M4400 Overheating and shutting down!

I don't know if I shoudl be posting this in the M4400 thread, so please accept my apologies if it should be.

I'm a proud M4400 owner, and have been for a while now. However, I just installed Win7 x64 (upgrade from Vista x64), and the first thing I did was install RMClock then undervolt it. I'm very familiar with doing this, and with overclocking/undervolting in general (my PC is a 4.5GHz Q9650!).

After undervolting it to 1.025v at the 10x multiplier I set about to do some stress testing, whilst also monitoring temps with coretemp. I guess for temp measurements to be meaningful we need to start with Ambient temps. In my room it is probably around 13-15C (55-59F), as in too cold to sit around in a t-shirt (I'm in Austria, it's winter, and the heating isn't cranked because I like to run my computer cool!).

Firstly, the idle temp. It is around 45-50C, which already strikes me as VERY hot. This is while doing nothing, using a 6x multiplier and only using 0.95v. From there I started up Prime95 and instantly it shoots up, the fan kicks in, and temps continue to skyrocket. Even using 1.025v, temps immediately hit the 90's, and then continue into the 100's. Now, that is way too high in my opinion!!! Tjmax might be 105, and I just saw 104C before the computer turned off from overheating. This is whilst using it at 10x with 1.025v. I can't use less voltage than this as I get rounding errors or BSOD.

So, in conclusion, I'm using the laptop in a chilly room, undervolted, and with a 10x multiplier (instead of 10.5x), yet I'm still hitting TjMax.

I'm basically lost as to what I should do to fix this problem. Any advice would be greatly welcomed. I'm more than happy to open up a computer and take things apart, so if anyone has any advice or links that might help I'd appreciate it as I don't want my M4400 to cook. The main reason I have this laptop is for mobile video editing, which isn't as taxing as P95 but it certainly gets quite close when rendering out HD stuff.

Thanks

 

Cleaned the fluff out between the fan and heatsink radiators?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5656278&postcount=29

 

Hmmm, sorry to hear that obviously this could be a system board fault.

A couple of months ago the main board failed on my m4400, it has a QX9300 so generates a fair amount of heat. Dell kindly sent me the replacement system board and I swapped it out myself.

One interesting thing to note was the application of thermal paste to the CPU and graphics chips. It was extremely poorly applied. Two huge blobs that had solidified and in the case of the nvidia GPU had actually missed the target and only half covered the chip.

Prior to the replacement of the board my temps were also off the chart. The CPU was routinely approaching TjMax as was the nVidia chip (mine has the FX1700). It often shut down under full load too. As the previous poster stated make sure your heatsink and cooling vent/fan aren't blocked also.

I carefully cleaned and reapplied the thermal paste correctly, my QX9300 now tops out at around 60-65F under full load and drops below 40F for idle. There's a full step by step user guide to removing the heatsink/fan on Dell's support site. It's really very easy to do on the m4400.

Might be worth considering but don't forget warranty issues if you do.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm not concerned with voiding warranty as I bought it as a refurb with only a limited warranty from the reseller, and that's now expired! I'll probably open it up later and reapply the thermal paste (with some arctic silver) and then see how things are after that.

Do you have a link to how to remove the heatsink/fan? Thanks!


EDIT: Here is the link for the dell instructions on how to make their laptops work better http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/m4400/en/sm/cpucool.htm#wp1182399

I've just disassembled it, cleaned out a build up of dust, taken off the heatsink, cleaned a horrendous amount of thermal paste of the CPU, reapplied arctic silver properly, and put it all back together. Just started stress testing again, but initial results are looking to be MUCH MUCH better. Will post up some numbers after it's been going for an hour.

SOLUTION: Remounting the heatsink with the correct amount of thermal paste, and cleaning out the fluff has reduced load temperatures from 100C to 75C. It's been running p95 for a few hours now so I'm fairly satisfied with it. Thanks for the advice and if you have overheating issues I strongly suggest remounting the heatsink!!!