M15x burning up and shutting down

M15x is about 6 months old and only this last week has started acting up. I used to game on it maybe 6 hours a day, sometimes more and never had a problem with it. I haven't been using it for much more than downloading and browsing.

This last week my girlfriend used it a bit for playing some games on and had no problems. Then about 15 mins into playing I think one of the Sims games it just went dead. All the metal parts were red hot, couldn't touch them so I assumed it had shut down because it was simply too hot. What is confusing is that it was in the exact same position as when I was playing my games so the vents were not obstructed etc and since she was only playing a short time and not really demanding alot from the GPU at the time.

*It just died on me while typing this out and the only thing i had open was utorrent and firefox*

So since it died on her game it's also died on me a few times while doing various things but nothing I'd consider to be too demanding and especially not too demanding for this system:

i7 Q740, ATI 5850, 4gb RAM.

It's dying while just sat doing nothing other than downloading or when I'm just net surfing. When it's not dying on me it's running slow or feeling slow, the slowness that you get with a laptop when it's too hot. All the time it's sat next to a new XPS 15 that is the same age and having no trouble running the exact same things without sounding like a plane taking off and without heating up the whole room

 

Have you checked it for dust?

You might wanna download hwinfo and check temperatures while gaming.

If you have warranty you could call dell and make them fix it.

 

I would check temps while gaming if it was only blacking out while I'm gaming. I'm pretty certain it's the heat that's killing it rather than anything software related or a virus because when it blacks out it won't turn straight back on, you have to wait for it to cool first. There is no dust on the grills so the airflow is not obstructed. There is probably dust on the fan blades but I've never had to clean in there on any computer in the past.

It doesn't do it like clockwork, as in with it in the same place sometimes it will run fine for hours and sometimes it dies after 15 mins while doing the same tasks.

 

well if you think its a temp issue, then prolly best to repaste.

 

The thermal paste is the same as it's ever been and it's been run alot harder and hotter than it's being run now.

 

thermal paste can degrade over time, plus dell stock paste isn't the greatest either.

 

Well being only 6 months in on the full 3 year warranty, they can come and fix it for me

 

If you neglect routine basic maintenance, i.e., cleaning the fans and vents, the heat issues will recur. Removing the battery and two screws gives you complete access to the fans and critical components; canned air serves perfectly to clean every nook and cranny. A ten year old girl can handle it easily. Replacing thermal paste is somewhat more involved, but there are excellent guides available that will walk anyone through the process, regardless of computer knowledge or mechanical aptitude.

‪Cleaning the Alienware M15x‬‏ - YouTube

 

Whay are your temps?

 

Regardless of what temps say I would think that if the copper is "glowing hot" repasting and de-dusting needs to be done

 

i'd be a little worried if i saw my copper "glowing hot"

oh but if the copper is really hot, it means the paste is doing it's job and transferring the heat like it should, the problem is now that the cpu and heat sinks are the same temperature the heat cannot dissipate and has nowhere to go but build up. in short, clean the fans.

 

I agree with Rev. The description of very hot heat sinks suggests that the heat is being conducted to them from CPU/GPU, and that the fins of the heat sinks may be clogged with dust. You will be surprised at how much dust can accumulate in a few weeks' time. You could also have a malfunctioning fan - but this will be easy to check once you have cleaned out all the dust.

Joe

 

Wont you have to lift out the heatsink in order to get to the grills? So you will have to paste anyway?

 

hah, beat you to it

but yeah the gpu fan can be removed without removing the heatsink.
i think you may be right about the cpu fan though kratzen.

 

G73 looks like a real pain to open up, judging from all the videos. M15x on the other hand is a breeze, once you get used to it, a repaste job would take 5-10 mins.

 

This video is something I cannot agree with, you are blowing dust back into the laptop!?

 

Well, Einstein, he is blowing dust out of the radiators behind the vents, then will blow it out of the fans and notebook interior. It's the only way to get a direct blast of air into the radiators without removing the vents, fans and heatsinks, which is a bit of trouble. You may be surprised, but neither Wattos nor I are idiots.

 

@the revelator

You, my sir, are awesome !!!

 

Using Hwin I just got 92-97' on my CPU temps, only thing running was this browser page, a background download and hwin.

 

that's extremely close to the intel tjmax.
clean your fans at the bare minimum bubble. think of it like servicing your car. without maintenance, even the most reliable vehicle will stop running eventually.

 

Going to compressed air the fans tomorrow. Been traveling home the past few days so haven't gotten around to it since my first post.

Only really seems to cook when I'm downloading something, temperature has dropped 50' already since closing the download so I'm not sure what would happen if I gave it something more CPU intensive to do.