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    M17x R1 Overheating- why?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Roah27, Oct 2, 2011.

  1. Roah27

    Roah27 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello,

    I've cleaned out my laptop several times in the past two months, and it overheats constantly, and at an insane rate. I haven't really had much of a problem with temperatures until I disabled PCIe-Gen2 (which is kind of mandatory for R1 users). I'm currently running 270.61 drivers (2x 280m cards). Can anyone recommend any other drivers right now? I've tried installing the 280.xx several times and I keep getting black screens. Any help is appreciated, as always!
     
    Roah27, Oct 2, 2011
    #1
  2. orionz

    orionz Notebook Consultant

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    I doubt this is a driver issue. Overheating is usually a result of blocked dust clogged heatsinks OR very high over clocking. Perhaps you could tell us what your system configuration is AND what temps you have actually measured for the CPU and GPUs. Then we could make a better try at suggesting a fix. More info is nearly always better than less.
     
    orionz, Oct 2, 2011
    #2
  3. Roah27

    Roah27 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Ironically, I actually believe I fixed it. Anyways, the temps were peaking at around 95-101 c, while the other was always about 10-15 degrees behind. It was even running hot while playing Minecraft.

    Anyways, what I did was I reinstalled my current drivers, 270.61, in safe mode but excluding a few steps. Whenever I deleted my current drivers through add and remove (before I'd use driver sweep) windows would then automatically begin installing some oddball replacement drivers on the spot, resulting in me never not having drivers at any point in time. I've disabled everything in windows to get it to stop that, but as long as I'm dealing with video card drivers, it never fails.

    So, what I did was I just ran driver sweeper, rendering my current drivers useless- but I did not delete them. I rebooted again in safe mode and installed the same drivers over again and instead of choosing express I chose custom and left out the 3d stuff that came with it AND I also chose that "clean install" option that overwrites any of my game profile changes. After I did all that, and enabled Sli and rebooted once more, everything's back to normal with temps at around 70-73 at most times.

    I'll be the first to say I really know very little about computers, so I don't truly get it.
     
    Roah27, Oct 3, 2011
    #3
  4. rockfock

    rockfock Notebook Consultant

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    Re-applying thermal paste is also a good idea every few months
     
    rockfock, Oct 3, 2011
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