M17xR3 CPU Heating Up When Playing (2820QM).

So I have this specs shown in my sig and since I got my R3 in early 2012, I only usually play D3 and POE. I normally get my CPU temp higher than my GPU when playing. GPU is usually about 58-61°C and CPU about 67-71°C. Temps that time was fine so I didnt really care.

Recently, I've been playing the FFXIV beta and GW2 and notice my CPU temp rose up to average about 85°C and sometimes spike to 89. It will usually crash once I'm that high so I tried using HWInfo fan control.

I increase rpm to 500 higher for each bracket but its not enough so I reached up to 5000 rpm for 75° and 5500 when its >80°. It worked for a while and but when display start to demand more from the PC, temp rises again and crash. This keeps happening so I decided to remove the fans and clean them (which are really not dirty). And also re-pasted the CPU. Didn't touch GPU since temps are fine.

I went back to gaming but its still the same, I can play for a few then later on looping crashes again. Until I only managed to reach the desktop and it will crash.

FINALLY, I decided to reformat, thinking maybe its the drivers/updates messing me up. After installing old drivers (301 for Nvidia and 2012 drivers for the rest), I went back to game and max CPU is 75. Its steady from 70-73. Although I wasn't able to stay longer because its too late.

It seems back to being OK now but I'm still wondering since last year why my CPU is always hotter than my GPU, even when I used to to benchmarks last year.

Sorry for the long post guys. Appreciate the help.

 

too many process running or your laptop doesn't have any cooling pad ?

 

Oh I have with 2 fans and it doesn't help that much. I haven't put it back after the reformat but temp is tolerable so far. I'm sure temp will go down more once I put it back.

My laptop is good as fresh right now as the only program installed aside from drivers is GW2 so I can test. Although I only get low 70s on CPU temp, which for me is OK, I still cant understand why my CPU temp is always higher than my GPU.

 

Some games are CPU intensive and will make your processor work harder, therefore producing more heat. Thermal paste, pads and ventilation will help reduce it if placed properly. (Could be too much thermal paste)

Try to keep your laptop in a tilted position, some surface areas suck up the heat and make it worse.

 

Thanks for the reply. I have honestly done all those and I am playing my laptop in an air-conditioned room with indoor temp of 65-70°F. Also, I'm pretty sure I put just enough paste.
I understand some games demand more from CPU but on my experience on my laptop, I haven't seen my GPU temp rise more than my CPU temp.

I have played WOW, Tera, D3, POE, BF3, BO2, FFXIV, NWN, GW2 and other steam games and I always get hotter CPU than GPU. My GPU has never reached 65°C. I just feel there's something thats not right

 

did u ever try to update ur graphic card driver to the latest one?
because some of latest driver has been developed for a latest game and it can run smooth with our GPU ..

 

I was on 320 when problem started. And the high temp is not really coming from the GPU. Its on the CPU.

 

Update:

So an agent remotely connected to my PC and did some stress test (Heaven and Prime95). My GPU was ok on Heaven and just about 65C but my CPU reached 85C. So he did Prime and my CPU reached 90+C in less than a minute of running the test.

They are sending a tech in my place to change both heat sinks and fans and we will see. I hope this solves it.

BTW, I hope technicians call customers at least a day before the date of appointment to schedule the time window. Everytime I have a tech coming, they will call you on the day of the appointment and will tell you they are coming. My point is they are not the only one that's working, A day notice to set time wont be too hard. Hope Dell/AW inform their tech to have this protocol.

 

do u have alienware autopsy ?
i'm always make a stress test for every each hardware mounted in my laptop .. the best way tools for you to troubleshoot your hardware

 

Did it ever occur to anyone that possibly he/she needs a repaste on the cpu and check the screws for proper contact?
It's is certainly not a software issue.

 

I know you mentioned cleaning the fans but did you clean out the heatsink radiators? - if they are clogged up with dust bunnies, having clean fans is not really going to accomplish anything...As Luis said, some games are cpu heavy, wPrime certainly is, so seeing temperatures in the mid 80's for cpu heavy games is not unusual. Seeing 90c on wPrime (cpu stress test) would be pretty normal.

 

Hey guys. Yes, I mentioned in the OP that I just re-paste it. That's actually the 1st action I did when I cant bring down the temp even after increasing fan speed. I also clean the fan and grills with compressed air and wiped them.

I clean my cooling system regularly and repaste gpu once and 3x for cpu since I got this R3 last March 2012. I did repaste the CPU more since because it has been always high on temp compared to normal.

BTW, my cpu shoots to above 90C immediately just seconds after running prime. Its like in less than 5 secs.

Update#2:

So a schedule for technician was set for Friday last week and AW told me the tech will call me a day before to set the time window. I didnt receive a call until Friday 10am and tech is telling me he's around and I'm at work. I told him I was expecting some lead time so we can set the meetup. So I offered if he can do something else first and I can meet him at 1230pm and he said he cant.

On that same Friday, I called AW and reported what happened and we re-schedule the tech visit for Monday and now setting the time window from 1:30pm to 5:30pm as they cant provide me exact appointment as usual.

Tech guy called me on Monday, 9am and left a voicemail and asking for a return call so we can schedule the visit which afaik is already set as afternoon. I sent him an SMS as I'm in a meeting and told him I'll be waiting for him from 1:30pm to 5:30pm. I didnt receive any response so I called him and left him a vm saying the same.

Since I thought the appointment is set, I left work early so I can be home by 1:30pm. I was still waiting for him or any call around 3pm so I decided to call AW and followup. AW rep called the tech company and they assured us that he will come. I waited until 5pm and no luck. I called AW again and rep said the guy is just running late so I waited more but he gave me the tech's office number and dispatch # so I can followup. I called tech company at 5:45pm to report and they said they cant contact the tech as they usually dont answer anymore after 5:30pm. The hell! He didnt answer any call since the morning lol!

Reported this back to AW last night and they escalated it and I'm waiting now.

I am quite satisfied with AW services since then but its always been this 3rd party companies that's ruining it. I am lucky to have to deal with these tech 2 times now in the life of my R3. And both those times, I had to take a time off to accommodate them and both those times, they didnt show up on the 1st schedule. I lost $400 total from these 2 occasions due to time offs.

I hope AW manage their contractors better than this. This cant be an excuse anymore.

Sorry guys it get too long. Just venting.

 

I'm on the phone with AW rep and they are telling me that in order for me to schedule an after office hour services is if I pay for extra as my warranty contract is for services within office hours only.
Why would I pay for extra if their tech guy cant showup in those 2 occasions? This is getting really annoying.

 

I'm just updating this thread for everybody's info hoping it can be a helpful reference in the future:

July 16 - I finally got the sink and fans replacement. It solved the high CPU temp but I started getting so much BSOD. AW checked my system again and decided they will replace my GPU.

July 19 - I got the GPU replacement installed and I got BSOD from 1st boot. On-site tech called AW and reported it and phone tech support remotely connected to me again to check. After an hour of checking, she decided to reformat/re-install windows. We reinstalled windows and I was transferred to another tech for drivers installations. 1st tech said they will call me once dirvers are installed to test again but I didnt get a call since.

I tried to use my R3 as usual after that but I still get BSODs. And its even more than before. I was crash-looping. I thought it was weekend thats why noone is following up with a call but I cant wait anymore and I'm really pissed that I want to throw my R3 against the wall.

July 21 - I decided to call Sunday night. I got to talk to a rep after waiting for 30 mins. I told him to please read the history, because I already talked to about at least 10 of them and I have to repeat everything everytime I have to call. He put me on hold for 2 mins and read everything. He came back and he said that they have decided to replace my system.

He promised me that I will get a system with at least equal specs or an upgrade depending on the availability. I am currently waiting for the specs.

Its really nice to think that a warranty can get me a new system but before this decision was made, it was really a hell of a ride. There's too much frustrations, disappointment and sacrifices involved. I had to take off from work 3 times on different occasions for this issue. I was cursing and telling myself this will be my last Dell purchase. I have purchased 4 laptops from Dell in 2012 (2 AWs and 2 Inspiron) then another 2 Inspirons this year. Been really a loyal customer that's why this long torture feels like I'm being betrayed (kinda OA I know but the feel is real).

I read about some of these and never thought I'll experience it myself.

Finally after all these, I'm glad its finally over. I hope...

 

Update:

So Dell offered me this on Tuesday July 23:
M17xR4:
- 3840QM
- GTX680m
- 2x256SSD
- Windows 7 Home
- Intel Centrino Wireless
- rest is the same as my R3

I asked them to check if I can transfer my Windows 7 Ultimate and put in a Killer Wireless as my R3 got both. They said they cant and they have to look for another configuration that will match my concerns.

Today, July 28, I got another call about the replacement and here's what they offered me:

M18xR2:
- 3840QM
- Dual GTX680m
- 1x512GB SSD
- Ultimate and Killer
- and the rest are the same.

Of course I finally accepted that !!!
So glad its finally over. Haven't had a gaming computer that work properly for about 3 weeks now. I am getting this R2 in 4 working days. So glad!

 

Congratulations! - looks like you have a very nice upgraded machine there, coming from an R3 / 580m / 750gb HDD. Have fun with it.

I don't want to rain on your thread, but it really amazes me how so many people (of late) are getting MASSIVE upgrades from older machines that had much lower specifications, yet I had a 2960xm/Dual 6990m's and was only offered a 3630qm/Single 675m - and Dell would NOT budge one little inch - they preferred to lose me as a customer.

What Dell territory are you in? - EMEA / US&Canada / Asia Pacific?

 

I read some of the problems you encountered bro and its really sad that it didn't work out. I'm here in the US by the way.
When I learned about the replacement, I didnt really expect much honestly so I just waited. Didnt even call them after that. I bugged them more during the repair process.
They called me only twice, 1st one to offer the R4 which was really ok with me and just had some requests as I said above and the last call was for the 18xR2.

Thanks bro. I still hope it work out well for you.

 

Yeah - it is sad from my perspective - thanks for having a read of my problems. I'm really glad you got things worked out and got a great machine as a replacement. As for me, Dell would NOT budge on the pathetic offer the made me - just threw my cash back at me as if it would solve my problems - it solves Dell's problems, because from their perspective, they have given me my money back. Thing is, a like for like machine is now out of my price range, even with a discount.

I spec'd up an 18 on the UK site, XM cpu, 770m Sli, everything else base - including HDD (so I'm losing my SSD's too at this price) and 3yrs warranty/AD (as I had 2 and a half yrs left) comes to £3.6k. My refund is £3k. Discount 10% from my rep. Total price = £3,240....£240 more than I get back and with no SSD's.

Last time I ever do business with Dell - ever.

Still, I'm pleased for you, Bro - well done!

 

Well I will do the same if I'm in your situation, £240+SSD cost I guess is not too much coming from R1 to R3. BUT I do understand that you dont have to have all these headaches just to come up with a replacement whether its refurb or new. I was actually preparing myself for a refund if I dont get a satisfying build and will just build a new desktop and buy a tablet. I'm just thankful it worked out.

I just wish Dell just gave you the new 18 with that specs and absorb the £240 and SSD cost at least they can be sure to keep you as a loyal customer for another long time. That amount of loss is nothing for them.

Anyway, its glad to know that you will stay in our AW community since you are getting a new 18! Honestly, I dont see any alternative if not AW on laptop gaming.

 

I'm not getting a new 18 though.....there is no way on earth I am gonna put money towards something that - I feel - should have been offered as a replacement. They could have even come up with something in the R2 that was like for like and I would have been happy. Just not gonna happen. You said it yourself, there is no other real alternative for the best laptop besides AW (unless you want a lunchbox Clevo etc) so Dell themselves have priced me out of their market.

Heck, I cant even afford an R2 with 3940xm/675m Sli (rest being equal such as killer, blu ray warranty etc) with the refund.....that works out at £3,140 including a 10% discount....no SSD's either...

Dell truly stuck it to me BIG TIME with a refund......can't even afford to get back to like for like.....