Dell Latitude E6400 Windows 7 docking problems?

[jimtxas]

I have a Latitude E6400 that I recently clean installed WIN7 ultimate on. Everything was working great and continues to work great undocked. When in the docking station (), however I tend do have problems. I thought initially it was just related to the NIC card as it seemed to only start misbehaving under a lot of network activity and disabling the NIC and running only on wireless seemed to fix it, but in ALL cases I have to do a cold boot. Simply restarting it would not help and when I finally would get logged back in after a simple restart, the CPU was already pegged. Today, however it seems that even with the NIC disabled that it also exhibits the behavior although today I was using an external USB drive connected to the docking station. i have since removed that as well to see if I can stabilize. I've downloaded and installed every latest driver/bios/firmware I could find. Nothing has worked...

What occurs is over time, and sometimes that's not long, my CPU quickly pegs at 100% and stays. There are no particular processes pegging it either. I can end process on many in my list with no change. Over the last week I've only been in the office a couple of days using the docking station and on each occasion I have problems at least 2 - 3 times within the day. The rest of the week I've been undocked and had no problems and I run this thing all day long.

I have no messages in any logs that I've found indicating any type of problem. Just extreme frustration.

I've talked to a couple of other D-Series users who suggested that they had a similar issue when docked but found some vista 'docking' drivers that fixed their issue although I can find nothing for the E-Series, no firmware, nothing...

Any ideas? I'm about to have to roll back to XP and not excited about the thought as I need the docking station for multiple monitors, etc...

Tks,
J

 

[breaman]

Did you ever find a resolution to this problem? If you did, I hope it wasn't "rolling back to XP" since that is not really an option I would like to explore either. I noticed this problem for me started about 3 weeks ago and it only happens when I am docked as well. I have tried other docking stations, but that didn't resolve my problem either. Just wondering if you have been able to find a "fix".

Thanks,
Stokes

 

[jimtxas]

No 'FIX' yet...

Unfortunately I haven't had the smoking gun FIX yet but have found the cause...

It's due to the processor getting too hot and hitting a threshold where the laptop downclocks the processor which is even worsened if you use multiple monitors on the dock because the GPU overheats making the entire system hotter...

The problem eased up a bit when the A19 bios but still occurs. I've found if i shut it down and let it cool off a while it behaves a little better.

I also went ahead a took out the fan and heat sink which had quite a bit of dust which also helped quite a bit, but it still occurs. I use a program called speed fan and another called Rightmark CPU which shows the problem well. you can watch as the temp rises, the clock speed drops as the temperature rises and CPU utilization hits 100%

I opened a ticket with Dell and they actually just showed up to replace the fan, heat sink, and motherboard... we'll see if that has any lasting effect.

Good Luck-

J

 

[fokusnik]

Similar problem

My story seems very similar - I had E6400 running Win XP for about 8 months (it was shipped with Vista, but I did a clean install of XP) -- no issues with or without the docking station (dual monitors connected to 2 DVI ports)

In October I decided to upgrade to Win 7 and SSD drive. Everything was working great until I put laptop into the docking station: the same issues described above.

I stopped using the docking station which was a major inconvenience

A few weeks ago I started experiencing similar issues even when undocked. Contacted Microsoft and they had me do a few things to try to narrow it down. After analyzing one of the memory dumps they said it is related to the video driver and had me uninstall it and go back to default driver shipped with windows. That didn't seem to help, so I decided it is time for reinstall.

Over a weekend did a clean install of Win 7, all the latest drivers, including BIOS A20 update. Got to the office Monday AM, plugged it into a docking station, spent a few minutes enjoying my 2 monitors, had to jump on a skype call and within 5 minutes had the same high cpu issue. I was able to put it into sleep, take out from dock and then start it again -- cpu issue seemed to go away.

The reason I am documenting all this is that I think it supports the fact that the issue is related to overheating.

Please provide an update if CPU replacement helped. Thank you

 

[theog]

Try here.

Drivers & Downloads=

 

[fokusnik]

As I mentioned in my post: I downloaded and installed all the latest drivers.

The only thing that doesn't seem to exist for Windows 7 is the Notebook System Software -- the first item in
their "driver install order" checklist

 

[jimtxas]

Overheating

As you've found it seems to me to be an overheating issue, or at the very least a downclocking issue. Dell's come out 3 times now -- new MB, new fans, new processor but the issue still exists. I've used A17-A20 bios, problem still exists across the board.

The one thing I've done that keeps it stable is to use the RightMark Clock utility (free download) which allows you to keep the throttling at 100%. This will affect battery performance but I don't have the issue out of the dock typically. Hopefully they'll find a permanent fix soon. I also had someone recommend disabling speedstep in the bios which also seemed to work however that also negatively affects battery life when not plugged in so the RMClock utility works better for me. When i'm docked and it starts downclocking I just fire the app up and the issue goes away...

Good Luck!

Here's a good link I've been following on the issues...

Dell Latitude E6400 - Overheating issues with minute tasks such as playing flash videos for extended periods? - DELL COMMUNITY

 

[fokusnik]

thank you for the link -- based on suggestions i put a laptop fan underneath and it is not running for most of the day w/o issues... i've been "suffering" for 3 months w/o 2 monitors... unbelievable

 

[nathans]

Same problem, possible fix

I have the same issue. It generally tends to be related to the audio services handing over control to the dock and laptop and back and forth when undocked and docked again. Restarting the service "Windows Audio Endpoint Mapper" seems to do the trick sometimes but there is a catch. It appears that the dock holds onto control of the audio somehow in some weird way and the problem isn't always fixed. what I found works consistently is shut down the computer and then eject it. Unplugging the dock from power and wait a few seconds before plugging the cord back in. then plug it back in, put the laptop back on it and then turn it on.

 

[bimplebean]

I get it too - on THREE OPERATING SYSTEMS

I just started a new job and they gave me the E6400. I wiped it totally clean and installed both Win7 and WinXP in a dual boot configration. This started happening on WIN7 -- I booted into XP and it started right away. I tried everything, nothing worked. I even booted into LINUX from CD -- the same thing happened. The fan kicks in and the CPU goes to 100%, with no identifiable processes to blame.

I have BIOS A27 (!) and it's still not fixed.

DELL, you listening?

 

[asoutar]

Dell Replaced my mother board and docking station. Same thing.

[FONT=&quot]My History of this problem. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT][FONT=&quot] I reported to Dell that the laptop was overheating. The computer was working properly in my current Docking station when not overheating. I was getting 100% CPU randomly but not all the time. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. T[/FONT][FONT=&quot]hey sent a technician out to replace the mother board and heat sink because they thought that the heat sync may have dislodged from the mother board. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]After replacement of the mother board, the laptop is no longer over heating but it will not connect to my docking station without the CPU going to 100% (Unusable). The monitors are also not detected. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]The technician stated that this was a problem with my docking station. I stated that the docking station was working properly before he replaced the mother board but he is the professional[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Dell have forwarded me a new docking station and it is acting the same way it was with my current docking station. When I dock my laptop the CPU pins to 100%
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Even if my laptop is started and then I connect it to the docking station to the laptop CPU goes to 100% after 3-5 seconds and is unresponsive. Once I disconnect form the docking station, the CPU comes back down to 1-5% and works well.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I still have a open call with dell and have a tech comping out on Tuesday. (4 days from now.)
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I do notice that when I start the laptop with it docked and go into the Bios. The current clock speed shows 666mhz!!
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If I disconnect from the docking station and then reboot into the bios I see that the system clock is running full speed. Wierd stuff. I will report back to see what Dell concludes. Good luck.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]

 

[bimplebean]

It's the GPU.

When I don't use the docking station it's fine. If I plug in an external monitor using the VGA port it's fine. But when I use the docking station I have to plug in my external monitor using the digital outputs. THAT's when the overheating starts. The GPU is pushed to the max when driving two monitors at high resolution.

My understanding is it's a problem with the GPU. It's just too much. I updated the BIOS - no help. This happens in Win7, WinXP and Ubuntu Linux.

I don't see any solutions other than a DIFFERENT laptop.

 

[mathewwebb]

It is video for sure

I have the exact same issue. Just yesterday I changed my video from 32 bit to 16 bit and the problem has not occurred since. I am not sure about it overheating, every utility I have used showed that it was not getting hot. Since I do not do much with the graphics side of things 16 bit video is just fine with me.

 

[pparks1]

i have had about 15 laptops with this exact same issue. each time, it has been ultimately corrected with a new motherboard and reseating or replacing of the heatsink assembly. as stated, it happens when the laptop is in the dock.

 

[JungleMartin]

@bimplebean et al

Apologies for bumping a very old thread but it's highly relevant to the problems I'm experiencing.

I've recently started a new job and been given a Dell E6400 laptop to work with. Yes, it's pretty old by tech standards but to be fair it would be fine if it didn't have this downclocking problem.

My scenario is as follows. It runs fine, all the time, when undocked. Dock it in a Dell E Port or E Port II port replicator (docking station) and it's still fine as long as you don't plug the power into the port replicator (although that's a bit pointless as it means I can't use the port replicator). Plug the power into the port replicator and the laptop is *immediately* downclocked to what I presume is its lowest clock speed, 800MHz. CPU core temperatures are fine before and during the downclocking - it does this even with them as low as ~40c.

What I've tried...
1. Update BIOS to latest (A34). No difference.
2. Replaced CPU heatsink thermal paste with top quality thermal pad. Temps are significantly lower but... No difference.
3. Thoroughly cleaned fan and exhaust grille. No difference.
4. Tried multiple difference port replicators and power supplies. No difference.

I can't believe it's overheating as it happens immediately (and recovers immediately if power is removed). Perhaps it *thinks* it's overheating and needs to downclock, but why that would happen simply with power being applied to the port replicator, I have no idea.

Was this problem ever, genuinely, solved?