920xm way too hot?

Has anyone else ran Prime 95 on their laptop with a 920xm? I know the i7s should run lots hotter than previous ships, but this seems way too hot. I think that this is the throttle temp, and only 5 degrees from maximum operating spec if I recall correctly. Ambient temp when this was run was about 26C.

What can I do about this?

 

Have you tried reapplying thermal paste?

 

Yeah, twice now. I've put on both AS5 and Coolermaster stuff.

 

Does your fan speed up when under load? Just curious... I didnt get a chance to stress test mine this weekend to see what top temp it gets too.. I plan on it this week or Saturday... Depends on how busy I am.

 

yeah, steps up to the highest setting at about 80C

 

you might want to consult joker, he had a similar problem if i recall.. i think that the heatsink was not properly touching the cpu in his first AW

 

I had the similar problem.

At first the heatpipe was replaced by a tec, with no success. Then the processor was replaced, also with no success, the temps was still way to high.

At least the mainboard was replaced and the temp problems are fixed now.

Best regards
Rolf

 

Joker howd you know? Was it loose or visible gap or something? Is there a way to test for spacing?

 

I can call them, but what do I say? Just tell them that I think the temps are too hot?

 

Let them know your temps are getting up to about 100*C. Your problem is heat dissapation. If the fans are running on high and have free airflow and the environment isn't restricting the air, then the heat sinks for what ever reason are not conducting the heat and disapating it. It sounds likely that there may be a slight gap. Or the tech did not remove the tape from the heat sink. Or they may have not properly applied thermal paste. If it's not to much trouble for you i would recommend trying to reapply the themal paste and see if there is a gap. It might be easier and quicker then dealing with Dell.

If you decide to go the DIY route here is a good video to help with the disassembly.

How to change your M17x CPU Guide

 

I don't mind reapplying it myself, though I've done it twice to try and fix already. How do I check if there's a gap?

 

I put a thin layer of paste on the CPU, pressed the heatsink down on it, screwed it down and then removed it and saw it wasn't making full contact with all of the CPU die. He may have a similar problem though my temps never hit 95C. The hottest my last system got was around 84-86C.

 

Ahh.. Thanks for the clarification Joker.. When i replace my paste I will check for that.. I was hoping that I could have done that this weekend but didnt have time. :-(

 

I spoke with AW and they are dispatching a new CPU fan, stating that the machine idles OK but doesn't cool correctly at high load.

He was running a stress test on the proc, and it would run up to 95, then drop down to 90, climb back to 95, then drop to 90. I figured the machine was throttling at that point, but he said that the machine won't throttle and it would just shut off. Sounds odd, but right now the machine is currently idling at about 55C

 

Why don't you try doing a power drain and if that doesn't solve it, reflash the bios? Sounds like the bios isn't controlling the fan properly.

 

I've reset the bios a whole lot of times, the cmos battery cord was pinched cut by the second hard drive assy. when they put that in (getting a replacement with the fan). No change there. That's what the guy thinks it is, but I don't particularly, the fan sounds like it speeds up quite fast.

 

Question, if they do end up replacing the heat pipes are they going to complain that I've already done it and refuse me service? Not that it matters now, I've already tried it, just curious.

 

They won't deny service because you're replaced the Paste, no. That can be considered a diagnostic procedure if they give you any lip, but as I said, they wont. The Tech will probably assume it's factory paste since it's an AW if they're half as dumb as the ones I've seen.

 

I used to reach a hundero Celsius with my M15x doing prime 95. Now its about 90's at the most.

All I did was put the room temperature down a little.

Whats your room temperature like?

 

He posted that in the first post..

 

Does this sounds normal: I was testing with Prime95 and using Everest Ultimate to monitor the temperature.

-All 4 cores: 85-90 C sitting flat on the glass table.
-All 4 cores: 80-85 C with the back raised about 0.5 in. on the glass table.

Normal idle at:

-All 4 cores: 50-55 C sittling flat on the glass table.
-All 4 cores: 40-45 C with the back raised about 0.5 in. on the glass table.

All results are with 5% OC in the BIOS, Turbo enabled. Room temperature is roughly 75 F or 24 C.

 

ils,

Those are very similar to what I'm seeing... With Prime95 and Orthos Prime running simultaneously at about 10 minutes cores are 89-93 range.

Concerned, I called Alienware and they confirmed that this sucker does indeed run that hot. My room temperature is roughly the same as yours.

 

Did you install and upgrade this CPU yourself or did you purchase the PC from Dell with it?

 

holy cow! 90C is normal under load?


I'd throw some new TIM and maybe look into a laptop undercage cooler if that's the case.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43126

the Thermal design limit is 100C

I'd be *very* afraid of premature failure running my processor 10C from boiling for long periods over months-years of use.

 

No... when running Prime 95, Orthos, etc.
If that was under normal load Prime would make it a fireball!

Under normal load I see 60-85C depending on how much I'm pushing it.

 

I was wondering because I don't want to open this thing up again to redo the paste if it does not improve anything. Had to open it before because the Blueray burner took my disc and didn't want to give it back.

The CPU was part of the original computer. I did not do the upgrade.

I am a little lost here: are you referring to another post? Just wondering.

 

perhaps my wording may have seemed a contradaction without proper context.
Normal load being load without the GPU's being at full load as well, in this case, Prime 95.

some good Paste will drop temps a few C, and if you're willing to let something like AS5 burn in, you might get another 1-2 more from that. Just make sure it's applied correctly with a razor or flat edge.

 

I have a little AS5 left over from doing my other XPS. Just was not sure if it's worth the work. My lazy bone is getting the better of me. Thanks for the suggestion.
As I am typing this, the CPU is hovering around mid 40s (as in not doing much computing).

 

If it came with the PC I would suggest you just call Dell instead of changing the paste yourself.

 

get a notebook cooler, it cut 10c off my qx9300 on load (it now hits 50c in games), imagine what it would do for an i7.

 

Thermal paste applying is an art form. If he knows how difficult it is as I do, then he won't let some nerd that's never had his virgin hands on a M17x to dissasemble it *and* apply some thermal grease.

 

there is a very, very ,very, very, very, very little difference from spreading it than just putting a blob and allowing the pressure of the heatsink to spread it.

 

My question is why would you want to re-apply thermal paste different than how it came shipped from factory?

 

it's not how it's applied, it's the paste itself. Which is likely generic OE stuff. There *is* better quality paste in the aftermarket.

 

lol you could always start project watercooled m17x!

 

I know, I need a water cooled M17X. I am sure it's possible too...

 

oh it is possible but will void your warranty! They make small enough pump to fit in the m17x... but you would have to custom wield a radiator and make your own cooling CPU block

 

That I know, I was stating that we should have AW ship PC with liquid cooling or even make it $500.00 option which I would totally buy as I am sure the PC would run much quieter.

 

-If thermal paste is to be re-do, I'll do it myself and not tell Dell. I've had pretty horrible experiences with Dell Service Contract Tech. The ones I've had the unfortunate of meeting and repairing my notebooks are worse than monkey.

-Cooling pads are nice and I am sure it helps (as I've had a few). The comment I have based on the notebooks I've had and my observations is (in my case) that the difference between it and raising the back of the notebook a little bit is minimal. I just don't like the added extra noise and I do move my notebook quite offen (and by that, I do mean several times during the course of several hours).

-Comparing the running cool-ness between the M17X-R1 (with QX9300, and 280 SLI) and the M17X-R2 (with 920XM, and 4870 SLI), the R1's shell felt much cooler than the R2. Again, this is my obervations between the two as they sit next to each other. The video cards idle pretty cool between the two but the CPUs are quite a bit different.

-Again, I posted because I was not completely sure if I want to re-do the paste in the R2. Just trying to find what everyone else is getting and a reason to not do it because my lazy bone is getting the better half of me at the moment. As I was trying out Just Cause 2 last night with my son for almost an hour, the 920XM and 4870 SLI was hovering around 70s F (with the settings almost maxed out on everything). That was with the computer sitting flat on the glass table.

-Thank you all for contributing.

 

Well, my 920 is hot, but it's only 82 max...may be you can just try to clean the fan, and put some ICD7 for lower temp...

 

I broke down and re-do the paste of the CPU and both GPU (got tired of wondering should I or shouldn't I). It has been two days and it does seem to lower the average a few degrees during Prime95 (I would say roughly 5-7 C for the CPU and about 3-5 for the GPU).
I still believe the best way would be to raise the rear of the computer about half an inch to allow more room for air intake. Don't need any cooler.