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    M15x heating up

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by dhruv300, May 6, 2012.

  1. dhruv300

    dhruv300 Notebook Consultant

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    Hey guys,

    So for the past few months I've been having this issue where the laptop would overheat, even on idle. 80C idle, 100C under stress. I knew the issue was the thermal paste (system's about two years old), so I repasted using Shin-Etsu G751, and honestly it's not as good as I heard. It's way too solid-ish and doesn't spread as well. But anyways, I repasted using that and my GPU is working really well now, pushed the temps down all the way to about 56C on idle. However, the processor is still at 70-75C on idle, and I'm using Prime95 to torture test the CPU and within 15 minutes the temperatures are about to touch 90C on the cores, oh and i lag a bit on Counter Strike 1.6, which is kind of pathetic lol (note that that's never happened when I first got the computer). I used the line method for re-pasting for the CPU and the dot method for the GPU. I was thinking about re-re-pasting the CPU, this time trying the dot method for it as well, but do I have to clean the paste I put in 3 days ago and then reapply the same paste on it? Anything else that could be affecting the temps? Is it only the heat affecting my gameplay, or could it be something else?

    Thanks in advance.

    EDIT: So I just re-pasted and the CPU still hits 97C under stress. Unless there's a dust bunny inside the fan I have no idea what's causing the heat.
     
  2. ASCI_Blue

    ASCI_Blue Notebook Consultant

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    canned air, I had a pretty serious overheating problem not too long ago too. Give my computer about 25 mins of Old Republic and it would shut off, come to find out both the heat sinks were infested with dust bunnies. Blew'em out and haven't had the problem since.
     
  3. dhruv300

    dhruv300 Notebook Consultant

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    Already took out all the dust. There's a few grains of dust here and there, but that obviously can't be the reason of it heating up 30+ degrees over average lol.
     
  4. stevenhsiao

    stevenhsiao Notebook Enthusiast

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    Have you check your fan condition(not working)? Sometimes between the fan and the exit vent do have dust there. Thermal pad help too (some people might not agree on this). Try different paste?

    I had some issues with my GPU temperature been very high too (Idle@55-60 ). Have some very small lag while I am watching on youtube. And even computer freeze from time to time randomly.

    At the end, some technician suggest to me that reinstall my OS completely. Because there might be some driver clash or unknown reason to it and somehow all my problems are gone now. Temperature idle@ 40-42.

    Good Luck!
     
  5. dhruv300

    dhruv300 Notebook Consultant

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    Using HWInfo's fan controller I can hear the CPU and GPU fans spinning when turned all the way up, so I'm pretty sure they're working fine. I re-installed Windows about 2-3 months ago, and the only problem I've seen as a result was that in Device Manager there's one unknown device, and I have no idea what it could be.
    [​IMG]
     
  6. dhruv300

    dhruv300 Notebook Consultant

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    Hey,

    So I posted this up once but I don't know what happened and my text in my thread wasn't posted up.

    So my CPU and GPU used to heat up a lot, both hitting 80C on idle and 100C when in use. I reapplied thermal paste and cleaned out all the dust from the system. My GPU's temps are now normal (56C idle), but my GPU is still 70-80C on idle and 95C+ when stressed. I thought that my drivers were the issue, but I'm really not sure.

    Here's a screenshot of my device manager, particularly the processor:
    [​IMG]

    How do I go about fixing my CPU temperatures? All help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
     
  7. Mr. Fox

    Mr. Fox BGA Filth-Hating Elitist®

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    We are having problems with the forums right now. I merged all of your threads about the M15x overheating and dumped the duplicate posts.

    There could be a defect in your CPU heat sink. They had issues with defective heat sinks (started to corrode for some reason) in the M17x R3. If you are still under warranty, see if they will send you a new heat sink. If not, just buy one. If the price is similar to the M18x and M17x laptops, the CPU heat sink is around $25. If you can get a new heat sink with all of the pads and thermal paste already in place, keep the factory TIM and see how the temps are looking.
     
  8. dhruv300

    dhruv300 Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks. I thought that I had a few new facts to add to my issue and this thread was dying too so I made a new one, but it ended up becoming spam because something went wrong when I was trying to post it. Sorry about that.
     
  9. dhruv300

    dhruv300 Notebook Consultant

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    Ahh so much effort, need to put in additional money for the maintenance of this system, never buying an Alienware again lol. Thanks for your help :)