R2 overheating (940xm 5870's)

my laptop isn't cooling as good as it once did.
idles between 55- 60* on gpu and cpu in a 70*C room, and throttles under every game i throw at it, even games 10 years old.

the only way i can make it not throttle is if i raise the laptop, disable CF, and put a fan blowing on the primamry card side of the laptop (so it blows under it, and across the top of it). but even the my temps are still in the low 90* range!

tried calling dell tech to come replace my thermal paste under warranty and they gave me the run around and decided they didn't need to do it, and pretty much told me to F-off (they've done that for the last 2 things i've called them about also, really aggravating.)

bottom line, i want to take apart my laptop, clean all the dust out, and re-apply thermal paste. But i don't want to take it apart without knowing what i'm doing.

looking for a how-to take it apart and put it back togeather.

-thanks.

(sorry if this is somewhere else, i seemed to be an idiot when it comes to finding things in search option.)

 

http://supportapj.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/Alw_M17xR2/en/SM/sm_en.pdf

Here's the guide to take apart the system. It's not the simplest thing in the world, but take your time and be organized. You should have no problems then. Good luck. It honestly just looks like a good cleaning is in order!

Let me know if you suggestions on cleaning, pastes, etc.

 

awesome, thank you.

while i was waiting for a response, i just flipped the laptop upside down and took off that panel, unscrewed the cpu fan, and cleaned that, and the copper things behind it.

a LOT of dust was there... 2 years worth LOL.
after just doing that alone, i did some cpu stress testing, no temps over 83* after 5 mins haha! (laptop raised, no external fan)
now to do the GPU area's

 

The GPU and heatsink are easy to get to. You just need to remove the media center strip (the one with the power button and media touch control buttons), then the keyboard, and finally two small black rectangular pieces with two screws holding them in. Once those black pieces are out, you can access the GPU. WEAR AN ANTI-STATIC BRACELET! So many users kill their GPUs because it gets zapped with ESD when they're in their fooling around with it. There are two screws holding each of your GPUs in, once the screws are removed, the GPUs just lift off and slide out. There isn't much need to remove the fan unless it is completely filled with dust.. You can just blow off the fan where it sits. One thing I've done during repastes is I removed the heatsink from the GPU and ran the fins under a faucet. This will get any lingering dust that is caked in between the fins. Just make sure to dry the heatsink thoroughly before reattaching it.

 

this was the result of cleaning just the CPU fan area lol

 

Wow! LOL Hopefully yours temps will be outstanding now that everything is clean.

 

Oh lol, yes that is going to help.

There was a guy complaining of high temperatures with his MSI notebook and the heatsinks had a carpet of dust on them :/

Compressed air every few months (depending on the environment) and a teardown every year or year and a half.

 

i've had it a little over 2 years (when this was new, it was the best laptop you could get) and i haven't ever cleaned it once =/ (taking it apart to clean it)