S-XPS 1645 AC Power Throttle Issue Investigation

[DeathWalking]

Originally Posted by Zlog

It's just a BIOS or software issue at this point. We were right in suspecting a power draw concern however there definatly will need to be a patch to something to totally fix the issue.

Looks like I might have been right on my initial theory, too! Everyone's a winner!.....except for us..... dammit.

I think maybe *MAYBE* the notebook is misprogrammed to throttle or do something to performance when the screen reaches higher brightness levels... I mean thats really the only thing left other then a serious hardware design flaw.

We also still have to consider that ATI may have some bad driver coding that is causing powerplay to create some issues.

It could also be that whatever it is within the system that distributes power is not set up to deal with much more than 90 watts...

[ryancouture]

so you're saying on the battery L4D2 runs great on high?

ive seen people doing crysis on this thing maybe we're just a sorry lot

[Siphen]

I just changed out the thermal paste in my 1645 .. VERY easy to do on this laptop. so far this is what i have


Old thermal Paste in Real Temp: 74 ,72, 76, 74 after 2-3 min prime run
New thermal Paste in Real Temp: 73, 72, 75, 73 after 10 min prime run


i still need to burn it in, temps should get lower after an hours burn-in

[DeathWalking]

Originally Posted by Siphen

I just changed out the thermal paste in my 1645 .. VERY easy to do on this laptop. so far this is what i have


Old thermal Paste in Real Temp: 74 ,72, 76, 74 after 2-3 min prime run
New thermal Paste in Real Temp: 73, 72, 75, 73 after 10 min prime run


i still need to burn it in, temps should get lower after an hours burn-in

How easy was it to get off the heatpipe assembly, and what TC did you use?

[Zlog]

Originally Posted by Zlog

So update to my post. I still have the slow downs at full brightness. I havn't bothered to run any benchmarks yet. I'm going to download crysis and run that benchmark loop.

But Left4Dead2 just running in circles in the saferoom goes from fully playable/liquid smooth at minimum brightness, and then at full brightness it drops down into unplayable territory. turning the brightness down again causes the game to run smooth again.

I've gotta say, for almost certain, that there is also a bios or software update required.

But the good news is, the new brick runs very cool, in fact before i had to game at minimum brightness to get good fps, and now i can run it at halfway which is whats suggested for the best RGB colors. So the 130watt is helping somewhere (and running very cool while doing it)

Looking forward to that bios update. Even if it takes like 5% off the max performance possibility of this laptop I'll be happy just to have reliable and consistant performance. I can't imagine that we'd lose any power though, these things dont get warm at all considering my old Asus was 80c out of hte box. lol

One last update. The latest catalyst drivers (9.11?) modded into the system helped out quite a bit with the stuttering graphics... its still there but its better. Interesting.

Battery vs. AC adapter performance is identical for me now at all brightness levels. We're beyond the power draw issue at this point, or at least thats what it feels like to me in my case.

[Siphen]

Originally Posted by DeathWalking

How easy was it to get off the heatpipe assembly, and what TC did you use?

very easy, just follow the anandtech artical on how to remove the sides to the battery area.


i got this one..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835150080


so far my temps are 78 77 79 78 after 42min..

[crazycrab]

Originally Posted by Zlog

One last update. The latest catalyst drivers (9.11?) modded into the system helped out quite a bit with the stuttering graphics... its still there but its better. Interesting.

Battery vs. AC adapter performance is identical for me now at all brightness levels. We're beyond the power draw issue at this point, or at least thats what it feels like to me in my case.

That's with the 130W adapter i suppose?

[atlstang]

Originally Posted by Zlog

One last update. The latest catalyst drivers (9.11?) modded into the system helped out quite a bit with the stuttering graphics... its still there but its better. Interesting.

Battery vs. AC adapter performance is identical for me now at all brightness levels. We're beyond the power draw issue at this point, or at least thats what it feels like to me in my case.

After playing with this watt meter, its obvious these things draw more then 90w. I see the power hit 130+ for a sec before it starts throttling down(repeatable)edit: on furmark + prime95 explains why the 90w shuttoff. It seems the throttling starts around 85w or so, and when it hits a certain limit around 90-95w it hits the 7x mult and keeps it there.

no matter what i do, dim screen or not it like to keep it at around 90w unless ya hit that trip and it just keeps it at 7x mult and drops the power a good bit.

130w adapter isnt going to do to much unless we get a bios update or something to allow the laptop to pull more power. So it seems where all right like ya say, and its in dells hands.

[ryancouture]

whyd it have to happen with this laptop

this thing has the same specs as their alienware line - yet the alienware line gets double the A/C

wasssuppwiththaaaa

[Nick29]

Originally Posted by ikjadoon

Did you know someone from Dell has an account here?

This is what he told me in the E6400 thread after I mentioned our little snafu.

gee, his post makes me wish I had bought a computer from a big, international company that had enough tech people to work on two issues at once instead of a mom and pop shop . . .