Dell Latitude 7400 Running Hot and Loud with Heat & Fan Issue

Is your Dell Latitude laptop hot with the fan continuously running fast and loud for no apparent reason? When you check Task Manager  CPU utilization isn’t high as might be expected – no runaway processes that need to be killed, no webpage written for IE11 with ads coded by drunken lemurs.  Sure you have your base apps open, and the normal 12 28 tabs in your favorite browser (Vivaldi) but you’re not rendering any video files or running a Bitcoin mining operation! What’s going on?

The Issue –  Your laptop’s Intel CPU is being instructed to run at maximum speed for no reason. Then the fan kicks on to cool the now glowing hot CPU. This may happen randomly, and for long periods time. A restart will fix the issue but it will come back. Depending on your environment you may not be able to hear the fan until up close, you will be able to feel the heat on the bottom exhaust grille.

The Fix – Update Chipset Drivers and BIOS to the latest available, disable Turbo Boost and SpeedStep in the BIOS.  Download link for Dell Driver & BIOS Updates.

1. 1. Update – Intel Chipset Device Software (25 Mar 2020 or later)
   2. Update – Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework (19 Feb 2019 or later)
   3. Update – Intel Management Engine Components installer (08 Jul 2020 or later)
   4. Reboot
   5. Update – BIOS 1.10.1 or later (09 Sep 2020 or later)
      • Encrypted drives – Suspend BitLocker/Encryption
   6. Reboot – Let BIOS update finish and then reboot for a full clean start
   7. BIOS – Press F12 at startup to configure the BIOS
   8. BIOS – Change Settings
      • Performance -> Intel TurboBoost: Uncheck (disable)
      • Performance -> Intel SpeedStep:  Uncheck (disable)
      • Performance -> C-States Control: Check (enable)
      • 

Read more about this Intel issue with Dell Latitude 7400 laptops…

• Dell Community – Dell Latitude 7400 – Fan Noise / Design Flaw
• Dell Community – Latitude 7400 – won’t throttle down
• Reddit – New Dell 7400s running hot?
• Reddit – Latitude 7400 and fan noise
• From Dell – Troubleshoot Overheating, Shutdown, or Thermal Issue on a Dell PC