M15X Heat Issues

Hi Everybody,

I've been reading this site the past month in hopes of fixing problems with my M15x. I bought this laptop back in March and I haven't really played any games on it until recently with the release of Fallout 3 and Red Alert 3. Now whenever I play any of those games, I notice lag in the game after 5 minutes of playing. Thinking it was a driver issue, I went nuts trying all kinds of video drivers, from laptop2go and the ones from Alienware, and updating my soundcard to the latest driver from realtek. I also flashed my Bios from X32 to X34 to X36 and back to X32 but the lag kept on happening. After reading up on it here, I used RivaTuner and HWMonitor and found that my GPU was getting to 110 degrees Celsius when the lag happens! I also used ThermoFan 1.0.0.5 but that gave me a max temp of 102C. As I type this, HWMonitor shows my GPUs temp at a steady 87C. I called Alienware and we spent about 90 minutes troubleshooting. First he has me flash the BIOS back to X36 and install an unreleased driver for my video card, 176.37, and he tells me that RivaTuner and HWmonitor have known issues with the M15X and that it doesn't give accurate readings. So after running a few tests with him, ie playing Red Alert 3, after about 6 minutes of playing the lag happens again and Thermofan is showing it tops up at 102C whereas HWMonitor is showing 110C! So after all that troubleshooting, he says he's going to send me a new heat sync and fan for the video card and I'll have to call them to install it. I guess my question is is this going to fix all my problems and which monitoring tool should I believe? Thank you for reading.

 

on X32, all monitoring tools have shown to be in the ballpark. i don't think anyone knows which one is exactly right, but if multiple tools are showing temps like that (>100°C), then they're probably right.

 

I would check if stealth mode is enabled. The lag and the heat suggests that the card is downclocked and the fans are restricted (or slowed down) in some way or form--- which is essentially what stealth mode does. Since you have tried everything else, I would suggest trying to uninstall the Alienware Command Center and the OSD Utility, restart, then reinstall the OSD Utility and the Command Center in that order.

You can download the OSD Utility and the Alienware Command Center directly from here:
OSD Utility
Alienware Command Center 1017

A person I helped earlier had an m15x who had stealth mode enable and disable randomly (and even without any notifications) and doing this seemed to resolve the issue for him.

 

Thanks for the help Oceanus but unfortunately it didn't solve the problem. I guess I'll wait for the parts to come in and see if that solves anything.

 

Make sure that you are running on A/C power and not on batteries. The laptop automatically downclocks the GPu on battery power.

 

Sounds good. Good luck.

 

If he says it lags after x amount of minutes into the game, then it's not AC/Battery issue.

check my sig for similar issue.

 

Clean your vents.

I received my system in late august or early sept (don't remember), and the temps were relatively good; idle @ 60-70*C, and full load @ max 86*C.

However, I noticed that the framerates in fallout3 dropped every 5-10 minutes, so i checked the temps, which were reaching 106*C at full load when playing, so I figured sth was wrong.

I did everything from updating drivers, etc, etc, but to no avail, so I decided to open up my vents, and there was dust blocking the whole thing. I used compressed air to clean it off and my temps were back to normal.

I would love to show you guys a pic of the vents before cleaning, but I'm currently overseas and I forgot my camera

PS: my system is on almost 24/7, and singapore can be dusty sometimes, so the results may vary with your system.

hope this helps