M17x R2 overheating problem? Guild Wars 2?

I have the M17x R2 machine with the 5870M cards in crossfire. I haven't had any issues until I started playing Guild Wars 2. I'm guessing it is heat related, but after a couple of hours of play I often get a BSOD that says something along the lines of "System halted--hardware malfunction. Please call...." I've noticed that the back of my M17x R2 at both GPU locations starts to feel extremely hot when playing GW2 (which runs fine at the settings I have it at, btw). I downloaded a monitor and apparently my temps are approaching 100 degrees C when playing GW2, which is certainly higher than any other game I play.

I have a laptop cooling pad, and the machine appears to be dust free. Does anybody have any suggestions? I'm afraid to keep playing as I'll eventually fry something. I am currently using 12.6 CCC (12.8 caused me issues when browsing) and I downloaded the 12.7 CAP 3 profiles to see if that would help. Didn't seem to.

As a final thought, what graphics setting would be best to turn down/off to reduce heat? I already throttled it by limiting the max fps to 60. Maybe Vertical Sync on?

 

If you're getting temperature issues it's most likely clogged up dust or the cards needing a repaste. Unless you've overclocked your cards heavily they shouldn't be that hot running gw2 at max settings (terrible FPS for 2x5870m so you shouldn't be running it at max anyway).

 

Yeh hopefully it's your thermal paste/ heatsink.

 

I would say that a repaste is in order, or at the VERY least blow out the dust and clean off the heatsink/fan. You shouldn't grow anywhere near that mark. My 6970M draws 25w more than a 5870M and I don't hit 85*C with the same heatsink.

 

You can try these simple steps to fix it and if that does not work then you may need to repaste or replace the fans and heatsinks. If that is the case please send us an e-mail to [email protected] with your tag and phone number and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. My R2 was a replacement for an earlier lemon R1. The vent screens over the graphics cards look completely clear, and the fans feel like they are working. Any chance that this could be a driver problem? Anybody have a problem with 12.6 Catalyst?

 

Hmmm i don't think this is driver problem why don't you just try to put the laptop on book to have more air space and try test?

 

Well, I already have my laptop on an NZXT cooler, so that makes the temperatures even more baffling. I have yet to figure out what drivers to use. 12.6 seemed more stable than 12.8, but I've read that 12.6 can cause some issues in certain games. I've heard good things about 12.1 as well.

 

i hope you solve your problem very soon

 

Another weird problem I just noticed is that I opened CCC and it failed to detect my hardware so it reset my desktop. Rebooted and it is working as normal. Maybe it's time to go back to the Dell drivers.

 

I think your not installing your drivers properly, 12.8 work a charm. To fix that not detected issue use the none mobility drivers

 

Thanks. Got any link to the mobility drivers? I downloaded 12.8 from the AMD site, but I did not see any specific mobility drivers?

 

here are 2 links to 12.8 drivers, the first link is more stable but the second link is newer. To ensure you are installing drivers properly follow this guide. First of all download which ever version you want

link 1

link 2

*you will need to download driver sweeper beforehand

1) press the start button and search Device Manager

2) once open click display adapters and right click then press Uninstall. Now go into control panel, uninstall and get rid of your AMD catalyst install manager, express uninstall

3) reboot your computer into safe mode and run driver sweeper

4) clean all fragments of AMD drivers. Check your C:\Program Files (x86) and see if there is a folder called ATI technologies. There shouldn't be after you've cleaned it.

5) reboot your computer into regular windows and it should automatically install a crappy vga driver with a horrible resolution

6) install your new driver then reboot your system. Done!


this will improve your quality in games however i still think your GPU's NEED a repaste if they're hitting those extremely high temperatures.

 

Well, this is kind of weird, but as an experiment (and because I read its best with a switchable system like the m17x to install any new drivers over the old Dell drivers) I uninstalled 12.6 and reverted back to the Dell drivers. Immediately I noticed with my hardware monitor that the idling temps on the GPUs was lower. On GPU 1 I'm idling around 50 degrees, and GPU2 at 43 degrees. In contrast, under 12.6, GPU 2 was over 60 degrees at idle! Crazy.

Haven't done a good test yet in GW2 because my monitor is acting flakey with the old drivers (it resets the screen when it tries to detect the ATI sensors for some reason, which didn't happen in 12.6). Any suggestions on a stable monitor to detect temperatures on the ATI cards?

 

HWinfo32 or 64 seem to do the trick for me

 

Just a side note the rear of the computer where the vents are can look great but the inside where the fan blows thru the coolers could be very dirty. I would blow some clear air in there at the very least or oper the top and really clean it out.

 

Hope you don't have a dog, she was shedding and when I opened up my r3 to change the RAM, I noticed so much dust and fur near the vents that I almost died.

 

Yeah, it worked fine until I switched back to the older original Dell drivers. I read that there is a potential issue with HWinfo and earlier Catalyst drivers that disabled the second GPU when not needed. That seems to be the problem here.

Anyway, with the old drivers things seem to be running a bit cooler, although it may just be a coincidence because I sprayed out the vents last night with some air. The idling temperature on GPU2 is much lower, although that might be because it is disabled when not needed. I may try to upgrade to the 12.8 drivers, but I read they are not compatible with switchable graphics computers, like the m17x R2 I believe? Anyone have any trouble with 12.8?

I don't really feel like opening this thing up. Although I enjoyed making models when I was a kid, I tended to be heavy-handed and the results, to be honest, weren't all that good. But, the alternative isn't all that great-paying some tech, who probably doesn't know the system well, an exorbitant sum to repaste things. At least I've seen Dell on-site techs open this thing up a few times.

 

the R2 is switchable graphics? Thought it only used the video cards.

 

I thought the R2 still had an onboard chip, but I could be wrong. The option to switch still is visible on the keyboard.

 

LOL I don't know. I always thought it was video card only but heck I could be wrong also.

 

I have M17x R4 with 7970M, and I experienced a problem very similar to yours, OP. All other games ran fine, but when I started GW2 I experienced a few times when I'd be playing and suddenly my laptop would just shut down without any warning. I checked my temps with HWMonitor and monitored them in-game, as well, with Afterburner... sure enough, overheating was the issue. I went ahead and repasted, as well as installed the 12.8 drivers, and so far (4 days now and counting) no problems..... CPU temps staying around 55-60C while playing, and GPU temps reach ~60-65.... no more shutdowns (fingers crossed!)

 

R2's don't have onboard graphics, the switchable graphics is obtained from certain processors having crappy graphics chips on them.

 

Excellent news. When I had the R1, it caused nothing but problems. That's how I ended up with the R2.

 

I bought an m15x and they sent me an R2 by accident, yeah I aint sending that back

 

Hey OP, I recently had a similar problem happen to me on my m17xr2 running a single 4870 card. I was running diablo at the time. The card got so hot, it melted a component. I replaced the 4870 with a 580m.

Unfortunately, it seems that some of the more recent games interfere with the computer's ability to properly control cooling fan speeds on our systems.

the workaround is to install HWINFO and manually set the gpu fan speed to max.

You can use the auto function if you want, but be warned: sometimes it won't properly increase the fan speed as temperatures rise in certain games. The safest course is to just launch HWINFO, set the gpu fan speed to max, then play your game. HWINFO also allows you to monitor min, max, and current gpu temps as well as fan speed.

HWINFO is a "must have', IMO.

Good luck!

 

No game I have ever played has done anything to my R2's fans, from single 5870m to single 7970m. its sad to hear you guys are having problems