I’m using dell’s 6430u for a few months now and went through 4 bios updates, but the excessive fan noise issue is still present even with release A05.
The dell tool (system utility application) suggested in a support thread didn’t helped either.
Dell has now publicly acknowledged that there was a manufacturing issue with the fan of the 6430u: the next time that I’ll be not traveling for a while I’ll open a call to get the fan fixed/replaced: fingers crossed.
marcoullasci 
I am very interested to hear the results. I personnaly think it won’t change a thing.
I acquired a e6430u recently and have the same fan noise issues (coupled with abnormaly high temperatures); I think the problem comes from the fact that the fan is either ON (at nearly full speed), or OFF. There is no middle fan speed, and that is why the laptop heats up so much.
If a software like speedfan actually worked on this laptop, i could verify this theory, but it does not…
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I’ve tried running a couple of “real” games (Path of Exile is one of them) and the fan gets faster and louder on my systems without any doubt.
If you try something that taxes at the same time the cpu and the graphic you should be able to verify it.
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I sent mine back ot Dell, for the fan to be changed.
I’ll keep you posted about the results when it gets back.
I admire your courage to run games on it, the noise is annoying me when it is idle….
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By the way (sorry for the double post), someone suggested on the dell support forum that the software regulating the fan is starting ONLY after going to hibernate, and getting the laptop out of hibernation.
Could you share your experience on that ?
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I’ve a 6430u (August 2013) and this indeed does work. Going in and out of hibernate the fans go completely silent and only kick in when needed.
Quite strange but at least points to the problem being fixable with an update.
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By any chance did you had the opportunity to check if you can get the notebook back from the hibernation using an extrenal keyboard as it’s doable with the sleep state?
When I’m not traveling I work with external KVM and the notebook folded under the monitor stand: having to remove the notebook and open it to restart every time would make the solution cumbersome for me.
Thanks in advance.
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Please let me know how/if the fix works.
I’m sure that also other people will be interested.
About games… when at home I have over 100dB of sustained near field sound pressure available to cover the fan noise thank to a pair of Indiana Line Arbour 5.04 loudspeakers sitting on my desk with a 20 wpc RMS amplifier feeding them.
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Latitude came back this morning… Can’t really say if changing the fan works, since as “no problem was observed by technical support, repair procedures were aborted”.
I can’t even start to express how mad I was when it came back. It is still (as you can expect) running as loud as a truck on a highway, and the “sleeping mode” trick doesn’t seems to work.
Dell lost a client today, and I can assure you that people working around me will hear about this mediocre client service.
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To some extent I’m not overly surprised.
If it’s a design issue, as likely is the case, it works as designed hence there it is nothing to fix.
There it is a brief pause in the fan noise if the power mode is changed, but this is really short-lasting.
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Guys I just got a used 6430u with Bios A01 and I have to say the fan isn’t that bad at all. I had a Folio 13 and THAT was a LOUD fan.. Not sure if you guys checked the Dell website but Bios A06 says it addresses the fan noise issue. Right now just surfing etc the fan is off and hasn’t kicked on yet. When it was on before hte bios flash there was no way it was running full speed.. it just wasn’t that loud.. I did find this info..
1. Internal storage is restricted to mSATA, which means the new 960GB SSD from Crucial won’t fit. The largest capacity mSATA SSD available is Mushkin’s 480GB Atlas (tested successfully in the 6430U). Sadly, the other mini PCIe slot (used for WWAN) won’t recognize a second drive.
2. Slightly more vexing is the incessant fan noise out of the box. Here are some tips:
o Pressing Fn+Z turns the fan off until max temp is reached.
o The preinstalled Dell Feature Enhancement Pack offers a “Quiet” option (though it does affect performance slightly): Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings > Dell Enhanced Settings > Thermal Mode > Quiet (Reduced Fan Levels).
o A BIOS fix is reportedly in the works.
UPDATE: Dell now claims that the fan noise is due to “an alignment issue during manufacturing” and that “the affected parts have been eliminated from stock and replacement of the fan through Dell support resolves the noise issue.”
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I’ve installed A06 a couple of weeks ago and it is a real improvement.
Now the fan is off when the system is really idle (e.g. at night with no use even with a large numebr of programs open) and seems better during work time.
Due to the fact that I use the system for my job (and not for benchmarks) is hard for me to tell, aside from the special case of idling at night, if the fan measureably less intrusive under moderate load.
Fn+Z unfortunately doesn’t work with an external keyboard (virtual office scenario) even with A06.
Someone posted earlier that his notebook was sent back with no changes because it was deemed normal.
It is important to bear in mind that the individual sensitivity to noise varies with many factors including age, previous exposure to strong noises, prescriptions etc. etc. etc.
A noise that other people find unnerving might be ok for you.
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We need to track down the part number for the fan swap.. you could easily do this your self!
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