Area 51 m17x GPU temps. One too hot.

Hello

I have an Area 51 m17x with dual 9800M GT, and one of the cards is always hotter than the other. I cleaned the fans, applied cooling paste, but still. Here's an image from Everest, when the computer is running idle.
What is the cause of this?
Which one is GPU 2? The master or the slave?

 

I think GPU2 would be the slave card. The heatsink is likely not aligned properly if it's that much of a difference. No way it should be that much of a difference, never mind that much at idle.

 

I took the laptop apart again, and I know now, that the GPU 2 is the slave. I cleaned it again, and applied cooling paste again. No change whatsoever.
Nobody else had this problem?
Can it be driver related?

 

Funny you ask. I did have that problem, a lot. My system is in the signature. My temps were much more extreme than yours at idle. I ended up with a refund from Alienware because the gpu's would not run games without overheating. It wouldn't even idle without one card overheating.
I saw you mention in the Nvidia forum that you were getting the Artic Silver 5. I used that religously on my desktop equipment and they run nice and cool.

I also came across a similar issue with the driver. I rolled back the driver and the temps dropped from a max of 106C to 104C under peak load. Not a huge difference but it was noticeable. It could be a coincidence but I can't test it now since Dell has my laptop.
As a sidenote I had Vista 64bit running.
It seemed strange to me that no matter what test or game I ran, the one card always managed to heat up to such an extreme level while the other (sitting beside it) was running at perfectly acceptable levels.
Finally the times AW sent me gpu's to replace myself, I always cleaned and replaced the thermal compound with artic silver 5 before attaching the heatsink. The stock heatsinks had dried on compound that when inspected had huge gaps in coverage where the copper was completely clear of it. Pretty shoddy. When I asked a tech support rep about this I was told that the heat of the gpu would cause the compound to liquify and provide ample coverage. Hmmm. I chose to clean them and reapply.
Sadly I can't say it ever helped in my situation. I hope the drivers plus the premium thermal compound will cure yours.
I believe there is even better thermal compound on the market at this time, maybe someone else can contribute that information. Good luck.

 

Hello
Thanks for the answer. I hope my system will recover, because I was using it without problems earlier. I'm sure it's a driver issue.
The better thermal paste is the Tuniq TX-3, according to YouTube - ‪Thermal Paste Showdown: Tuniq TX-3 vs. Arctic Silver 5‬‎

 

I have dual 8800m gtx and when I play intensive game the temp can go up to 105 and 79 for both card. Should I try to get refund too?

I don't really care about temp but when it is close to critical temperature (104 I guess?) the card's clock will automatically go down and that really hurts performance.

 

Your temps are high. First thing you should do is make absolutely sure that there is no dust clogging your system, check the fans on the heatsinks especially. And my suggestion is that you call tech support and have them walk you through all the testing. They will make sure you take all the necessary steps to eliminate the simple problems such as dust. And it will serve the dual purpose of you having reported a problem with your system that needs to be remedied. I don't know what kind of warranty you have or for how long, but if it's within warranty report the issue.

The problem with the Area51 in my sig is that it completely fried itself. As in the first laptop's master gpu was reaching temps of 107C the slave was at 98C. After many hours on the phone with tech support, they sent two sets of replacement cards and in the end the motherboard had been damaged. When I was sent an almost completely new Area51, the temps were still reaching 106C and this was a completely clean(dust free) new component system (mobo, case, gpus, etc.)
It took 6months of me not having a computer at all, multiple replacement parts, sending it in for repair, receiving a new one and it failing as well; to get to a resolution. I am not saying it always takes this much time... but it is best to contact tech support so that they are aware of the problem and can help fix it, and /or replace.

 

My advice also is to clean the vents with compressed air every month. I do it with a compressor made to inflate car tires.

 

ok I have cleaned both my cards, re-applyed thermal paste and arctic silver. Apparently it didn't help at all.

One thing I noticed before is that the fan of both graphic cards only run at full speed when temperature exceeds 102 degree. I found this when running FurMark. It seems like AW was trying to extends lifespan of these defected cards through BIOS control level.

 

I have this laptop with x9000 and dual 8800m gtx's in sli, 4gb and my idle temps were around 75c and 88c with AS5. I have attributed this to poor cooling design as the fans on the gpu's cannot pull in any cold air and are always running. They are directly underneath the keyboard power button panel which completely restricts incoming airflow. What I did was take off the keyboard and power panel. On the power button panel there are two vents on the left and the right, flip it over an on the back peel off the black plastic cover sheet under the metal grate so these can actually work. For they keyboard I am still working on a solution, but just taking it off and flipping it over the touch pad while gaming, my idle temps are at 48c and 50c, and only reach 75c while gaming. It is not driver related or anything else other than the fact these fans should be facing the bottom of the laptop to pull cold air in like the new m17x's that idle around 35c to 40c. It is a poor design and when these actions are taken watch your temps fall literally right before your eyes and your fans will stop screaming. You will also notice with the keyboard off that right next to the gpu on the left is an aluminum heatsink on the motherboard that is so hot you can't even touch it. That gpu is pulling that hot air off that and pushing it through it's own heatsink thus it has no chance of keeping cool . This explains the extreme difference in temps between the two cards. Like I said I am still in the process of coming up with something to fix this. Hope this sheds some light.

 

Well now that makes a lot of sense Jeepin Jake. Now I know why my motherboard didn't survive the heat. Didn't realize the gpu was using the heated air from the mobo to try to cool itself, no wonder it runs at such an exponentially higher temp than the other gpu.
Good to see you are working at modding the laptop.
I have always thought the design was causing the problems and no amount of replacement gpu's would eliminate the heating issues. I even considered creating a custom laptop cooler to accomodate the placement of the fans but my Area51 m17X is now in Alienware's hands.

 

I removed those stickers from the vents, and now my temps are ok
Thanks