Dell Precision m65 temperatures

Hello, I just got my refurbished Dell precision m65. It seems that I have some issues with the GPU temperatures. It's idling at about 83C... but it seems that the fan is working fine(I can feel the air full blast). The CPU temps idle at about 35C-40C so I don't think it's a fan issue. I'm suspecting that either the heatsink is not seated correctly or there's no thermal paste on it. Is this normal for the precision? Whenever I try to run something that's a little graphic intensive, it would shut down.

Thanks.

 

If the fan is blowing cool air then I would agree with your diagnosis of a poor connection between the GPU and heatsink.

John

 

I just attempted to open the laptop and kept on stripping one of the screws that hold the keyboard.(stupid me...) is there a way i can take off this stripped screw? =/

 

Nevermind, I got it to open. There's a thermal pad on the GPU and it was seated correctly... I don't know what's going on anymore. Unless the thermal pad on the GPU just sucks, but it shouldn't raise the idle temperatures up to 83C.

EDIT:
I noticed that the fans don't turn on even when the GPU is running at such a high temperature... I want to use this machine with a linux OS. Is there a software that'll allow me to control the fans in linux(10.04 debian)?

 

What monitoring software are you using? You may want to get a second or third opinion. HWmonitor and HWiNFO come to mind as two monitoring tools.

John

 

One thing to consider:

Even if you are able to effect some fix which corrects the overheating problem, it's likely that components have been stressed and the life/reliability of the laptop is degraded.

(Assuming HWINFO confirms the GPU temp.)

 

I'm using hwmonitor to check my temperatures. I don't think the parts are worn out. The fan still works. I used i8kfangui to force the fan on to see if it'll cool down the GPU. It was blowing cold air and full speed... which is really weird. I opened the laptop to the point where I can touch the GPU heatsink, and it does get hot so I don't see why the fan isn't blowing out hot air. The vents and fan are cleaned out. I think the problem might be because the fan and heatsink aren't attached? Otherwise I don't see why the fan isn't blowing out hot air... Gah! But the idle temperatures still worry me. Can I add Artic Silver 5 under the thermal pad? Or is that a bad idea?

 

The service manual says the video card has a dedicated (separate) fan. Do both fans spin?

Documentation

 

That's the documentation for the M6500. I have the M65. There's only one fan and the heatsink attached to the fan is touching the GPU and CPU.

 

Actually, I think I may know the problem... The fan blows does blow hot air, but I had to stress the CPU only to find out. I noticed that the heatsink part where the GPU touches doesn't get hot. Can it be that the temperature indicator is damaged or something? If I put artic silver 5 in between the GPU and the thermal pad, will it make my temperature worse?