hey guys, as u might know, im a certified Dell technician working here in sweden, making house calls to companies as well as private customers..
had a customer where the usual XPS M1330 had to have its motherboard/gpu replaced because of nvidia's 8xxx series manufacturing fault.. u might have heard about that too?
anyways, get a call a day later from my supervisor saying that the, exact words:
"Technican didn't plug in the powercable for the fan which broke the part replaced MB again and possibly also the Heatsink. Cust now has had system shutdown by itself followed by a message about it being caused by heat. Plugging the cable back in made no differance, the damage has already been done."
now i remember plugging the fan cable in.. so now its customers word against mine..
however, if im correct, doesnt computer auto shutdown when it reaches a certain temp? my girlfriends hp does that when it would reach 89c on cpu..
also, i cant fully remember, nor find the information, but shouldnt the motherboard automatically tell me in bios that no fan is plugged in? i know every other computer does it, shouldnt that one? would be common sense to have a warning installed like that..
A Dell desktop I tried this on once beeped profusely with a fan disconnected and would shutdown automatically shortly after booting up due to overheating.
I would imagine notebooks do that as well since it's even more important - you really don't want to burn people's lap or set a desk on fire.
...however, if im correct, doesnt computer auto shutdown when it reaches a certain temp? my girlfriends hp does that when it would reach 89c on cpu..
also, i cant fully remember, nor find the information, but shouldnt the motherboard automatically tell me in bios that no fan is plugged in? i know every other computer does it, shouldnt that one? would be common sense to have a warning installed like that..
It's up to the manufacturer whether they use an over-temp auto-shutdown or not. Most probably do these days, but I would never assume every manufacturer does so. It can also depend on which CPU is in use. That can affect how the shutdown protocols are implemented. Also, because of thermal lag, it's possible some designs would be more susceptible to damage before it is shut down, especially if over-clocking is involved. It would depend on the sensors being used and where they are located (e.g. die, case, etc). It could also depend on the integrity of the heat-sinking sub-assembly.
As for the BIOS telling you the fan is unplugged? Again that is going to be up to the manufacturer. I would never assume every manufacturer implements that capability. It may also require specific options being set in BIOS to enable a warning about high temps or fan has 0rpm.
Every extra feature a manufacturer provides costs them money, and in today's market they have incentive to keep things to the bare minimum depending on the customer-base they are trying to attract.
edit to add: You might be able to strengthen your argument if after your repair action you can recall visually verifying all the fans were spinning, if you checked measured RPMs using BIOS or software, and so on.
It would be a good idea to use a post-repair checklist from now on. That would be something that could also strengthen your argument should something like this happen again.
yea i suppose u guys are right.. but this is a very well known XPS m1330 laptop, u would think it has the temp shutdown sensor? the Dell desktops ive been working on have that function.. i need to try it tomorrow a quicky when i repair another one.. i get like 3-4 of these laptops a day that need to be fixed..
well its one of the newer models..
G86 gpu
2.2-2.5 ghz (most often the 2.5ghz)
4gb pc6400 ram
320 gb harddrive
yea maybe i should keep a post repair list.. its just that ive repaired these at least 150 times now in the past 3 months now, and my body usually just goes into auto-pilot mode fixin these things, which is why i have such a hard time remember whether or not i plugged in the fan...
and if i didnt, then thats seriously embarassing..
I don't know about the motherboard and such (that might depend on the manufacturer or chipset). However, as far as I know most (if not all) modern Intel processors have thermal protection to downclock or shutoff the CPU to prevent any sort of damage to the CPU if the temperature reaches a certain level.
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