Driver and BIOS issues and problems with Dell Latitude E7240 - fan noise and heat
I have been using the 12.5-inch Dell Latitude E7240 ultrabook for more than a month now and I wanted to share few things that I think owners and future owners of this computer may find interesting.
The issues
The things that I want to cover today are related to fan noise and overheating of the laptop and what is it related to. You probably know that most ultrabooks have issues with overheating and that is why many people now prefer the ultra low voltage (ULV) equipped laptop and hybrid devices as they generate less heat and are much less intense on battery consumption even though ULV processors sacrifice on performance a little bit (well not a little but latest quad-core Intel Atom processors do just fine with most everyday computing tasks).
Drivers recommended by Dell
Drivers recommended by Dell
The issue that I recently noticed with my Latitude E7240 was caused by drivers recommended by Dell for this particular model. After re-installing OS couple of times (tried with Windows 8.1 and Windows 7) I was stuck with 32-bit Windows 7 Professional which unfortunately could only read 4GB of my preinstalled 8GB of RAM. I decided that I will use the laptop this way for a while and started downloading and installing all drivers and updates recommended for the Latitude E7240 on Dell's support page and on My Dell.
After updates
After updating everything, including BIOS, sound and graphics drivers, networking drivers the machine was running pretty smooth. Unfortunately very soon I noticed something wrong - the laptop was often overheating and fan was running on maximum power even when processor load was less than 50%. Of course the first thing I did is to remove some of the 'useful' drivers that I had on my ultrabook - removed the HD premium sound, the Intel WiFi pro interface and couple more and magically my laptop was running much more cool and quiet.
Of course there was a noticeable difference in sound quality and other performance figures and features but I am using this laptop mostly for work so these were not as important.
After updates
After updating everything, including BIOS, sound and graphics drivers, networking drivers the machine was running pretty smooth. Unfortunately very soon I noticed something wrong - the laptop was often overheating and fan was running on maximum power even when processor load was less than 50%. Of course the first thing I did is to remove some of the 'useful' drivers that I had on my ultrabook - removed the HD premium sound, the Intel WiFi pro interface and couple more and magically my laptop was running much more cool and quiet.
Of course there was a noticeable difference in sound quality and other performance figures and features but I am using this laptop mostly for work so these were not as important.
Soon I am going to switch to Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 and will update you on how the Latitude E7240 behaving under any of these operating systems. I have some worries about installing Windows 8.1 as many Latitude owners reported fan noise and heating problems due to mismatched controller settings but I will probably will give it a try and see how it will go.
Update: Never considered Windows 8 as an option, of course Windows 10 was the natural upgrade from Windows 7 Professional.
Update: Never considered Windows 8 as an option, of course Windows 10 was the natural upgrade from Windows 7 Professional.
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Dell Latitude E7240 System BIOSView details
E7240A12.exe | Windows/DOS (10 MB)
BIOS|Release date 08 Dec 2014|Last Updated 08 Dec 2014|Optional