarrassed!::: THANKS!!

*please excuse the typo in the poll above...fam actually means fan

 

I ahve never noticed it, was on it yesterday for about 3 hours and nothing.

 

well.... thats one good piece of news I've read today! After reading the other thread I was getting nervous, thinking that maybe all 1420 fans have issues.

 

this poll is asking without the use of any sort of fan monitoring software?

 

hmm, thats a good question brianj! I'm going to specify it in the OP... thanks!

 

btw i am using the I8kfangui software to control my fan. i have it set up so my fan comes on at a certain minimum temp.

 

do cooling pads substantially help the computer's fan?

 

they help; i dont think they "substantially" help. the cooling pad i use has built in fans to help cool even more.

 

I voted for "My fan is on all the time and it is loud", as was expected per my posts on the thread I started here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144854&page=1

I'm running I8kfanGUI and have fooled around with a number of the settings and options. Typical monitoring temps without and automatic temp controls has my 1420 running around 40-42C and in a quiet room is really quite noticeble. For about two hours I set my I8kfanGUI to run at "Office" setting and until I set it back to monitoring and no control, the laptop was running around 57-58C. Though it got hotter, the fan was running at a slower speed, at times silent, but would intermittently throttle up and then back down. Perhaps something wrong with the fan utility.

So I reiterate: I am a new notebook user and thus my perception of sound levels may be skewed. Nevertheless, my new 1420 typically runs louder than what it may be otherwise capable of, as per my examination of the various control options offered by I8kfanGUI.

How would I even broach this with a Dell CSR? I hate to be nit-picky and though I want to make sure I've gotten my money's worth, don't want this replaced unnecessarily.

 

I don't think it'd be nitpicky at all Rowen. One of the reasons I bought a new 1420 was because my old desktop was running extremely loudly and preventing me from leaving it on all the time (thus damaging my seeding ratios), so if the 1420 had an always running fan I'd be pretty ticked as well.

 

i use I8kfanGUI and it's very useful in my opinion. i set the fans to turn to slow when the cpu temp goes above 60+. it's hardly noticeable. although when i'm gaming and the cpu temp goes 70+ the fans go to high and it is quite noticeable but that normal.

rowen: if you find that the fans would surge every few seconds, i had the same problem. i fixed it by going into the I8kfanGUI options > display setting > and set fan setting enforcement to 20msec.

 

I have a 1520 and it had a similar problem. The fan would be noisy even when it was doing nothing at the desktop screen. Well guess what, exactly after a week of owning it the fan just stopped completely. So, I would suggest you get that fixed asap or your fan would crap out on you.

 

thanks for the advice mcchea. Here's a question for you: you say your fans run at slow for temps above 60C. That seems rather high. Does this mean that you force the fan to Off when below 60C? To be honest, I really don't know what is a nominal CPU temp range for a notebook and though it may sound naive, would Dell not have the fan+temp ranges set as is for a reason?

I just turned my notebook on a few minutes ago and the temp is sitting around 37/38C with the fan now blowing at Slow setting. Although I8kfanGUI only has 3 fan modes: off, slow, fast, it appears the 1420 has a fourth, between off and slow.

 

it turns on at 60C and turns off at 50C. my 1420 will ever even get below 44C...how did you manage 37/38C?

 

yea mine really wont get below 43/44 unless i have the fans on high all the time. right now, it's at 42/43 but even that is cause i'm not doing anything.

 

Well, like I said, the default setting with no fan control leaves the fan running all the time basically. This does keep it cool at least and is why I'm always around 37-40C when not doing much.

Hmm....my #3 key is not very responsive...

 

When it was running at 42/43C when not doing much, how were the fans running? And are you using fan control in I8kfanGUI to obtain those temps? Cause mine is at that speed now and the fan is running at around medium/slow, and quite noticeable still. I guess I'll do some more playing around with the control program. As soon as I set it to Automated-Office setting just now, the fan went off and the system instantly went up to 50/51C

 

I finally made a video of my laptop and its fan noise. Probably not the most accurate or fair, as it just presents the quietness of the low-speed fan setting when running at "Office" and then immediately after I take off Automatic Temp control and it kicks into high-medium.

I now believe the fan in this system has 5 settings: Off, Low, Low-Medium, High-Medium, and High. This is based on watching the RPM speeds.

Here's the video.

 

And here's another video I just made after a restart and no temp control. Not sure how great the sound is though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J4ki_RHDzs

 

Lol, the Poll option "I dont own a 1420" has almost 2x as many votes than the others. Owell, makes everyone feel that their vote has counted .

 

after finally seeing and hearing what exactly you were talkin about Rowen, i would say that there is something inherently wrong with the fan or the heatsink or the temp monitor or something. my 1420 doesnt do anything quite like that and only kicks into high when absolutely necessary from intensive programs, whether running ik8fangui or not running it. i would consider callin into Dell tech service and explain to them the situation and see what can be done about it. however, that is really your call as to whether you want to take it to that level.

 

I can only assume the reason it kicked into medium-high/high fan speed was because I took off automatic temp control, which then re-enabled the stock Dell settings. Upon realizing that it was running higher than whatever Dell has set their Inspiron fan(s) to run at, it switched into high to get the heat down as fast as possible. But nevertheless, it'll continue to run at the slow-medium speed at all times without temp monitoring. I may call Dell tomorrow, but I really don't know how to inquire about this other than to say I'm running a utility and am worried about the heat/speed of fans. Hmm.....

 

Hey just out of curiosity what settings are you running on ik8fangui? I'm not quite sure what temps I should set it at to come on/off...

 

I was running my auto temp control on "Office" - was very quiet at this setting. Upon turning it off, the fans run all the time. A call to Dell is imminent.