BIOS "security" update ruined cooling

Divergent2000 · May 1, 2020

SO back in August I got myself a Dell Inspiron 15 7590 2in1 (i7-8565U, Nvidia MX250, 4K touch screen). It has been a great laptop ever since, at least until the BIOS update I installed last month. The minute the update finished I went to play my re-textured GTA SA, and I noticed I was getting low 10s of fps and even down to single digit levels. Normally I get in the 20s (I play in 4K) with dips to 17-ish if some fire effects are present. So I tried everything, from installing Nvidia Game Ready drivers, air dusting the small amount of dusting that was in my cooling vents, etc... to no avail. Don't even ask how Crysis, which normally runs in mid-20s in 4K on almost all max settings (max everything but with medium shaders), performed (the throttling was even worse). I noticed my fan wasn't spinning much when doing anything intensive at all, while prior to the BIOS "security" update, any even remotely heavy usage (extreme multitasking for school, various games, etc...) would trigger the fan to turn into a jet engine if needed. I have no problem with fan noise when it means my laptop can perform well and at safe temperatures. I've seen core temps go up to 99c even durinng lighter usage (and it happens during some online classes too), and the highest package temp I've seen was a blistering 101c. There is profuse power throttling on both the CPU and GPU under load, and at the aforementioned 90+c CPU temps the "thermal throttling" flag kicks in. Now you may be asking why I didn't just downgrade the BIOS from the current 1.7.1 to something known good... Well I tried but it tells me the downgrade is unsupported. Turns out you cannot downgrade if the last update addressed an Intel security advisory. This is super annoying and I honestly did NOT pay $1500 to deal with a lack of cooling caused by a rogue BIOS update. And yes, I am posting here instead of the Dell forums because I just know their "experts" will spew some garbage like "it iS OpTimIZed, wE kNoW beSt", which to a power user like me is an insult (plus I don't wanna repeat of the ridicule I got on reddit when 2 years ago I ridiculed MS tech support for doing less checks on a messed up Windows system than an 18 year old power user). If anyone knows how to fix this without any crazy hacks like the EC-disabling stuff I keep seeing, please help me. I just want my cooling back to normal so I can actually enjoy gaming again and not have random slowdowns and glitches here and there during productivity and other lighter tasks. I would gladly out of desperation have the Geek Squad check this out (I have a protection plan with them), but my college won't exactly let me leave town so I can't make the 100 mile trip to the nearest Best Buy. I hope this amazing community knows how to fix this without any crazy hacks or stuff that might cause issues with my warranty, etc...

Letgomyleghoe · May 1, 2020

why not just play at 1080p?

Divergent2000 · May 1, 2020

Just now, scuff gang said:

why not just play at 1080p?

It has nothing to do with playing in 4K or 1080p. Everything worked JUST FINE before the BIOS update. Why can I simply not have the cooling I had before? Plus it does throttle like crazy in stuff I play at 1080p too. And the heat during non-gaming and non-intense usage is a problem obviously. I should not have to change how I use my computer just because somebody at Dell decided to magically nuke the cooling. I always use the Ultra Performance mode, which should ramp up cooling but it doesn't anymore.

Letgomyleghoe · May 1, 2020

have you tried re applying thermal paste?

you can usually download the old bios too.

keskparane · May 1, 2020

Maybe start by telling us what you've done to try and fix the problem so we don't have to drag it out of you.

Divergent2000 · May 1, 2020

Well first of all I cannot take this thing apart due to warranty stuff, but I did air dust the vents as I said before and there seems to be no outside-visible dust in the cooling system anymore. This didn't really help much. I tried flashing the older BIOS as mentioned, and that didn't work because dell blocks downgrading after a BIOS update that addresses a security advisory is installed. Did you read my original post? If thermal paste were an issue I think the fans would run alot harder trying to coll the system, but it seems like my laptop is literally letting itself overheat. And this is not limited to my consumer grade machine wither. My dad's work laptop (Dell Precision 5530 mobile workstation) with an i7-8750H (much higher TDP than my CPU) also recently got a BIOS update that made the cooling so bad that it constantly shuts down due to overheating (he cannot even hold a video conference presentation anymore). So clearly something fishy is going on here and i have no clue aside from a speculation that maybe someone complained about fan noise and Dell tried to "fix" it on various machines. These are both very young machines and should NOT be experiencing issues of this nature so soon. Plus, thermal paste usually lasts a good 3-6 years without issue in my previous experience (at least on desktops, lol). I am also surprised nobody here has seemingly seen this before, but I guess there is a first for everything...

keskparane · May 1, 2020

Ok. There's a manual here. (Assuming I've got the right model).

I asked what you'd done because after a BIOS upgrade I find sometimes a BIOS reset is required. I'm not sure if there's an option to load defaults but it may be worth a try. Also the manual runs you through the process for clearing the CMOS. I expect if you talk to Dell you'd find that you are allowed to do that under warranty. Possibly even worth trying the BIOS recovery file. With the BIOS updates just make sure you have bitlocker disabled.