Noise problem of the Dell XPS 17 laptop resolved?

I just bought a DELL XPS 17. It arrived yesterday. There is a very loud and annoying fan noise coming from the left side of the chassis. Fan comes on for 30 seconds every 1.5 minutes even when the computer is sitting idle. I called Dell and they tried to have me install the latest BIOS update (it already had it) and then told me they would send out a technician to replace the motherboard!! I literally laughed in their face. I am going to give them another shot at fixing it again today but don't have high hopes. I will probably return it to Dell, it is that annoying...

Thanks for your assessment. This means that the known noise issue has not been resolved. Recently DELL’s support declared to me that it has been resolved in Nov 2011. Obviously, that is not correct.
Consequently, we are still looking for a high-end laptop that is quiet when performing “normal” tasks as doing Office applications or watching a film.

I have had the same problems with my Dell XPS17. The fan would go from being a quiet background noise to an annoying whir every minute or two. This seems to be something to do with the NVIDIA graphics processor being used unnecessarily.

To see the NVIDIA GPU usage:

1. Go to the Desktop. Right click and choose NVIDIA Control Panel from the menu.
2. Choose the menu Desktop and enable Display GPU Activity Icon in Notification Area.
3. Click on the GPU Activity Icon (bottom right of screen) and see the programs that are using the GPU.

In my case, Syncup, toaster.exe and a Weather widget were all using the GPU. This all seemed unnecessary and should be fine on the Intel integrated graphics.

So in order to only use the GPU when necessary, I have changed some settings. It seems to have helped.

1. Go to the Desktop. Right click and choose NVIDIA Control Panel from the menu.
2. Choose 3D Settings -> Manage 3D Settings.
3. In the right panel, choose the Global Settings tab.
4. Change the Preferred Graphics Processor to Intel Graphics and click Apply in the bottom right corner.
5. In the right panel, choose the Program Settings tab.
6. Select programs that need high performance graphics such as games and set the preferred graphics processor to NVIDIA, clicking Apply every time.
7. Restart the computer just to make sure.

Tony74, thanks for this valuable info on how to lower the noise level.
Could you indicate the volume of the remaining background noise level?
We wonder whether you have got this info from Dell support. They have not indicated anything of that kind to us when we asked them for a way to make the Laptop quieter. They declared that the noise issue has been resolved thus settings have not to be modified.
As we were cautious about the noise issue we have purchased a HP ProBook which really is quiet, i.e. you cannot hear it while doing Office applications.
However we are still looking for a more high-end laptop with better gaming features which also is quiet while doing Office applications. Any recommendation would be highly appreciated.
If we cannot find anything quiet we consider purchasing a HP EliteBook which is quiet as the ProBook. However, the EliteBook as its brother ProBook are mainly business laptops thus their gaming features are limited. Perhaps there is something out there that meets more our requirements: silent while doing Office, work, louder only while gaming.

I searched the web for a while for answers but I couldn't find anything useful. I did find out that high fan noise was related to the use of the NVIDIA GPU. I looked through the NVIDIA settings and found the GPU monitor and the fact that the GPU was being used by default even for non graphics applications. Switching the default to the integrated graphics did the trick.

The background noise is very low now. The computer is a lot cooler too so it is a much better laptop to actually put on your lap!