Dell Studio 1557 - i7 - overheating issues

human survives

 

My mobo & heat sink has been replaced with new one today. CPU temperature slightly drop around 5C but I'm still not impressed. I have ask Dell engineer about the replacement parts & he said the mobo & heat sink is new. He also claimed that my model is new & there is still no refurbished mobo yet (at least in my country maybe). He said for other model with Core 2 Duo processor, refurbished mobo will be given because there is a lot of them. Actually, I don't care much as long the mobo condition is OK & it fixed the problem. He also updated the BIOS to ver A05.

The actual reason for the replacement is because my notebook produced beep codes last week (three to four beeps). Both CPU & GPU temperature also suddenly increased for no reason. It happens (beeps) three times (two while restarting & one while turning ON after shutdown) but strangely it only happen that day. I don't want to take the risks, that is why I'm reporting it to Dell last week.

Windows Experience Index also increased from 4.9 to 5.0.

kizwan

 

Good for you. My heatsink replacement reduced CPU temp around 20 degrees. Mobo replacement didn't do any change.

Thanks for updating about A05 bios update. It has been just released. Download is going on.

But Windows Experience Index is now 4.8, which was 4.9 in the new system. How important is that? Graphics is low, we all know that.

 

WEI means very little guys. Don't sweat it too much. If the temps are normal you have nothing to worry about.

 

We have same notebook model. Despite a little different in WEI scores, our notebook should performed the same.

Yeah, I agree.

kizwan

 

Yes, I understand your point WEI shouldn't matter much. Again its score changed to 4.9. I am going to forget it.

 

Does Studio 15 with Core i5 processor have the same heating problem?

 

If you check the specifications at Intel's website, you will find out the i5 draws less power, thus certainly heat generated would be less as compared to i7. I chose i7 because its performance is really better.

The heating problems usually occur when your ambient temperatures are already hot or when any component such as heatsink is not doing a good job. It could happen with i7 and i5 as well. Some people use laptop for gaming and they use an external cooler. Personally I don't like the idea of cooler with a laptop.

Keep in mind that i5 will run comparatively cooler, but with a decrease in performance. It is a trade-off. You have to make a choice

Good luck bro.

 

Hi wecaz,

I'm conducting an experiment about i7 CPU benchmarks. I concluded that benchmark scores very dependent on ambient & CPU temperature. When the ambient & CPU is hotter the scores will be much lower than the scores in cooler conditions. I use geekbench & it give me different scores on different condition.

I'm not sure actually, the PM55 chipset could be the one to be blame for the lower scores though.

kizwan

 

My first thought come about the ambient room temperature or operating temperature as dell call it. Dell has mentioned in the manual that the operating temperature of the machine is between 10 to 35 degree Celsius.

Like any other device, performance may reduce on extreme conditions (not sure about low temperatures). To perform the benchmarking, one can define some specific 'operating temperatures'.

In my opinion, this testing can be done at 10, 20 and 30 degrees separately. CPU temperature will follow the load.

All this could be performed only if one have resources to perform it.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I am thinking of going with i7. I don't use my laptop for gaming but I would like it to be fast.

 

I'm having the most strange problem ever.

Today my laptop stops charging constantly, to make it charge again I have to pull the power adapter from the wall and put it in again and it works for a while again. It wont help if I pull the chord from the laptop and put it in again, only in the wall.

I had the same problem with my last laptop, and it was the poweradapter that was faulty, but this is the crazy thing.

I can make it stop working, if I pull my iphone from the USB port, the blue light on the adapter goes off and the charging stops until I pull it from the wall again and put it in. wth is this?

 

Contact Dell & have the adapter replaced. It clearly a faulty/hardware problem. I'm guessing the motherboard also faulty. Replace it too. Take a look in Event Viewer & search for ACPI (Source=ACPI) problem. I think you will find a lot of errors & warnings.

 

My wireless keeps disconnecting. anyone else having this problem????

ive alrdy connected to other networks and its for sure that my own wireless card in my laptop is kinda screwy.

 

I just have an issue of varying signal strength for the same wireless router in the house. It changes from 2 bars to 4 bars(20% to 80%).

For you it keeps disconnecting. I can understand that it is bothering. If you are sure that other machines in the same network do not have the issue, then you must call Dell asap.

 

For the last two weeks system started heating again. Today Dell replaced motherboard and heatsink. Core temp is back to 60deg at normal usage at 30deg room temp.

Uffff....thats certainly not good

Was it a wrong decision going for i7???

 

My 1557 idle temp is close to 60 with a 30C room temp too.

I heard the dual core i7 is very hot too.

 

Guys, Can I convince Dell to downgrade my system to core i5(1558)? The reason is that I am not at all happy with the high temperatures of my current system core i7(1557). It runs at around 70 degree even after replacement of mother board and heatsink twice in last 3 months. I never use CPU more than 20-30%.

I am not at all able to put it on my lap which I like to do. Touchpad is always hot.

Should I send the system for testing which takes 3 days OR I need to be angry on phone for the issue? What choices they could offer me?

 

Not worth it if you downgrade the processor. You should either:-
1) Send for testing if Dell support or engineer suggested it
2) Demand for replacement for the entire system with similar configuration
3) Return the system & get your money back. With the money you can buy an i5 powered notebook.

 

hi friends


i am using my dell studio 1557 from January 2010, i am using my laptop for various purposes i am using it 20hr daily from gaming to see movies from data entry to editing videos i do all work an all the times my lappy is connected to Internet and downloading wordlessly. i found 1 thing same who having the problem of overheating of system all the persons who having the same prob just look that all u having 6cell battery instead of 9 cell battery if u would purchase that 9 cell battery then the bat. itself do the work of stand to laptop and provide better air suction and its turn in to better cooling of heat sink so plz use a laptop stand of 9 cell battery instead of 6 cell 1 and plz post reply m waiting

 

did dell replaced ur part by new one or refurbished?

 

If your running 20-30% CPU usage most of the time then I would expect a CPU temp of 70c.

If your room temp is warm to begin with (75-80f) then its going to be high

 

My Dell Studio 1457 (i7-720QM/4GB RAM/ATI Radeon 4530 512MB DDR3) normal operation the cores are around 60-70 degrees. On games however it c an top out at 89-93 degrees. Just now it shutdown immediately while playing Battlefield. Talked to Dell the other day and they wanted to replace the mainboard. I said no. They then agreed to replaced the whole laptop. We'll see..

 

Great forum. I'm a newbie and had a question that I would appreciate any info on.

I'm in the market for a new laptop. Mostly business use, internet surfing, some photo editing, some video and DVD watching. No hard core gaming at all.

I really like the style and configurations and custom build options of the Dell Studio 17, but am worried about the overheating problems I'm reading about. Are these problems continuing and chronic? Happening across the board with all processors, or just the i7? Only happen with seroius gaming? Does the Studio 15 have the same problems?

Any advice would be helpful and sincerly appreciated.

 

All Dell 1557 are faulty and suffer from over heating and blue screening while playing games or other intensive tasks. I have had the mother board replaced twice and the heat sync replaced once. Its gone off for repair again - if its not fixed this time I will take further action.

 

Read more here on problems:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19303691.aspx
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19335401.aspx

 

If you're going to do a lot of rendering, simulating, programming & gaming (& don't want to buy the alienware notebook), I suggest you to buy Dell Studio 17. It is big & probably heavy but I thing 17" notebook is a good choice for doing heavy job. Studio 15 also a good choice for mobile user. The design is awesome. Good performance but a little bit hot, around 5X Celsius when doing normal job, programming & running one guest OS in VMware (& doing some job in it). Current Studio 15 (1558) is now fitted with more advanced chipset than the old one (1557). You can read about 1558 in this thread. Dell also fitted more powerful but more cooler GPU in 1558. The overheating issue is more related to Intel Core i7-720QM which is a quad core processor. If you want to prevent overheating issue, I suggest you to get Intel Core i7-620M which is a dual core processor or any Intel Core i5 processors. Every model have it pros & cons. My 1557 never failed me before, never suddenly crashed (I crashed it twice just because I'm trying to run unsupported software in Win 7), or blue screen. I have been using it for seven month now. Doing a lot of simulation with VMware, programming, networking, etc. If you're going to buy Studio 15, don't worry with the 1557's negative story because you will get newer model which is 1558.

EDIT: Remember to get next business day on-site support & extended warranty.

 

Hey all,

I'm looking for a new college laptop, and have definitely been interested in the Studio 15. I will mostly be using it for web browsing and word processing and watching DVDs/streaming from Netflix. However I will also probably be doing some gaming on it a la Half-Life Source Engine based games like Team Fortress 2 but also games like Bioshock. I don't want to order a laptop, have it get here a week before school starts (which it will at this point) and have a plethora of issues to deal with before I go. Have some of the issues been resolved with this computer? It will be left on a cooling pad most of the time in my room. Also, I am not looking at any laptops bigger that 15 in. because they aren't as portable as I would like.

Bottom line:

Can you recommend this computer?
Are there any parts that can help out?
Any alternatives if you cant recommend the Studio 15?

 

You're in the wrong thread my friend. You should got to Dell Studio 1558 thread instead. Current Studio laptop available online will be 1558. I want to recommend you to get Studio XPS instead. It have hybrid GPUs (Intel HD + NVIDIA). My friend owned one & it look stable.

 

thanks for redirecting me kizwan

Im using the Dell Studio XPS 16 right now, but my dad is holding on to that when I head to school I like it, but was just scoping out some other options.

 

I see. Dell Studio 15 should be OK. 1558 owner happy with it. Get the 9 cell battery as it will lift the notebook at the back a little bit. It will produced better air flow at the bottom of the notebook, hence your notebook will be much cooler.

 

I also had some issues with my Dell Studio 1557 i7 1.6Ghz not being able to start up with a blank screen prior to the Dell startup screen. Sometimes it would load up Windows (7 Ultimate 64bit), but then I would get limited connectivity to my wifi network, which was very much like no connectivity. Also, after a few minutes after Windows started, the battery indicator in the taskbar would show me a red cross as if there is no battery plugged in at all. The first time this happened was briefly after I watched a movie through the HDMI out.

I also got one long and two short beeps from the BIOS intermittently. I tried a few things out from various forums but the main problem was either the videocard, the motherboard or both. After reading this thread, I noticed that many people are complaining about the laptop overheating and this made sense since the next day the laptop started nicely as usual with no issues at all.

First I upgraded the BIOS to A07, then the videocard to the latest ATI drivers from their website. After that I got HWMonitor and FurMark. I run HWMonitor first and then set up FurMark for a stability test on 1024x768. I stopped the test after a few minutes when the videocard got to 102 degrees C...

After researching a bit more I saw the post on this thread about the PowerPlay setting in Catalyst Control Center. Mine was switched on and indicated Maximize Performance when the laptop is plugged in. I switched it off completely and run FurMark again (by then the temperature on the videocard had dropped to 60ish degrees C). It took it a little while longer (maybe a min or two longer) to get back to 100 C, but not too much - the climbing line was not that steep, but it got there eventually.

Then I switched PowerPlay back on but this time with both settings (powered and on battery) to Maximize Battery Life. After 5min the videocard temp was back to 60. I run FurMark once again and this time - surprise - the temperature stayed down to around 60-62 degrees C. I left the test running for another 10min and it did not go up above 61-62 anymore. The framerate was 2-3 FPS, while previously it got up to 14-15, but the videocard stopped overheating.

The moral of the story - if you are experiencing similar problems, try altering the default setting in the PowerPlay menu in Catalyst. Since then the laptop has been stable, I watched another two movies through HDMI and immediately after that I run HWMonitor and the temperature was 59 C. All the other issues must have been from the videocard heating up the whole internal area and causing systemic failure in all the other components. I'll post back if my issues come back, but for now I am happy with the solution.

Of course if you intend to use the laptop for gaming or other intensive GPU tasks, you may want to call Dell and tell them your story and maybe get a replacement. Buying a cooling mat could also be a solution. With this design the laptop seems to be handling heat pretty badly and it seems like the ATI videocard is not entirely suitable for it. Oh well, at least I am using it for work and movies mostly, so it shouldn't really be a problem. Especially because the CPU seems to be handling itself alright - not exceeding 70-75C at any time.

Oh, and by the way, I do have the 9 cell battery, as well.

 

I had have studio 1557 Laptop with frequent overheating. I called Dell they replaced the Motherboard, Fan and Heatsink assembly. But they forgot to put in the Bluetooth module back in. I had to call up the Dell again, and they send the engineer on next day with bluetooth module to fix it. So far laptop is okay, but not sure overheating problem will come again or not. Also I could not find web cam drivers in the Utilities CD sent by Dell. Neither can I find these drivers on support.dell.com site. I asked Dell to send me the webcam driver CD. They sent it but still its not working properly. I had to download the drivers from third party site.

 

Parts were refurbished, but they were not used.

I share the same sad story.

 

Heating heating heating.....

Heatsink and Processor(yes!!) replaced

 

I got a 1747 Studio... i7 cores.
Doesn't stress it whatsoever... only office and web.
Temp is constantly at 45 to 63 degrees.
Had a "freeze" twice already.

Contacted Dell and thus far they just updated the bios.
Should I be worried?

 

It depend on the "freeze" characteristics. If it suddenly happen for no reason & happen many time. You should report it to Dell support. It only happen twice, no need to worry about it though. What are you doing when the "freeze" happen?

 

Literally. Mouse is not responding, everything on the screen freezes. Freezing happened twice. Again, I really don't stress the processor (Plus the fan kicks in and out of work every few seconds, which is a nuisance).

When freezing happened I decided to check CPUs temperature and it is constantly above 45. I read that some people have about 90, but the top I had is 60 something. I'm still uncomfortable with that because I assume that the processor can easily get to 90s with some hard work...

Read on Intel's i7 manual that temp should be around 35... mine is above that.

So the guy at Dell's tech support upgraded my bios last night and told me to shut down the computer till it is cold, then check again if it overheats. I did and it is still above 45c. BTW - when the bios was updating the fan was spinning really fast, unlike in regular situations when it constantly kicks in and out of work.

Anyone knows if 45-60is a healthy temp. to work with? I don't want to damage the CPU and SpeedFan shows a flame near the cores icons.

 

Look in the Event Viewer for any relevant error or warning messages.

Yes, it supposed to behave like that while flashing BIOS.

The temperature range look normal. My 1557 also have similar temp range. I don't think it freeze because overheating. Look in the Event Viewer & Reliability Monitor.

 

I bought my laptop in Feb 2010. For last 3 months I am having constant overheating issues.

Initially I thought it could be because of McAfee. I came across couple of posts which states that McAfee is not compatible with Win 7.


Anyways, over heating was an issue from long time but recently my battery started failing (<10 months).

Later I started having issues of abrupt shutdown when I disconnect my laptop from AC power connection.

Sometime when I disconnect my external fan, I got abrupt shutdown despite of AC power plug being in use.


I was monitioring my laptop temp. with Fanspeed and I found that my regular temp. was around 78C and with use of any media player such as VLC or Power DVD, it went as high as 90C before shutting the system down.

At times I can feel the heat at the top of my laptop from the speakers!



I have my laptop with Dell they are saying that they will test and replace everything what needs replacement.

Any comments or suggestions!

Thanks
JP

 

I just want to share my experience here. I found out that if you use cooling pad with at least one fan at the center - directly below the memory air-intake holes, which the fan is blowing away from the laptop, it does help in improving the CPU & GPU temperature from idle & working state (watching HD movie or running heavy application such as VMware with multiple guest OS running). My CPU when idle is under 50C - around 46C - 49C, GPU when idle is around 58C - 59C. On heavy use, CPU's temp is around 50C - 60C, GPU's temp is around 6XC. The speaker area at the left side no longer hot. However, when playing games like SC2, GPU's temp still reaching 90C - 100C. It just improved a couple of degrees in this situation. I think need to use more powerful fan to suck all the hot air faster.

 

Hi JP,
I have all the same issues as written above. It is purely the excessive heating which is impacting other components as well.

My heat sink and Motherboard have been replaced 3 times. Last time processor has been replaced too. Finally Dell has agreed to give me Full System Replacement.

I am waiting for the replacement for a few months, each time they apologize for the delay.

Surprisingly Dell India has stopped offering Studio laptops at their website.

 

You still didn't get the replacement? I thought you already received it. That is really long delay. Did they came to your house to collect the 1557?

 

I bought one of these for my wife as a Birthday present last October.

Its suffered from over heating when playing hard games, but it never really bothered her as she only really plays simple games.

I decided to put WOW on it so I could play whilst away or in the living room and found it to slow to a crawl and the fans to be on all the time.

I found the thread about the copper shim mod so ordered some and some artic silver 5.

On Friday i got round to taking the laptop apart, and sods law i couldn't find the shims.

So instead i cleaned up all the old thermal paste from the cpu - which was almost non existant apart from being caked round the sides of the CPU! It looks like they used too much paste and its just splurged off and around the cpu instead of on it.

I also cleaned up the gpu and gpu ram chips. The thermal pads were in good condition.

I applied AS5 to the CPU as directed by AS, and I also applied it to the GPU and the GPU RAM - just to aide the seal to the pads.

When i put it back together; First thing i noticed was how quiet it was. It seems to be running around the mid 50's same with the GPU. When playing games the fans ramp up, and I have no problems. When closing games the laptop actually cools down.

But the thing that made the biggest difference i discovered last night.

As the fan is in the top left hand corner; I played WOW with the laptop slightly hung off the table - so the fan was basically over the edge of the table and not over the table itself.

It seems to make a massive difference, and I think if the rubber feet on the laptop were taller, it might make it cooler when sat on a flat surface.

I must admit, I will never buy a laptop from Dell again. Its such a poor design and seems to be a friday afternoon special when its been put together. I think it might have been a better laptop had the cooling arrangement been better.

 

It's Dell....3 weeks before they told me that I will be contacted for pickup on Jan 10th. Today is 12th, I haven't hear anything yet.

 

Hello,

Have had my studio 1557 now for a bit more than a year with the i7 and Ati 4570, have had the motherboard replace 3 times and last week had it replaced the forth time togheter with the cpu and hdd. And if it still dosent work after this repair they said they will change it.

Now it hasnt freezed up yet but will probebly do, but is there a way for me to test the system to see if it still have heat issue faster then wait for it to freez and crash?

 

Run system stress test for 20 minutes. 20 minutes should long enough. If it survived (no BSOD, crash, etc) then your notebook is OK. You can use AIDA64 to do this (System Stability Test).

 

Thanks!

Will test the AIDA64 system stability test when i get home!

 

In AIDA64 stress test it doesnt stress your GPU so you may want to use a game or something like Furmark with the AIDA64 stress test

 

So you mean i should do the AIDA64 and a game or Furmark simontaneously, cool will try it out.

Did have time to try starcraft 2 after the repair every setting on low/off but with 1920x1080 it made some preformance drops and starcraft also complaint "Your computer is slowing down the game, try change gprahic settings....."