Hardware
Dell fixes Latitude throttling, noisy Seagate drives with updates
Dell has reportedly addressed the recently publicized Latitude E6400 and E6500-series performance issues with an update. Hundreds of Latitude owners complained that when slightly warm, their systems throttled by as much as 95% under normal speeds.
Others said that even when cool, their laptop's CPU wouldn't reach 50% of its maximum clock. Dell allegedly ignored the problem, with complaints dating back to earlier in the year. The computer maker was also accused of censoring members of its support forum who spoke of the issues.
Only two days after various publications picked up the story, Dell introduced a BIOS update for ailing E6400 and E6500-series notebooks -- call it a coincidence if you like. The company has also released an update to quiet noisy Seagate hard drives used in various laptops.
Unfortunately, more user reports of the similar issues have emerged, possibly affecting the Studio XPS 1645 and Alienware M15x. Owners of the Studio XPS 1645 speculate that an underrated 90W power supply is to blame and have received 130W replacements from Dell after calling.
Others said that even when cool, their laptop's CPU wouldn't reach 50% of its maximum clock. Dell allegedly ignored the problem, with complaints dating back to earlier in the year. The computer maker was also accused of censoring members of its support forum who spoke of the issues.
Only two days after various publications picked up the story, Dell introduced a BIOS update for ailing E6400 and E6500-series notebooks -- call it a coincidence if you like. The company has also released an update to quiet noisy Seagate hard drives used in various laptops.
Unfortunately, more user reports of the similar issues have emerged, possibly affecting the Studio XPS 1645 and Alienware M15x. Owners of the Studio XPS 1645 speculate that an underrated 90W power supply is to blame and have received 130W replacements from Dell after calling.
User Comments (14)
Post a comment| klepto12 on December 3, 2009 1:25 PM | coincidence i think not dell knew it was there fault and released a patch for there blunder. At least they did something about it unlike apple and when stuff goes wrong with there products. |
| treeski on December 3, 2009 1:52 PM | Unexpected problems and technology go hand in hand. As long as Dell fixes their problems, then it shouldn't be a huge deal. |
| codefeenix on December 3, 2009 2:24 PM | Shipping a 90W powersupply, then "upgrading" to 130W blows my mind. |
| jjbeard926 on December 3, 2009 2:58 PM | I just ran this update on my Dell Latitude E6400. So far it looks like I'm getting about 5% better clock speeds on the processor and about 1 to 2% on the memory and video while cool. I'll see how it does when it warms up. Huge improvement though already and it's only been about 15 minutes. |
| vangrat on December 3, 2009 4:51 PM | so just curious, say your only computer is the Dell you just bought that throttles back when you slightly use it, how the hell are you supposed to download the update?! |
| Timonius on December 3, 2009 5:21 PM | Amazing it hits the news and then they come up with a fix. |
| lfg18 on December 3, 2009 6:29 PM | Well at least they are trying but they should make sure that their products work fine before they start selling them, i have heard some stories from friends about their Dells not working as they should, even when they are high end products. I hope that with this update they really fix those problems |
| BlackIrish on December 3, 2009 7:49 PM | It's for notebooks... or at least I hope they are talking about notebooks 
|
| Puiu on December 4, 2009 12:36 AM | At least they fixed it. (i hope) |
| AfricanTech on December 4, 2009 4:25 AM | For anyone who is interested, the whole sad history of this problem can be found here: [link] PS: I have an E6400 and do experience the problem regularly -- sigh -- off to try the BIOS update now + probably RMClock as well... |
| AfricanTech on December 4, 2009 7:25 AM | Does anyone know if there is an alternative download site for RMClock - the official site appears to be down. Cheers |
| jjbeard926 on December 4, 2009 9:25 AM | On that same computer. The issue wasn't that it stopped working, the issue was that we were seeing huge processor and video card slow downs under stress. I was able to use my Dell e6400 to download the BIOS update, it installed great and I'm seeing huge gains. My initial tests showed about 5% improvement while under low load. I'm seeing about 20 to 30% improvement when warm and running multiple processes. |
| levar on December 4, 2009 2:15 PM | Timonius said: well they ignored it the first time, its about time they did something about it. And I just want to say Dell has a very bad history for user support lol I've had a bit of experience myself.
Amazing it hits the news and then they come up with a fix. |
| FoReWoRd on December 4, 2009 5:04 PM | well i had a similar issue with my X15m notebook,except dell charged me 34.99 for a new 130Watt adaptor! this is disugsting CS |
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