GTX 260M Overheating

Hey there, my M15x has the following specs:

Intel Core i7 Q720 @ 1.60GHz
Nvidia GTX 260M
4096MB 1333MHz DDR3
Bios version A08

I bought and received the laptop in January 2010, so it's only had a year and a bit of use. In the beginning the laptop was great - was getting good FPS on most games and could play Crisis at about 30 fps. However over the course of the year the performance has gradually dropped and now I'm getting really quite bad fps on games such as TF2 and COD:MW2 and they had been fine before... I figured it could be overheating seeing as holding the thing after gaming is practically impossible since its so hot. Downloaded HWMonitor, left it on while playing some games and I've just checked now that the GPU was reaching temps of over 100 degrees. The CPU was 85-88. It seems to me that 100 degrees is really quite high... And that would explain why games run well when I first start them up but quickly depreciate as the temperature increases.

So I'm wondering what's causing this overheating... The fans seem OK. I opened the back up to check if they were dusty but they weren't. Perhaps the fans aren't spinning at 100% even at 100 degrees? Or maybe the heatsink is messed up or something . . . ? What should my max temps be on a 260M? Whats everyone else getting? I really need some help with this

Thank you ^_^

 

Over 100C is definitely too hot. When gaming it shouldn't even be reaching the 90s. What I would do is remove the GPU heatsink, and reapply some thermal paste. While you have everything apart, clean out the fans with compressed air. Sometimes too much paste is installed at the factory which can cause overheating. Also, over time certain pastes can harden, thus reducing their efficiency. I attached a link to the service manual below. Removing the GPU heatsink involves, removing the bottom panel, removing the fan, removing the touch/panel, then the rear vent, then finally the heatsink itself. It shouldn't take more than 30 minutes, even for a novice.

Alienware: Online Documentation

EDIT: Oh and another thing to check. When reapplying the paste, install the heatsink, then remove it almost right away so you can see how well the paste is spreading. If you see a square imprint of the paste on the heatsink, then you should be good. If not, then it's not making good contact. Also, be stingy when applying the heatsink, you want a paper thin layer, nothing thicker than that.

 

could be the thermal paste going bad, anything pass 85 is really high.

i recommend repasting along with new thermal pads. prolly best to do cpu too.

 

Ok - thanks guys I guess I'll go buy some MX-4?

Its a shame that the stock thermal paste from dell could wear off after just a year...

I'd understand how to reapply the thermal paste but where do thermal pads come in to it? Do they just go over the paste once its set? Sorry for the noob question ^_^

 

the paste goes on the die and the pads go on the vram.

Fujipoly Premium System Builder Thermal Pad - 1/4 Sheet - 150 x 100 x 0.5 - Thermal Conductivity 6.0 W/mK - FrozenCPU.com

you have a 260m, the vram doesn't run that hot so maybe pads aren't needed.

 

Don't use paste on the RAM modules. Stick to pads on those. The stock pads should be fine, but here's an idea: if the heatsink is not making good contact, do like inap said and remove the pads. That should lessen the gap between the heatsink and GPU. Maybe then you can use thinner pads. That was the case with my MSI GX640. With stock pads, contact was bad. Switched to .5mm thick pads, and all was fine.

 

Ok I've ordered the MX-4, so that should arrive pretty soon.

In the meantime I was wondering is there was an application I could use to show me my fan speeds. Its just I've only ever heard my fans at full speed when I get that M15x glitch on boot and the fans start at 100% for a few minutes. When playing games I've never heard them as spooled up as when I have this glitch.
So it makes me think theres something wrong perhaps in the bios. But I was going check it out properly with some software that could tell me the fan speed... Any ideas?

 

HWINFO reports fan speeds. Install it, and click on the "Sensors" button.

HWiNFO32 Download

 

Quick question.
Does opening up the computer to do this myself void the warranty at all?

 

some1 correct me if im wrong but reapplying thermal paste does void the warranty but they would never know it so u should be fine.

 

Just as a follow-up. I received the MX-4 in the mail today, so I opened up the laptop, took out the fans as shown in Inap's guide (very useful btw ^_^). And what I didn't realise was that when I de my regular de-dusting of the fans, the place where the fans meets the escape vent had a dust layer about half a centimetre thick... Previously I had just been blowing compressed air into the actual fan spool. How silly of me.

Needless to say, I applied the MX-4 (very well I might add) and I've just been putting the 260M through its paces with TF2 and Crysis 2 demo, and I'm very happy to report that where my GPU was reaching max of 105 degrees, it now peaks at 65 which is just amazing. And my CPU where it was around 88 is now 57.

So I'm very happy - It feels like I've got a brand new laptop the way its working now. TF2 played constantly above 100fps which is awesome.

Thanks for your help guys! ^_^

 

wow nice. man can't wait till i get my new laptop. been missing tf2 so much, hahhah