Overheating CPU (and GPUs) when gaming

I've had my Alienware 18 for almost 6 months now but I've never done any real gaming on it until this week.

I downloaded Battlefield 4 and started playing, and the fans instantly went mental. I understand that this isn't a bad sign in itself, I want them to be on full blast if necessary, but it was symptomatic of the fact that the CPU quickly shot up to 100 degrees and GPUs to 80-90 degrees. It shuts down within 5 minutes of the game booting up. I'm assuming it's the CPU causing the shutdown, because I'm led to believe that 100 degrees is the threshold on that, but I also feel like the GPUs are much hotter than I would expect also.

It never goes above 65 degrees when playing Football Manager 2015 (very CPU intensive game; fans never even hit full throttle; and GPUs never get above 50 degrees).

I've tried adjusting all of the video settings in Battlefield, yet it makes no noticeable difference whether I play on 1920x1080 Ultra or 1024x768 Low or anything in between.

I can play SWAT 4 (a little older) without it crashing, although it does sometimes push ~90 degrees. I can play it for hours without ever exceeding that though, whereas I can barely play Battlefield for 5 minutes before it's in >100 meltdown.

When ordering from HIDEvolution, I added this: "Thermal Paste - IC Diamond on CPU + GPU". Surely it doesn't need to be done again? Surely they're reliable?

CPU is i7-4940MX, GPUs are 2x GTX880Ms.

I opened it up and the fans and grill were almost spotless; I gave them a quick clean anyway. Where I play is average room temperature with decent ventilation under and around the laptop.

My opinion is that the CPU (and GPUs for that matter) should be able to handle all of this with ease, and that it shouldn't need repasting. Does anyone have any advice or is repasting the only option I have to try to solve this?

 

CPU intensive... no. I don't think football manage 2015 is as CPU intensive as you think.

Anyway, BF4 is QUITE the CPU drain. it does not however make GPUs as hot as you are describing, and being an Alienware 18 you should have better cooling... I would suggest checking for a repaste first. Here, let me show you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHFrPMG4uw

My room is hotter than yours AND your cooling out of the box should be superior to mine. So I think you have something to look at there. Disregard my 87 deg on master GPU; something was blocking my fan exhaust right at the back of the machine and I didn't know.

Also, if this persists with the high temps and such, I suggest RMA-ing the machine to Dell or something. Something is indeed wrong. I know 880Ms get exceedingly hot and I know your CPU is hot, but my room is extremely hot too and you're pretty much at stock... something is indeed wrong.

 

I am currently having, well damn near the same thing. Started having video problems, then checking temps. Main issue seems to be CPU overheating, even after replacement heatsink, fan, and repaste. Mine is headed to the fedex folks to be shipped back to them so they can hopefuly fix the problem. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-18-m18x/763571-having-problem-need-help.html
I really should have named that thread better.
Alienware 18, CPU i7-4940MX, 880m SLI.

 

Oh that's interesting. It seems my problem is a little different, but it's concerning that they have such crippling issues. I'll report back here once it has been repasted (I'm sure it's easy enough to do but I've never done it myself and I'm happy to pay someone local).

 

Chances are it's probably the paste. I'm a fan of IC Diamond paste but found it degraded dramatically after a few ventures into the mid 90's. Kind in a 'straw that broke the camels back' kind of way.
Look into repasting the CPU with Liquid Ultra. It's a far better solution and I've yet to really notice any degradation.

 

no, no. something is no right here with the new Bios! mine is getting to hat too.
just look this. just running windows defender on overclock leve1.

 

And It Even Crash A one Point, I Think Dell Is Doing The same thing As Apple Crip the IPhone Every Time With Update, To make People Go And Buy A new one!!! Just my Experience!

 

Windows Defender in Windows 8 is basically MSE minus a couple features, and is VERY CPU intensive. It can grab 70%+ of my CPU at 3.5GHz when scanning a SSD. But your temps are insane... that's not right at all.

 

If you run the overclock level1, so is this profile useless. Dell has screwed up the actual voltage to the skies in this Overclock profile. Actual voltage of this profile is about 1.278mv that is too high (should not be more than about 1.1850 -1.215mv). Use xtu and adjust your Overclock manually. With this Overclock that you have, Cinebench 11.5 test will give you a temperature of about 85 grader celsius if thermal grease is ok. Can processor not manage the benchmark test with this temperature, I recommend you switch to Liquid Ultra. :thumbsup:

Start by testing your Alienware with Cinebench 11.5 and Wprime 1024 (8 threads) test first :thumbsup:

 

Avoid auto overclock as they usually do slam up the voltage to get it stable on all chips.

 

I gave WPrime a try, and my computer shut off within about 15 seconds of starting the test.

I disabled Turbo Boost for my processor in BIOS and tried again and it worked fine. Temperature averaged a touch above 80, and same for the CPU test in Cinebench. The graphics cards handled the Cinebench test fine without overheating.

So, since that seemed to "fix" it, I booted up Battlefield and played for hours! The CPU never even went close to the temperatures it was immediately hitting before, hovering in the 75-85 range. The GPUs were even better; I turned everything up to Ultra and they barely broke a sweat. I doubt they even went over 70, not by much anyway.

Disabling Turbo Boost seems to have addressed the overheating issue, but obviously that's not really a satisfactory solution. The question that it raises for me is: Is Turbo Boost somehow "bugged" in that it makes my processor go into meltdown? Or did disabling Turbo Boost simply reduce the processor's performance such that it wasn't generating as much heat in that lowered state?

 

I just tried the Cinebench CPU test with Turbo Boost enabled and the temperature increased instantly, causing the computer to shut off within 5 seconds.
With Turbo Boost disabled it maintains good temperature and scores ~545 pts for rendering.

What the heck is wrong with Turbo Boost!?

 

You sound like you have a defective CPU. I'd get that warranty-checked instantly.

 

It certainly could be a bad CPU, but it is quite rare to find an Intel CPU that has failed. Probably nothing is wrong with Turbo Boost. Most likely your BIOS settings are messed up and need to be changed, or the CPU thermal paste is so bad that turbo boost speeds causes overheating. With which of the machines in your signature are you experiencing this behavior?

If this happens with the Alienware 18, the behavior you have described is more or less predictable. A combination of inadequate thermal paste for a Haswell CPU and incorrect BIOS settings can almost be taken for granted. You will have to fix it yourself because having Alienware redo everything under warranty and putting it back they way they intend will lead you to the same spot where you are today. You need to apply Liquid Ultra thermal paste to have a Haswell Extreme CPU that runs cool, and the stock BIOS settings are borked.

If it is the M17xR3 this is happening with, try resetting BIOS defaults and the 2820QM should run as intended. If it still runs hot, clean the fans and heat sinks, or repaste if those components are already clean.

 

I have recommended all Alienware owners and run a test of Wprime 1024 and Cinebench 11.5 benchmark test, so they will have an opportunity to check that their Alienware laptop works as it is intended. It is not enough to run 3DMark firetrike and 3DMark11 tests to check that their computers are working properly. These tests are not hard enough to squeeze out powers of the processor. It is not acceptable that their Alienware laptops can not conduct such tests. Test pages for example Notebookrewiev.net and similar implements exactly the same tests, when they give an award to the product. There are many Alienware owners also find that their laptop fails and conducting benchmark tests like this, even when they are not using the fabr Overclock. It should not be so. It seems that more and more Alienware owners get this hot issue. There are more and more people ask for help to solve thermal problems they have with their laptop .. :thumbsup:

Edit. The new useless overclocking profile, making more and more laptops fail and conducting benchmark tests. And that profile makes their laptops crashes during such tests :cry:

Here is an example from a different forum: Horror Story

The only problem would be alienwares overclock on the 4940mx is unstable and you get blue screen errors all the time.... they replaced my motherboard 4 times my heat sink just as many tims and my cpu 3 times and no use... also I fail to see any new bios update that could fix this and last but not least, the value they give for OC is if you are using a single core... if you use 2 core it drops 0.1-0.2 GHz and 3 or 4 drops another 0.1-0.2 depending what model CPU you have

 

Thanks for popping in here, Mr. Fox. The issue is with the Alienware 18, with the 4940MX.
I'll take it somewhere to get it repasted, but first I'm curious about the BIOS settings. I don't want a mad overclock or anything, I just want to "set and forget" as I'm far more keen on having consistent performance that I don't need to ever concern myself with, rather than trying to tweak every last iota of power out of it. Frankly I'm fairly satisfied just having Turbo Boost off, though I feel it's worth at least trying to get close to what it should be capable of.
The settings in BIOS are very limited with Turbo Boost disabled, so I'm guessing I'll have to use XTU or something. Is there a guide to setting a safe and reliable (if slightly underwhelming) configuration for it?

 

This thread has information showing how to use XTU and others have shared settings that work well for them: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...actually-have-run-full-stock-turbo-speed.html

Install XTU and disable the Turbo Package Power lock and set Core Current Limit and Processor Current Limit both to 112.00A and that should be good for stock clock speeds with Turbo Boost enabled. If you still have overheating you will definitely need to repaste. I recommend Liquid Ultra. Second best would be IC Diamond or Gelid GC Extreme. Anything less you can probably expect thermal problems even after repasting.

 

All of the profiles in that thread are no good for me because they all have Turbo Boost enabled. Turbo Boost is broken.
With it enabled, the temperature instantly hits 100 degrees and it shuts down using wPrime benchmark; with it disabled,the temperature sits around 80-83.

This is insane. I'm not trying to overclock or anything, it has Diamond IC on it, I just want it to work normally... I'm really not asking much. Any time I enable Turbo Boost, whether it be in XTU or BIOS, the CPU looks for any excuse to make the mercury rise. My inexperience and lack of knowledge regarding all these voltages and offsets and whatever else is making it really frustrating. I don't want to be messing with all this, I don't need it to blow my socks off with incredible overclocked performance; I merely want and expect it to function with all default/stock/base settings without crashing.

 

M.r fox that's with the bios version 10?

 

I just repasted and everything is running a lot cooler now. I get no thermal shutdowns when doing the benchmarks now (with Turbo Boost enabled!!), and in general I'd say I'm seeing an average of ~20 degrees lower. The last Cinebench I did pushed the mid-90s, which was a little abnormal since the few I ran prior were mid-80s, but I'm not too concerned if it was just a single anomaly. It's my first time ever repasting too, so it's possible it wasn't perfect; I'll monitor temps and give it another go if I see them increasing again.

So yeah... I'm gobsmacked. I had no idea paste could make this much of a difference, especially as it already had IC Diamond on there. Sorry, Alienware, I'm relieved to say my rants were misguided!

For the record I used Cool Laboratory Liquid Ultra.


And thanks to everyone who replied in here for your help!

 

IC Diamond should not have caused thermal shutdowns, nor should CLU have been 20 degrees cooler... your ICD paste probably was a bad paste job and your CLU was a good one.

Please be aware that room temperature, stagnant air, air flow and humidity all have a temperature effect. Daytime versus nighttime is between 4-8 degrees difference for me in some games, and I have seen as much as a 10 degree difference between very hot days and cool nights.

 

Great that your processor runs cooler.
What clock speed you use on your processor and What score did you get in Cinebench 11.5?
To check the stability of your processor, I recommend that you test with Wprime 1024 (8 threads) which is a test that runs much longer than Cinebench. :thumbsup:

 

Oh I have been using wPrime as well, as per your suggestion. I just forgot to mention it in that post!
I have Turbo Boost enabled but I haven't bothered with any overclocking stuff. I'm not too concerned about ever doing that now, I'm just happy it works.
I got 769 in Cinebench just then, which is the highest I've got yet. I've done a lot of tests now and the lowest I have seen is ~650. wPrime is fairly consistently in the 216-222s range.

FYI I selected Overclock LV1 in BIOS and did the tests again, and both Cinebench (~630) and Wprime (~230s) got lower scores. Go figure...

 

The new overclocking profile Overclock LV1 in BIOS is useless. It's just junk. To have a proper overclocking you must use Xtu. When using the useless overclocking profile and get a lower score, it's because your processor throttling under these tests. USE XTU :thumbsup:

 

same hare had my laptop for only 6 mounts can play **** (GPU 1) 91 (GPU 2) 80 Temps anything over 85 for me is DANGER tried every thing to fix it even have fans spinning at 3700 rps from start of game Even after 15 mins of playing temps are unbelievable . . . i read alot of bad new about 880ms they gat to hot what matter what yuo do i even down clocked my cards to boost clock speed from 995.0MHz to 850.0MHz . and clock memory to from 1248.7MHz to Only 748MHz and caped my fps to 45 max stil i have heat same heat probs specially on Witcher 3 Wild Hunteven on low i can play for 30 mins

i both my laptop new 5000 ****ing euros for for what ? these my specs i fell very disappointed for Alienware
Intel® Core™ i7-4910MQ Processor (Quad Core up to 4.1Ghz, 8MB Cache)

18.4" Wide HD (1920x1080) True Life Display
Integrated HD Web Camera
32GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-Ray Reader
1TB SATA Hard Disk Drive + 512GB mSata SSD Boot
Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 880M Graphics with Total 16GB (2x8GB) GDDR5 SLI
Intel 802.11 n/ac + Bluetooth v4
Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64BIT)
Warranty: 3 Year Parts and 1 Year Labour

 

Upgrade to Gtx 980/970m. Select the card you can afford. This will be another experience for you. Or sell.

 

Sell it lol ? i haven't even payed it yet i take to dell if they don't repair they can keep it and give me a refund me this is Bs . . ..

 

Nearly all of Gtx880m are crippled cards with heat and throttle problem. Search in this and other forum and you will understand why. Don't expect that Dellinware will deliver fully working gtx880m cards if you want new one from Dell.

 

still have 2 year warranty if cards are crippled i want new cards im waiting for my pc motherboard so il have some thing to play on and take the laptop to dell i tell them dont call me until its working good i never wanted to buy a crippled 5k laptop i wanted the best so i don't have trouble but this is **** :/ . . . . . better i spent 2k on a desktop

 

join the crowd bud, all of us 880 owners are screwed. Even when you use mods and the new bios and think the throttling has been fixed, it comes back just as bad as before. They knew these cards were bad, released them anyway and got away with it.