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Latitude D505 wrist rest heat problem
I've recently acquired a D505 and within a days use noticed that the left wrist rest area (above the hard drive) gets uncomfortably warm. I've searched extensively on the issue and found numerous complaints about the D600 suffering from this, but not for D505 users. Does anyone else have this problem with their D505.
Also, has there been any official fix recommended from Dell on this issue? A friend mentioned a keyboard kit upgrade that was released to help combat this but I cannot find reference to this anywhere. In addition, when Dell support was contacted about this, the response was 'this is normal behaviour'. I'm in the process of trying to formulate a scathing reply, but want to be armed with all the facts first.
I'm currently running the laptop on top of a cooling pad which has a couple of extra fans providing added cooling to the bottom of the unit. This helps bring the temperature down a bit, and at least makes it useable for long periods of time, but I see it as a band-aid measure. I spent (well, work did ;-) ) over AUD$4800 on this laptop, so wouldn't expect to have to buy peripherals just to make it useable in a work environment.
Also, has there been any official fix recommended from Dell on this issue? A friend mentioned a keyboard kit upgrade that was released to help combat this but I cannot find reference to this anywhere. In addition, when Dell support was contacted about this, the response was 'this is normal behaviour'. I'm in the process of trying to formulate a scathing reply, but want to be armed with all the facts first.
I'm currently running the laptop on top of a cooling pad which has a couple of extra fans providing added cooling to the bottom of the unit. This helps bring the temperature down a bit, and at least makes it useable for long periods of time, but I see it as a band-aid measure. I spent (well, work did ;-) ) over AUD$4800 on this laptop, so wouldn't expect to have to buy peripherals just to make it useable in a work environment.
I have a Latitude D505 with the same problem. I recently upgraded and added a second 256Mb RAM module and lately the system has been locking up (everything freezes, but the screen shows a scrambled and moving image of the last thing I was looking at). I don't know if this is related to the overheating issue, the recent industry-wide DRAM issue or something else with the new memory module I installed.
- It is "as designed" :-(
Here is part of a response from a Dell Support rep when I queried what could be done about the problem
"During use, the hard disk will generate heat which will in turn elevate the temperature of the surrounding area including the palm rest (not unlike other system components such as the video controller or CPU) and could feel warm to the touch. Under intense use of hard drive (through the use of system utilities like Defrag etc.) the palm rest may become noticeably warmer. This is normal behavior."
I don't thrash my system running Defrag all day, although I do use it for coding and compiling applications, which can be quite disk intensive. The heat being emitted is far from normal. One of our managers here experienced the same problem, and his laptops HD would be getting nowhere near the amount of abuse that mine does.
All I can suggest is that you officially complain to Dell about the issue. This should help the chances that it will be fixed in future models. I have exactly the same problem, as well as my colleague.
I have a similar problem with the screen. It gets really hot from the first day. Dell also called it 'normal behaviour', but advised me to reduce the screen light in order to reduce the temperature.
(I have to give in on functionality in order to prevent from normal behaviour ?????) Moreover, some 10 colleagues who also have a Latitude D505 do not have the screen problem. Anyone of you having it?
Well, I resubmitted the question to Dell also. Hoping to get a solution...
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Posted June 25th, 2004 16:00