Alienware 17 getting extremely hot on left edge

Hello, I'm new to the forum, but decided to come here to get some help on my issue. My computer, up until just a couple days ago, had been functioning great - no issues - but I accidentally covered the CPUs fan when I was playing a game(Borderlands 2), and it shut off due to overheating. It turns back on and works just the same, however when I went to go back to playing the game, I feel an intense heat on the upper left edge(right next to the keyboard and around the HDMI port, which got so hot it burnt). The fans appear to be working, but I don't know what to do. I'm afraid I may damage the CPU. Can anyone offer some help and advice? Thanks.

 

Welcome to the forum. I'm sure we can help you find a solution.

First of all, what CPU do you have? From what I understand, you burnt something... Is this damage visible or do you just smell it? Can you upload pictures? If you're still under warranty, this may be covered. More details would help.

As for the heat: You probably need a re-paste! And you need to keep the vents beneath the laptop free and clear...these laptops need to breathe.

 

Wow... that was fast. Ok, I have an Intel i7 4700MQ, and no I haven't burnt anything yet(hopefully), but the heat that radiating from the left is so hot that it burns(especially near and inside the HDMI port), so I'm curious as to what happened. It hadn't ever been that hot before on the outside. When I checked the CPU temperature using Core Temp, it appears just fine(65-69 degrees)... which I find to be odd. I would have thought the issue was the CPU was overheating. I can't upload any pictures of the inside, because I'm frankly too scared to open this thing up. This computer is the first gaming PC I've ever had, so I'm quite to PC hardware in general. What I want to figure out is whether or not this is a hardware issue, or something else, as it was working just fine until it shut off due to overheat.

Also, I usually keep the computer on a lap desk kinda job, so all the vents do get to breathe.

 

65-69 sounds to high and sound as issue with the heatsink/thermal paste so it doesnt make good contact, and your heat is trapped inside your laptop.

Just repaste like J.dre says.

 

Ok... let me rephrase that. I get around 45-55 temps when not gaming, and 65-75 when gaming. Are those normal? If so, I don't think it's the paste that's the problem... of course, I don't know too much about this stuff anyway. It's the heat on the outside I'm worried about. I mean, it's only shut off like this one time, and hasn't done it since, but the external temp is really bothering me. Could it be the fans? Or is it the paste?

 

Those temps are normal and shouldn't heat up the chassis of your laptop like you said they did. There's something strange going on there, either the wrong temps are being reported, or well, I don't know. You should definitely contact the AW support.

 

Alright, I called Alienware tech support, told them about my issue, and they're sending out a tech to fix the issue(which was, as you all told, the paste dried and caused the CPU to overheat). Thank you all for the assistance and help with solving this. I'll be sure to return to the forums with any other issues.

 

Let us know how that goes.
Did you check both CPU and GPU temps?