Alienware M17 X9100 always overheating

I have an M17 R1 with an X9100 and have a serious issue with the laptop overheating which has been happening for over 6 months. Originally the laptop would rest on a leather stool. After leaving the laptop on for a while the laptop fans kick into overdrive and have had several occasions where the laptop will crash. CPU monitor shows the laptop hitting 100c. Games would crash after 10 odd minutes and the laptop would not switch until left off for a while.
I purchased a ZM-NC2000 laptop cooler which does help but still hits really high temperatures.
I have removed the CPU several times (following the guides on this forum) to apply arctic 5 thermal pasting but still have the same problem.
At the moment I have the back cover off without the cooler, typing this post and the CPU hit a max of 80 and the GPU 65.
I did install the custom bios to overclock the x9100 when I first had the x9100 and there were no issues, however I have left the settings to default as overclocking is a big no no at the moment.
Im considering purchasing a new X9100 but would be really annoyed if the CPU is not the issue. Any way of confirming if the CPU is the cause?
thanks

 

I dont see how it could possibly be the CPU.

I would check the area between the fan and the heatsink fins for dust.

Also when you take the heatsink off of the CPU, did you check to see if the paste spread well (so you know there is no gap)?

 

x9100 should not overheat in this laptop it's made to handle quads


so likely paste has not been well aplyed, the fans are full of dust or one last option would be that your cpu heat sink leaked and is now unusable

 

I removed/applied more thermal paste today and noticed the dust protector at the back of the laptop where the CPU sits was clogged up full of dust. I removed the dust protector with a knife (as it was pretty sticky) and that seemst to have done the trick. thanks guys

 

'Been reading this thread for a couple of days as recently I've had a lot of overheating issues. but after a bit of floundering (blaming hot weather, bad processor / computer / manufacturer / home planet etc) i discovered that the problem was as simple as vf3's

In my case almost half of the northbridge was missing its themal paste. (I imagine I left a airblow when applying which pushed out the paste during hot sessions so cooling gradually got worse and worse)

All I have done is to push the thermal paste back to test it. Now runs like a dream.

I suppose I should properly clean reapply fresh thermal paste......

 

the nb sould use high quality 1mm thick thermal pad cause the cooler does not sit perfectly on it

 

Temps were getting worse, even flash web pages caused the CPU to peak in the 90's. Numerous attempts were made to reduce the temp such as applying thermal paste upteen times and adding a thermal pad for the north bridge, cleaning fans, etc. I decided to see if the processor was to blame. I purchased a £37 q9000 quad core CPU from flebay and immdediately saw a massive difference in temps.
After playing Payday on max for 30 minutes the temps would hit just over 80c. The fan on the cpu is quiter as well.
Not sure what to with the x9100, is it faulty or just a known issue with the M17?

 

I suggest to add a copper shim and see If that helps....