M17 processor running hot!

Hi,

I'm having some heating problem with my m17... my processor is running at 70°C when iddling(firefox/msn...) and at 86°C when playing games....

It seems a little bit excessive, despite the fact that it's summer here...

Otherwise my graphics cards seems OK, running at 60°C, compare to my processor it's nothing....

Has anybody had this problem before? If so, what can I do to resolve this problem(apart from putting my notebook in the freezer).

Thanks in advance!

 

You should post your specs IE what processor you have etc..

Did you just start monitoring the temps and discovered this or was this something that just started happening ?...

 

you'r using a quad prob a qx my m17 run around 53 but underload it comes really fast to 73-76

 

Surprised no one has mentioned...that's not very warm for full load. Especially if you have no notebook cooler. Sometimes mine gets into the low 90s. Do your research and grab a good notebook cooler.

 

I have a q9100 processor(so quad with 2.26Ghz)... It was always a little bit laggy when playing games in full but it's getting worse progressivly so I started monitoring the temperatures...

I'm running win7 in 64 bit with 4Gb of ram, 2 hdd 7200rpm in raid0...

I've tried to use a notebook cooler but didn't make any difference, i've also used a regular fan =) but this only helps me lowering my temps like 4°C max....

 

Also if you dont want to buy a cooler prop up the back end of the machine...

Remove the bottom cover as well and cut off that black filtering on the bottom as well because its doing more harm then good...

 

You should remove the CPU and reapply thermal paste then if you have tried those other things already with no success..

Its a no brainer to get at the CPU and redo it ...

If you need help you can PM me and ill be happy to help..

 

Thanks!

It's just that I think my alienware guarantee is almost up... like 3 weeks max, haven't checked... So if it's a processor error, I'll try to see if alienware can help with that(aka buy me a new one =) !)

I'll remove the black filter on the back of the notebook, that should help with air-circulation

 

Hi,

Just to give some feedback to my favourite consiglieri forum =) ...

I've successfully replaced my processor's thermal paste, not without some newbie setbacks, like missing screws and a nice moment when I got a BSOD while restarting my computer, replacing it by Thermaltake TG-1 (the best I could find here in Chile). I've also removed the back cover and got myself an average notebook cooler.

Results:

Ambient temperature: 30-35C
Processor Iddle temperature: 57C
Processor under load temperature: 73C (with Prototype maxed)

I'm quite please with the overall results, thanks to everyone for the tips! I've
been checking out this forum for a few months and you seem to know all about the m17 jejeje

 

Funny that I replace the original with new Arctic Silver Matrix on the GPU, it seems it got worse.
For CPU, it's about the same as original.

I put very little though, I might open it and check if the spread was enough to cover.

 

Ok, I'm totally freaking out.

Yesterday, everything was working ok, appart from some random errors that crashed my pc, my av has been messing with my dlls the all week so it might be that.

I left my m17 on sleeping mode and this morning, the damn thing won't start and seems to do some weird stuff... a fan starts to turn every 6 seconds after I try to power up...

Please help!

 

Try a power drain. Disconnect AC and system battery, hold power button for 20 seconds and try again.

 

I tried it twice, the system just keeps trying to reboot, nothing appears in the screen and the fans turn every 6 seconds approx

 

It's not even POST'ing? What about beeps?

 

No, it's not POST-ing (If I'm not mistaken, if it POST then I would hear a beep no?), the drive bay does some noise and that's it

 

Unfortunately that's very bad sign if you cannot get that far BUT it still can be a piece of hardware causing it. I would start removing parts one by one.

 

It happened the day after I changed the thermal paste of the processor, I followed the tutorial that was posted by a member here, the only thing I was unsure about is that the processor has 3 rectangles two on one side and 1 on the other, im also unsure about how much thermal paste I was supposed to apply.... could that be the problem?

If the problem is more complex than that, I´ll try to send my computer back to alienware so they can fix it jejej, I´m on holliday with lots of programming to do so I´d just prefer they managed that...

 

You should have had thermal paste on all the dies (black rectangles). Not sure why you'd have three though.

 

I´ve replaced the paste to the 3 of them... the third die is not really on the processor, it may be some sort of extender, it´s not connected to the copper piece of the fan but to the small piece at the end of the fan´s base (next to the copper)

 

That's the northbridge. Open it up and check to see what condition the proc is in and try reseating it.

 

Mmmm, i´ve removed the fan, how can I open the NB?

Sorry for all the newbs questions =)

 

This is the M17 right? Fan and heatsink are one piece covering both the proc and NB.

 

Yes, it´s the m17. I can see the NB but what do I have to do?

 

Just apply a thin layer of thermal paste

 

Opening up a laptop to apply thermal compound is bad idea for total newbie in computer hardware.

Since he already did it once, let's just hope he didn't break anything.

 

No difference now if he's not booting.

 

I´ve reapplied the thermal paste, not much change, I don't think that I´ve broken something...

The thing that I don´t get is that the fan starts turning every 3-4 seconds now when I put the battery in, but I haven´t even press the power on button

 

Can you put up the specs of your system?

 

m17
Q9100 (so quad at 2.26Ghz)
4GB ram
2 * 320 GB hdd

Comparing to the original system, i´ve just replaced the drives

 

3870s XF?....

 

I knew I had missed something jajaja yes, 3870 Crossfire

 

This still sounds bad. Try removing each GPU 1 at a time to see if you at least get a POST screen. Make sure you have extra thermal paste if you decide to do it. Also it would be helpful if you have an extra proc to test with.

 

Thanks, I don´t have another proc but I´ll try tomorow to remove a gpu to see if that helps....

Thanks for the help, I´m trying to learn the basic of computer hardware... it´s kind of lame since I´m studying computer science and I´m a professional software developper.

 

I´ve removed 1 gpu, nothing changed, I´m going to remove the other one

 

I´ve removed the other one, still no change... at this point, there´s nothing much I can do, I´ll just send it to alienware.

 

Yeah I think the CPU or MB is toast.

 

Hi,

Finally I didn't send my m17 to the technical center even thought I had the warranty because it was just to expensive to Fedex it to Ireland from South America...

It seems that my video cards are dead(at least that's what a technical center here told me) and I was planing to get a single 4850 to replace the 2 3870 (seems cheaper), so if anyone is selling a spare master 4850, I'm interested.

 

I don't know why your video cards are dead if you didn't do anything to it at the beginning.
You mentioned the fans goes on and off for some reason, then there should be some wrong with NB, especially that's what you messed with at the beginning. Not the Video card, unless the video card was broken before you open up the laptop.

If NB is toasted, then you won't be able to boot to POST.
There is a 1mm gap between NB to the heatsink, if you didn't put enough grease on the NB, and you went gaming hard, then it's very possible the NB is toasted.

You need to send it in to replace it, and they might charge you since you opened it and didn't know what you were doing.

Good luck.

 

The problem is that I can get a nice desktop card and refrigeration solution for my desktop pc for less than what it will cost me to send my m17 and repair it (my warranty void a week ago =( )...

How much do you think I could get for my parts? I have a q9100, 3870 XF(assuming they are working)

 

I dont think its your graphics cards, I think because you didnt properly cool the north bridge you burned it up. I am really sorry to hear that happened. You must have known something needed to fill that gap, when you took off the thermal pad that wast stuck on the end of the cooler (that just happened to sit squarely on one of those nice black chips). no?

Sadly these systems are being sold by Alienware right now online, working with 90 day warranty for as little as $1000 sometimes.

GL, and really sorry to hear you were trying to do something good and it didnt work out for you.

Jon

 

Yeah, it seems to be my NB. I'll try to sell the remaining parts to make a desktop pc...
Anyways, thanks for your help.