My Dell XPS M1530 - Help

dublinmadyoke

Hi guys,

My laptop sounds like its working on something even though I don't have any programmes running. I am using McAffee anti-virus and I scaned by pc but nothing came up??? Any suggestions?

Its mad cos its only a new laptop (3 months)


Thanks

Adam

No programs at all running? Are you sure?

First thing, hit ctrl+alt+del and check the current processes. What OS?

SickBoy

Did you update the BIOS recently? I read in another thread that there's issues with some nvidia GPUs and as a work around Dell have released BIOS updates that run the fan at 100% to ensure the GPU doesn't go pop!

dublinmadyoke

Mirror wrote: »

No programs at all running? Are you sure?

First thing, hit ctrl+alt+del and check the current processes. What OS?

Nope nothing is running.. Its windows Vista

Adam

Regarding SickBoy's post, is the sound a fan or the hard drive, or can you tell?

p2kone

unistall dell support center.

Voodu Child

Did you update the BIOS recently? I read in another thread that there's issues with some nvidia GPUs and as a work around Dell have released BIOS updates that run the fan at 100% to ensure the GPU doesn't go pop!

The bios update doesn't run the fan 100%. It changes the fan profile and it probably does run it more often or kick it in earlier, but it certainly doesnt run it 100%, and its only relevant when the temps are high anyway, ie when something intensive is running. So it shouldn't be relevant here. Personally I can't notice any major difference in temps or fan speed, but the bios does fix other issues.

You can revert to a previous bios if you notice otherwise.

Overheal

voodoo_child wrote: »

The bios update doesn't run the fan 100%. It changes the fan profile and it probably does run it more often or kick it in earlier, but it certainly doesnt run it 100%, and its only relevant when the temps are high anyway, ie when something intensive is running. So it shouldn't be relevant here. Personally I can't notice any major difference in temps or fan speed, but the bios does fix other issues.

You can revert to a previous bios if you notice otherwise.

This is all true. It delegates a new minimum fanspeed and lower temp thresholds before the fan kicks in (which, basically, means the fan runs constantly during operation) but its not always 100%, you still get low speeds while the system is idling in the balanced or power saver modes.

When you say it sounds like its working on something do you actually mean the fanspeed or are we talking about the hard drive? Is the drive light blinking/on a lot? Should be mostly bone idle when youre doing nothing.

Voodu Child

Overheal wrote: »

(which, basically, means the fan runs constantly during operation) but its not always 100%, you still get low speeds while the system is idling in the balanced or power saver modes.

No, im using A09 (most recent) bios on my M1530 for a few days and the fan doesnt constantly run. I suspected it might but it doesnt.

The fan is completely off until the GPU reaches 65/66C. So idling in power saver modes is completely silent.

dublinmadyoke

Hi,

Its the hard drive that keeps working. I installed new updates and it seems to have helped a bit.

BostonB

dublinmadyoke wrote: »

Hi,

Its the hard drive that keeps working. I installed new updates and it seems to have helped a bit.

The something is running which is using the HD. You're going to have to go through all your processes and see whats running. Its not a virus scan is it?

dublinmadyoke

No, I don't have any anti-virus programme running. Checked my task manager and nothing else is running...

Voodu Child

Try tinkering with Vistas Indexing.

This constantly looks at folders your drive and keeps an index, to make searches faster. You can turn it off completely. Searches will still work, but will be slower. So its a trade off, depending on how often you use/need the Search function.

Right click your hard-drive (in 'my computer')and go to 'properties' to untick indexing for the whole hard-drive (the box says 'index this drive for faster searching'.

Or, you can type 'indexing options' in the start menu search, to individually include/exclude different folders etc.

If you find it has no effect on your problem, just reverse the steps to re-enable Indexing.

AlmightyCushion

Moved from Comp and Tech.

Overheal

dublinmadyoke wrote: »

No, I don't have any anti-virus programme running. Checked my task manager and nothing else is running...

herro.

Follow These Instructions,

Then head over to the Virus and Malware Removal forum and post your results in a new thread.

BostonB

Overheal wrote: »

herro.

Follow These Instructions,

Then head over to the Virus and Malware Removal forum and post your results in a new thread.

I assume he meant scanning not running.

Overheal

BostonB wrote: »

I assume he meant scanning not running.

he mentioned task manager: theres no anti-virus process running, hence no protection.

Either way it never hurts to try the steps outlined in that guide.

BostonB

Overheal wrote: »

he mentioned task manager: theres no anti-virus process running, hence no protection.

Either way it never hurts to try the steps outlined in that guide.

He also said...

dublinmadyoke wrote: »

....I am using McAffee anti-virus ...

Overheal

And I also said pickles but you dont see me flying to the moon about it. Sheesh(!)

BostonB

Whatever.

The OP needs to clarify

BrokenArrows

the problem the OP is having is regarding hard drive thrashing.

this is caused my vistas indexing service. there are also a number of other programs that cause this also.

i have the xps m1530 also and it came preinstalled with a few programs that monitored folders which caused the HD to thrash. unfortunately i totally forget what they were as i uninstalled them the first day i got the laptop.

indexing is the main one.

OP run services.msc and disable the indexing service and also look through all the other services for ones that look like they are monitoring files.

google the service if your not sure.

Overheal

indexing service shouldnt be doing this after 3 months: it makes a one time index and adds on to it as new files and folters are created or destroyed. After that it just refers to the index table.

BostonB

Did it work for you like that? I never found it ever stopped indexing. Eventually I disabled it on my Vista machines. It was sucking the life out of the laptops batteries. I only left it a few days though. It would have had to index a couple of hundred GB across internal and external drives etc.

Overheal

Id see some HDD activity most of the time, the odd blink here and there, but for the most part the disk is idle. I tried disabling it once through the registry and that actually had the opposite effect altogether. If it indexes the externals thats fine by me I suppose but I only have around 100gb on the C drive anyway, and about 400GB of data total on the externs.

BostonB

I'd have similar amount of data. Lots of small files rather than large files, that probably has a big impact on the time taken to index. I don't need to go near the registry to disable it? I want no disk access (where possible) to maximize battery life. I can understand why some people might use it, (searching etc) but for me its a feature I never use. I've only ever seen one or two people who use it, they love it though.

Overheal

I only use the index for executables/apps tbh. yeah I have much bigger files I'd say on those externs: outside of music files the majority of it is video files and ISO's.

Dartz

mine does that occasionally too.... Usually when IU do a performance check, it's something I have enabled as readyboost cache... (Which doesn't really work) Or Vista is trying to superfetch your programs by loading commonly used things into memory.

Also, McAfee likes running virus scans when you idle...regardless.... Other automatic tasks from Windows include defragging and Window Defender. Check if any of these are running or not.

Overheal

thats a good point (and it was actually superfetching i tried to disable) that superfetching will intermittently go and prefetch different items: because it learns what you use and when, it will swap out different prefetched data at different times of the day/week.