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Question on cpu-z / memory speed / fan noise.
Hello all,
Got a Dimension 8400 in January and have been going through the fan noise problem like a lot of other people on these boards. Had the heat sink and processor fan replaced once already to no avail. Oddly enough, since the replacement, the fan is quiet when playing Half Life 2 or Knights of the Old Republic II, but just sitting here surfing the net it revs up and down and makes all sorts of noise. I did the A04 BIOS upgrade that came out a week or so ago and that didn't seem to do anything.
Saw the tip about the Nidec fans and have asked Dell to replace the motherboard, the processor, the processor fan (with a Nidec), and the heat sink.
Any further fan noise advice?
On another topic, I saw a post yesterday that I can't locate now about using cpu-z to get specs on the machine. Did this last night and for my memory, I see two entries like this:
Memory type DDR2-SDRAM
Manufacturer (ID) Micron Technology (2CFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Size 512 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3200 (200 MHz)
Does that mean it's 200 MHz memory? I ordered 400 MHz. In the bios, I see 400.
Thanks
Dave
Got a Dimension 8400 in January and have been going through the fan noise problem like a lot of other people on these boards. Had the heat sink and processor fan replaced once already to no avail. Oddly enough, since the replacement, the fan is quiet when playing Half Life 2 or Knights of the Old Republic II, but just sitting here surfing the net it revs up and down and makes all sorts of noise. I did the A04 BIOS upgrade that came out a week or so ago and that didn't seem to do anything.
Saw the tip about the Nidec fans and have asked Dell to replace the motherboard, the processor, the processor fan (with a Nidec), and the heat sink.
Any further fan noise advice?
On another topic, I saw a post yesterday that I can't locate now about using cpu-z to get specs on the machine. Did this last night and for my memory, I see two entries like this:
Memory type DDR2-SDRAM
Manufacturer (ID) Micron Technology (2CFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Size 512 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3200 (200 MHz)
Does that mean it's 200 MHz memory? I ordered 400 MHz. In the bios, I see 400.
Thanks
Dave
- Very interesting. I've never seen these combination of symptoms.Steady under stress? Not under rest.The new thermal monitoring includes using the diode in the Pentium 4 chip. Based on what you have said, it may the the Chip itself. That really is the only thing, I think, that would explain fluxtuating rpms at rest. Then, when it heats up, while playing games, the diode goes into spec. and starts working. Since you need the chip replaced, and they have tried other things already, get the replacement.Who know, it may come with the new 600 series chip.As I said, if an XPS is quiet, the 8400 should be too.But, replacement is always a gamble. The same gamble got you what you have now.You could just try a chip replacement, but I'll bet Dell won't do that at this point.
- Yes. From a cold boot the fans rev up and down and then the fan just keeps revving up and down up and down up and down. Oddly only time it is level and quiet is while gaming. Not sure how loud is acceptable for a computer fan, just seems loud -- I can hear it from outside of the room. The constant fluctuation is what gets on my nerves most. Going to try and get a decibel reading on it tonight.
Processor is a P4 540 3.2Ghz w/HT. Only reason I asked Dell to replace that is if I do have a cooling problem, I would like to be sure that has not negatively impacted the processor in some way.
Customer Care just offered to ship me a whole new box -- does anyone have experience with that? Good idea, or am I just going to get the same problem in a new machine full of refurb parts?
Dave dotcomeddie
29 Posts
348
0
Posted March 3rd, 2005 19:00
I had a very similar problem with my XPS Gen3 system that had a 3.6GHz processor (500 series). I was told that there were a lot of problems with some of the 500 series chips. I sent it back and bought the XPS Gen4 system with a 3.8GHz processor and I've never been happier.
DCE
dekruyter
27 Posts
348
0
Posted March 3rd, 2005 16:00
From a cool start, do the fans speed up right away.
I would forget about the fans themselves.
If it's a J processor or the new 600 series, it's prob. not the processor.
Most likely the processor/heat sink contact, BUT, replacing the heat sink should have fixed this.
I just got an XPS and it's whisper quiet, despite the experience of others that seem to have had problems on this and other forums.