Fan/Exhaust problem/question.

I've had a M14x for about 5/6 months now and since this past week I noticed my temperature has increase while playing TERA online on max settings with a gaming mode power plan that comes with game booster . Before last week I could play with my gpu staying below 70C and my cores staying below 80.

Now I noticed that my GPU goes anywhere betwen 75-77 and my cores go up to 95C(although most of the time the cores stay around 89-92C). So I figured maybe there was a problem with my fan. I can't remember if my fan was always like this but I realized that only the last two squares near the vent (of 7 squares) have air coming out of it. At the other five I can only feel warmth coming out of them.(maybe a little air but nothing you can really feel)

Is this normal for the m14x? Should I contact dell about getting my laptop serviced? (I have an active warranty on this laptop)

 

First step would be to blow out everything really well with some compressed air. It sounds like it may be clogged. Also, get a good cooling pad.

If that doesn't help I would suggest doing a re-paste on your GPU & CPU. I repasted mine with Arctic Silver 5 (any decent brand of thermal compound will do), and dropped my temps by ~10 degrees.

 

How should I do that? should I open the laptop and spray it with compressed air? Or should I just spray into the vents on the back of it? (Cuz I've seen people do the latter but I only see that pushing dust back into the laptop.)

 

The best answer is to remove the bottom-plate, and use something to hold the fan still. This will prevent damage to the fan from blowing it too fast, and will allow the dust to escape the chassis.

 

it's clogged. I did a repaste recently and I found chunks of dirt in the vent. You can try blowing it out with compressed air. Opening it is not an easy task specially for noobs like me.

 

I usually remove the bottom plate and blow it out from both directions.

 

I will get some compressed air and do this asap. Will let you guys know how it went.

 

I'm happy to report that after dusting out my fan and getting a cooling pad I can play TERA on full settings and my video card rarely goes beyond 63C (usually sits on 59/60) and my cores sit at around 68-73.

I really didn't think the dust was that bad since I only had it for about 5/6 months and I couldn't really see any dust at the vent.

Thanks you all so much!

 

That´s awesome! another issue solved by the community! here is a link to the troubleshooting articles that we have created just for your computer.