M17x R2 920xm overheating

My i7 920xm has been getting extremely hot as of late. I have never had this problen until a few weeks ago. The only problem ive had in a game was with bf3 which is nearly unplayable. As temps rise to around 95c the cpu clocks down and the game runs terribly. I have cleaned out the fans throughoutly and just applied fresh thermal paste, temps remain unchanged. I plan on redoing the the paste one more time to see if maybe i messed it up... is there any special method for these cpus? I tried a few different methods and none of them have changed anything.

The system usually idles around 50-54c. Is there anyway to lessen the turbo mode multiplier? I guess that would be at least a temporary fix to he bf3 problem. Whenever i run it all cores get maxed to 24x and heat shoots through the roof.

Well not surprisingly the temps are much lower with turbo mode disabled. However performance also suffers significantly... It runs just under 80c in bf3 with no turbo mode.

 

If you've cleaned out the fans/heatsinks and you repasted, could be your heatsink has gone bad.

New Original Genuine Dell Alienware M17X R2 CPU Heatsink - RVXVK 0RVXVK | eBay

 

Hi ndudsz, here's an article from the Dell support site that has some troubleshooting steps to fix the overheating problem you're having.

Let me know how it goes after following the steps on the article.

 

In the meantime, ThrottleStop provides complete control over the 920XM, allowing you to set multipliers and TDP as desired, as well as the ability to disable Turboboost and/or EIST if desired. ThrottleStop A User's Guide is found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html.

 

Thanks for the link! That should help out alot.

I followed the guide on the alienware website and nothing changed. Running Prime95 the temps shot up fast. In a few seconds the cores were at 80c and within a minutes one reached above 90c. Once it hit 96c I stopped but it barely took a minute. One core was slightly higher than the rest but I dont know how important that is, they were all high.

Fortunately the only problem I've had in real in game use is with Battlefield 3. While playing all cores are clocked to the highest turbo mode setting even though they have less than 50% load. With turbo mode off the temp is still around 85c but at least it is playable now.

Guess I'll look into a new heatsink, that may be the next step... Is there any way to tell if it specifically the heatsink?

Also I reapplied the thermal paste again, probably like the 5th time. This time I went with a little more but it yielded the same results as before.

 

Change the heatsink. If re pasting and readjusting heatsink temps doesn't change it, then you need a new heatsink. Been there, done that.

 

^^ Agree with DR650SE. After five repastings, it almost has to be a heatsink issue. I'm dealing with a similar problem in my R3, but to a much lesser degree for the moment, so I'm going to follow the same course.

Ndudsz, that's a raunchy looking avatar.

 

Thanks a lot! I agree, I don't know what else it could possibly be. At first I thought I was just a complete failure at thermal pasting but I've tried it too many times and followed too many guides for that to be the case. Guess I'll get on ordering that then.

Yeah I made the avatar back in 2009 in about 5 minutes in paint... I didnt know what else to use so I just left it.

 

Just ordered one for me also, i'll be installing it at the next repaste. I have one of my cores that stay 8 degree cooler that the other 3 under load. It doesn't overheat, but for example @24x133 i have 3 cores al 88 degrees and one at 79-80 and it is always the same core. I've tryied everything so it could be the heatsink. Worth a shot and + rep for the link

 

Thanks for the help! The new heatsink worked flawlessly. Curently running Prime95 and after 5 mins temps are all 85c and under.

Same thing is happening with me as cptXabaras, my 4th core is always 4-5c cooler than the rest, not causing a problem though.

 

Those temperatures are good, mine hit the low 90's as I did the ThrottleStop option to enhance SSD performance, so my 920XM idles at like low 50's. :|

 

How does the heatsink actually go bad? Not sure if I have an issue with mine or not.

Just to compare, when you run prime95, what settings are you running at? I run blend, 8 threads. Also, what settings are you running throttlestop on(if you are). My TS settings are TDP of 90, and TDC of 75, and when I run prime95, my temps hit over 90c pretty quick and it starts throttling

 

I guess the heatpipes could become damaged.

 

The liquid inside the heat pipes turns into a vapor when in contact with the hot part.
The vapor can slowly leak out thru the pores of the welded end of the heat pipe rendering the heatsink useless. But this is not the only cause, a tiny fracture can also be an issue since the internal pressure of the heat pipe will be equalized with external pressure.

 

Ah, never knew that the heatsink could go bad like that... Anyone got a common benchmark with numbers I can run(on a R2 with 920xm with TS on or off) and compare against to see if my heatsink/heatpipe has crapped itself?

Also, is there any ways or tips to avoid breaking the heatsink? Like I said, I wasn't even aware that it could break like you described so I never even worried about it, but now, I'm worried that I haven't been treating it with the care it deserved.

 

Does anyone know what liquid they put in the heatsinks? Not planning to try and fix one, just curious! Could it be something toxic?

 

Nothing toxic is used anymore. Nowadays they use ethanol or water and probably acetone.

 

Wasn't sure if my heatsink was bad but the temps do seem quite high compared to others on this thread, so have put an order in for a new heatsink/heatpipe!

 

Well, got my new heatsink/heatpipe assembly, but noticed it was warped..ie when the heatsink was put into the right place, it wouldn't sit flush on the chip without me having to bend it into place...so thats going back to the vendor.

While I had it disassembled, I decided to check to see if the one I currently had was in fact, actually not working or damaged. Researching this, someone said to put the heatsink end into hot water and the fins on the other end should get hot immediately. Almost burnt my fingers off because I was expecting it to not get hot! Guess my heatsink/heatpipe assembly is working ok.

 

Good tip for testing heatsink pipes. Makes perfect sense, but I'd never heard it before.

 

In prime95 I leave it at default (blend) and I don't mess with any settings in throttlestop. The same thing was happening to mine with the temps hitting over 90c pretty quick and it made games, mostly battlefield, unplayable due to throttling. With the old heatsink I did get throttling in prime95.

With the new heatsink it took a very long time to get up to 90c, about 45 mins. Only when it got around 93c did it start throttling, but with a 45 min stress test that isn't surprising. If you're not overclocking anything it sounds like the heatsink may be your problem. Good luck in fixing it!

This is all from memory btw, im 99.99% those numbers are accurate but unfortunately one of my graphics card kicked the bucket so the system is in pieces until I can afford a new one.

 

I found the same thing when i was modifying my heatsink. After I gave it a good wash to get rid of metal filings etc, I used a hair drier to dry the fins.. Almost burnt my fingers immediately because it got so hot so quickly!

You don't realise how effective they are until you burn yourself lol

 

I just realised I think I was chasing my tail on this one. Key word was reading ndudsz post that said he didn't mess with any settings in throttlestop, which means the default TDP/TDC of 62 is being used. I ran prime95 with those default settings and yeah, I don't have any throttling, but then again, its not exactly going very fast either, as the default TDP/TDC settings don't let it push the multipliers very high.

Its only when I change TDP/TDC to 90/75 and setting max multipliers to 25, then running prime95, that I see it throttling down below 25 multi when it reached over 90 degrees., which I think is normal now. It just seemed strange when I was reading other people's temps, and they were lower.

Didn't realise that by setting my TDP/TDC to 90/75, thats considered overclocking, I think because it was so easy to do, and make it so easy to turbo boost to 25 on all cores, that I didn't consider it overclocked!

Oh well, I've got a spare heatsink assembly now that I guess I can use to repair if my current heatsink ever goes bad.