E6400 temperature problems

Hi all,

I have a Dell Latitude E6400 that is about 12 months old. I noticed it was starting to downclock itself (sometimes severely), so I looked into the CPU temperatures. The processor is a Core 2 Duo P8600.

I'm currently idling at 48 C (265.99 * 6.5 MHz). Ambient temperature is 30 C. Sometimes the notebook throttles down to 800 MHz and still stays at around 40 C. Using ThrottleStop and the special mode (Fn+Shift+15324, Fn+R) I can disable the throttling -- at max fan speed, I watched it get up to a whopping 94 C under load.

Clearly something is wrong. I've opened the back up and blew out any dust, but there wasn't much to begin with, and the problem persists. Does anyone have experience with this? Will Dell replace the motherboard/cooling system if I tell them it's overheating, otherwise what information do I have to convey?

Thanks!

 

Of course, Dell will replace your motherboard. This is a warranty issue.
I recommend a motherboard + heatsink replacement.

I also assume that you have the Intel graphic solution, am I correct?

 

I have the nVidia discrete graphics card they were offering at the time, though I don't remember the model at the moment.

 

You have the Quadro NVS 160M.
Ok, good. My guess is that the heatsink is miss installed... but I recommend to simply change both, so that you you don't need to call Dell twice (and send the system twice if you don't have onSite service).

 

I've found references that the maximum safe operating temperature is 105 C. Can this possibly be right? I understand that laptop chips are designed to run hotter, but desktop chips are usually good to just over 60 C.

 

Today, processors (CPU and GPU) are designed to be pushed up to 105C, for both desktop and laptop's.

If your system throttle, which it does based on your description, that means that the system (one of it's processors, northbridge, southbridge, GPU, or CPU) is overheating.

OH, something that just came to mind. Ensure that you have the latest BIOS installed on your system.

 

Also, take the heatsink off and check the thermal grease. The OEM grease isn't all that great, I always replace it with Arctic Silver 5 (be sure to follow the "thin layer" method described on their site). My E6400's CPU idles around 70 or 80F when under low load, and I have the T9400 CPU and the Nvidia (which idles around 120F).