Alienware M17xr2 palm rest getting hot

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone could shed light on this.

In the last week, my r2 has been getting kinda hot on the palm rest. Now I've never had this problem, and I've always known Alienware's to have the best cooling in laptops. The problem is that while writing or using the laptop, the point where i put my palms on the computer are starting to get kinda hot. The bigger problem is that this problem occures NOT while gaming (I haven't gamed on my laptop for a month), but rather day to day stuff like internet and documents and stuff. Nothing strenuous!

Right now, im raising my right palm in the air to write this because after resting it on the computer for a while, it get's too hot for me to rest my palm. Note, it's not hot to touch, just if I keep it there too long.

When I noticed it, I immideately cleaned the fans to make sure there wasn't a dust problem or anything, but it's still there. Any solutions? Hints?

(btw: it happens on both sides at times).

 

Download a temperatur-check program, such as Everest or HWINFO64 (I personally suggest HWINFO64).


Are any of your sensors running hot?

- Scott.

 

What up man?

Yea, check temps using HWInfo 64. That would be a start. It's odd to me, that it's on the palm rest as the GPUs and CPU is not in that area, and the heat pipes run to the back of the system. Are you running on battery? What happens if you remove the battery and run it plugged in with no battery? I wonder if it will continue to get hot.

 

I believe DR has a good point. I know that my wifi card can get hot and i can sense it on the palm rest a bit. but not near as hot as you are describing

 

Ok, so I did up the hwinfo tests first (thanks for all your suggestions so far).

Here's image 1: http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/221/hwinfo1.png

Image 2 (with temps): http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8653/hwinfo2.png (the temps went down slightly from this screen shot, maybe 3-5 degrees), but thats the average u see here.

The temps seems quite high for not doing much, but not unusually high. Maybe 5-10 degrees max? As you can see, I did a full screenshot to show you how many programs are open in pic 2 (not the highest memory users).

And DR, no battery is in, I should do a test without soon.

 

Ok, Jubbing.
The pictures seem to tell nothing else but a healthy system, so thats wierd.
Though - There is no sensor that monitors the battery-temp, aswell as the wireless card and the bluetooth / security-chip device.

What i would reccomend you to do, is to let the PC run in a game for a good 40-50 minutes, and then quickly dissassemble it.. Is there any component that is hotter than the others, especially look at the ones laying directly beneath the palm-rest. Use your hand to touch, and feel..

Else, i don't know what to say.. seems like a fairly odd situation.
- Scott.

 

One thing i noticed is that the GPU fan speed was at 30% the entire time. Don't know how accurate HWinfo is, but shouldn't it be more than 30% as well at times? Could it be a fan issue?

 

It always sais 30% for the fan, don't worry about it. Anyhow, nor is your cards or heatsink placed under your palmrest, so it shouldn't make any difference for the heat you're talking about

- Scott.

 

I had this once, found the heatsinks and fans were very dusty.

A strip down and clean up sorted the job out.