Acer 5542 overheating

Hi all, I bought the acer 5542G about 9 months ago and have been really happy with the performance and stability until a couple of weeks ago when it would occasionally crash from games (complete power off, nothing saved). It started getting worse as the temps warm up here (getting toward summer).

I suspected overheating issues so I ran HW monitor plus a couple of stress tests that i thought would reasonably emulate a very demanding game (prime95 and the artifact tool from atitool to stress both gpu and cpu). Within 3 minutes of starting the core temp gets over 100C and the computer crashes. Obviously it takes a little longer in games as they're not quite this intense, but it really shouldn't be suffering these issues at all.

There is plenty of airflow and the vents have been cleaned, so my questions are:
1. Is there anything more that can be done to lower the temps (i am running on a flat surface with plenty of ventilation and really don;t want to use a cooling pad as this is such a large laptop already)?

2. Is there any chance of getting a refund after 9 months? (Even if they fix the issue under warranty I have no reason to suspect that it won;t suffer the same fate after a similar period)

3. Just interested in whether anybody else has the same issue with this model, especially people who have had it for several months and used it pretty hard.

 

If it is still under warranty take it to the service...

Or else, if the vents are clean and air flow good, then you might need to check the thermal paste on the cpu...

And when under load, is the air coming from the vent really hot - compared to the CPU temperature?

 

Yeah, might take it to the service centre. If it comes back still hot then I'll try adding some of the good thermal paste i bought for my desktop.

As for the vent air, it is very hot, I can burn myself on it if i hold my hand a couple of centimetres away for only a few seconds which is why i'm a little worried that it might not just be the cooling. There seems to be heaps of airflow and plenty of hot air removed, but it's evidently not enough to cool it.

 

You could try raising the back of the laptop by an inch or two, this gives increased airflow and stops the area under the fan getting hot and making things worse.

My 9920G sits on a decent book at the back and has not given any heating problems since this method was used.

Worth a try before you get outside help.

 

I have also been using Acer Aspire 5542G for more than a year, and have been facing the same overheating and shutting down issue from past 6 months.I went to ACER SERVICE CENTER and was told everytime of this being a software issue. I am still facing the same problem

 

Try undervolting the AMD CPU.

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess your heatsinks are no longer seated well on your GPU or CPU. Disassembling the machine and making sure the surfaces are mating well and have a minimal coating of a quality thermal compound will cost you ~$50 to $100 at a pro shop with a tech who has a clue. Worth every penny. If you're handy enough look up guides on your machine and do it yourself.