Temperatures getting higher - even with laptop fan

I noticed that while gaming for even 30 minutes (DA2), the temperatures on my laptop (R2) are becoming pretty high. The processors are reaching 90-95 C, while the graphics card is reaching about 86. I believe the HDD (7200 RPM) is also reaching 44-47 C. I've tried blowing dust away from the vents, but I didn't really see any come out. These temperatures occur with a laptop cooler (Antec) running on high. If I don't use a cooler, the temperatures are about 10 degrees higher and the bottom part of the case becomes extremely hot. My friend's laptop (also an R2) gets to about 64 C while playing the same games. I even tried setting my laptop on a pencil to increase air intake.

Is it worth it to contact Dell support for this? Or is it easier to just open up the laptop myself and try applying some thermal paste? I'm a little worried that all this excessive heat may have damaged my laptop, as that is what happened to my old HP laptop (3 times).

 

I'd like to bump this. I'm having the exact same problem myself.

 

You could try A02 BIOS as people have reported that it runs cooler...

 

Wow, hwinfo32 reporting 291.2f on cpu. That has to be wrong. My machine did get really hot and I had to crank the fan and prop it up a bit off the desk so it could get better air flow while playing to keep that from happening. Playing Lotro ultra settings(except shadows) 1600x900. Still running really hot. My machine is brand new! How old is your machine?

 

I have the EXACT same problem as you, I burnt and lost my nerves in my finger bu touching the bottom of the case. I have a R1 though. I think I damaged the thermal paste by using the dumb OC I did to the GPU.

 

Yes, if your temps are in the 90s Celsius, that is way above where they should be and I recommend calling support (unless you prefer to try to reapply the thermal paste yourself first). Certainly don't use it for gaming anymore until it is addressed or you do risk damage.

 

What program do you guys use to monitor temps?

 

Thanks for the advice; I'll call support tomorrow. Do you think I should also ask them to evaluate damage already done (as it's been kind of sluggish lately), or would that simply be a waste of few weeks? I don't have much experience with Dell support.

I bought this laptop in July/August of 2010, so it's not that new. I use CPUID HWMonitor and Throttlestop (sometimes, can't really use its features due to the temps) to monitor my temperatures.

 

Yeah I would call support as soon as possible, those temperatures are definitely odd. Back up your hard drive just in-case as well.

And I'm not sure what Dell/Alienwares feelings are on overclocking using third-party programs..

 

i have the same problem, ive never overclocked the notebook but when im playing rift i feel the heat on the keyboard.

ill open the notebook to clean it and see how is the hardware cos 3 days ago the laptop just shuted down and i couldnt turn it on because of the heat

 

If i had to speculate a guess it would be that the thermal pad between the heatsink and GPU/CPU has deteriorated.

If it's placed on there well, it essentially forms a seal. If it's on there at a slight angle (and I'm talking even just a minute hair's worth) that allows the compound to dry out and flake off.

It sounds weird, but I've seen it quite a bit with friends and their desktops/laptops. They've applied something like arctic silver and either done too much, not enough, or they've mounted their heatsink poorly allowing the stuff to dry out/not make full contact.

 

If it's been noticeably slow lately, it may be damaged but not necessarily. If it's running very hot even with normal use, the cpu could just be throttling to try to cool down. It can't hurt to ask though.

 

are you using the PROCHOT feature in throttlestop?

I believe this is supposed to kick in around 100C, it will throttle down your CPU to bring the temps down.

I was playing TF2 last night with throttlestop on, no PROCHOT...and my cpu jumped to 77C. Highest ive seen...however, the cpu fan did not kick into high gear, so im assuming that temp is ok to the laptop...

 

A lot of good thoughts, I had one other since there are a few people with the same issue..

I have been reading that Nvidia drivers in the past have been a bit notorious for pushing GPU mhz in updates, causing a bit more heat.. what drivers are people running? You may want to step back and see if the temps are lower.. CPU and GPU heat may acutally be related, as I see only one fan , haven't torn this thing down, but if that GPU heatsink is infront of the CPU heatsink in the exhaust, it may be effecting the CPU heating..(my ASUS had two separate heatsinks, stacked infront of each other but only one fan) if they are on the same heatpipe and a single Heatsink, its also the same problems.. perhaps someone thats had one of these apart more than me might be able to shed some light..

 

What is considered to be the "normal" temperature range for an R2 i5 model?
It is usually ~46C at idle and ~76C at full load.

 

i got like 85C a while ago while playing rift, thats normal?? :S i think ill have to call support to fix it, to open it and fix it

 

now running at 55C with msn and chrome... nothing more

 

My highest temp on my m11x was when i was playing Crysis2 on a flat surface (70C on the HDD).

(This both are while being on a high surface)
My temps running chrome, msn, any low intense game, etc, I get around 44-55C.
And when I'm on intense gaming, i get around 50-60C.

 

i use msi afterburner so i'm not sure if its temp readings are correct or not, highest ive goten so far was 81C playing crysis2 demo, is that normal or would that make a phone call to dell?

 

got the same playing Rift at minimum... and with frame drops.... ill be calling to dell, cos i friend brought his m11x the same time i did and with OC 166 runing just msn chrome and some other stuff. his m11x was at 40C-45C and mine W/O oc was at 55C-60C running the same

 

just ran crysis 2 demo while on top of my cooler master pad. says in msi afterburner 68-72C 27-31fps, i minimize screen with cpuid running and on that it says 74-77C, shut off game and on this webpage screen typing this, cpuid says 54-57C. is that normal temps? or should i be giving dell a phone call?

im using m11xr2 i7 a03 bios, cpu OC 1.60, nvidia driver 160.89, no gpu OC, no throttlestop

 

thats was my temp when i was playing rift