CPU temperatures off the Charts on Alienware M17xR4

Hello everyone. I have been trying to trace this problem down for a while with whatever expertise I have but I hope you all will be able to give me a better understanding of whats up.

Recently I have been getting some awfully weird readings from my CPU in case of temperature. My Processor regularly shows temperatures over 90*C on Load and idles at 70*C. Trouble is that even if I were to blow the fans at full blast there isn't any hot air coming out of it. I then proceeded to repaste the CPU in an effort to see if that was the problem. Nope, it wasnt

Next I figured that perhaps the Core isn't contacting the CPU heatsink so I carefully measured some copper shims and shimmed the CPU to confirm physical contact with the CPU. No improvements whatsoever. There is still no significant hot air exiting the rear of the system even though I have kept the fans and full blast while HWinfo reports the temperature being at 70 - 80*C. I am also running an unlocked BIOS and haven't really noticed the problem before.

Any ideas? I'd love to keep the unlocked BIOS on for the extra info.

 

Is there still paste on? Sounds like the heatsink might be faulty. Seems very high, maybe try another repaste using another method etc.

I think dell supply heatsinks at about £30 which is fairly cheap. Could be a heatpipe broken or something?

I doubt unlocked BIOS has anything to do with it so I wouldn't worry.

 

Heatsink could very well of sprung a gas leak.... The hollow tube could be bad and lost its effectiveness. I assume you have done all to correct the issues with normal maintenance.

 

Did you take the fans out and look at the actual cooling fins? They can and will plug up with hair and lint and dirt...I have seen it more then once where a laptop will overheat because there is NO air exhausting out the back because it looks like cement on the cooling fins

You said you re-pasted but if you didn't check that then all the re-pasting in the world won't help.

 

So far that appears to be the most logical explanation. I have double-checked the fans for effectiveness & very sure that the thermal paste is getting proper contact. In the event that a leak did occur in the heatpipe, shouldn't the conductive properties of Copper spread the heat around?

 

I always remove the fans and blow directly into the heatsink itself as prior experience have taught me that simply blowing into the fins from the outside of the computer does absolutely nothing. I'm afraid that isn't the problem as my heatsink is spick n span

 

Worth a shot

I am amazed how many people think that just blowing air through the fins with compressed air while everything is still together will fix all

I have no experience with a leaking heat sink so :S let us know what it turns out to be. I would be interested to see if that is indeed the issue. I honestly didn't even know the heatpipes contained any gas at all so this is quite interesting to me and will be following to see if that indeed fixes the problem.

 

Maybe it is due to this.

 

My goodness that does look awful. I can personally guarantee that something like that DID NOT happen. In fact, let me check now........................ Nope. Heatsink's still clean as a whistle

 

Best bet at this point may be to try a new heat sink.....are you still under warranty? I am sure they would ship you one in 24 hours if you are. If not, I would still look into a new one , especially if you can get it for the cost someone mentioned above ($30) . Short of any of this working then I would point to a bad CPU.

 

I think it may be that custom BIOS you're running.

 

The Unlocked bios i assume is one that was recommended, as i use an unlocked bios also with no issues. I am assuming the fan settings are all correctly setup in the unlocked bios? and you have a basic understanding of how it should operate?

With that being said just make sure your fans are operating at the recommended specs, example: at 55C fan would operate at 50% capacity, 60C at 75%, etc...