Alright, I have an issue.

I've asked about this multiple times, but I've never been very specific and have never gotten a definitive answer.

My computer get's hot. And not just hot, but hot. Like burning my lap to the point where I have to move it, hot.

At first I thought I had a problem with my CPU fan, as it's only the left side that has this problem. I opened it up and saw that it only had minor dust collected in it, which I proceeded to air out.

Afterwords, I thought maybe my CPU fan wasn't spinning at all, as no air was coming out of it's vent. Just intense heat. But HWinfo says otherwise.

I've also taken a snap of my idling temps.


I'm completely lost when it comes to taking logs with HWinfo so if someone would run me through that procedure, I'd be more than happy to get an idling and gaming log.

I've had so many issues with this computer over it's lifetime. Be it the AC adapter bricking or the fact I chose the lowest powered GPU available. I may not be able to game as much as I'd like with this thing, but I'd at least enjoy it to be half-way functional.

Please help.

 

Have you tried a chill mat? I know it's not fixing the problem, but it could keep temps down while you figure out whats wrong

 

Howdy Waste,

Have you ran the built-in Alienware/Dell diagnostics? When the computer boots, press F12 to get to the boot menu, and choose the diagnostics option. There are tests there to discretely test the fans, and the actual temperature probes on the motherboard. If you actually have a hardware problem, it should show up there. The tests could take a while to run, partciularly if you have it check all of your memory and hard disk.

The M15x vents out the back, and intakes from the bottom. If you have the laptop setting on a soft surface (like your lap), it can impact the performance of the cooling system. However, the typical behaviour is to throttle up the fans if the computer gets too hot, and they can be quite noisy. I have come across a bug (before I upgraded to A09), where the M15x would boot up stuck in stealth mode, and the fans would not spin up. They stayed stuck on low-RPM mode, and performance was terrible. The famous power-drain trick solved those issues. But, I haven't seen that particular problem since A09 came out.

Good luck!
Rich S.

 

Waste, have you replaced the thermal paste on your CPU since noticing the heat increase? If the fan is operable, paste is the most likely problem.

 

Just off the top of my head it sounds like you might need to take the bottom cover off and clean all the fans and vents out. (Since you did that) I would suggest you might need to repaste. If it keeps getting worse you might need to call Dell. My old machine 1530M had similar issues and it got so hot as to be considered dangerous and they had to replace the motherboard and gpu.

With these machines I would also suggest a laptop cooler pad. They don't cool the machine all that much but they do help protect the bottom of the laptop, your legs and furniture. These machines are always going to get fairly hot while under heavy load.