Optimal heat for M17x?

Hello all!

I'm running a 260M GTX in my M17x and a few issues has cropped up to my attention.

I'm regularly playing Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising and it usually gives no problems. However recently, I've discovered at certain occasions when dragging the screen ingame, it lags slightly until I keep the mouse still. It's usually aggravated when there're more units doing big battles onscreen. I'm worried that my GPU is dying out on me

I only got my M17x 5 months ago in October 09.

And another thing i've noticed is that the top left corner of my laptop (above the esc button) is REALLY hot, especially when running that game. It also emits a really loud whirring fan noise as well.

When running HWMonitor it usually records it at 69 degrees max the moment i shut the game down, so it COULD be higher ingame.
I'm basically suspicious that the heat is causing these slowdowns.

Any advice or tips please?

 

If 69 is the max, heat is not a problem. You may want to update your BIOS if you havn't yet. Also check out the threads dealing with DPC latency. What specs are you running. I'm assuming this is a Core 2 Dou M17x (M17x R1). There have been problems with the nvidia chipset motherboard. Driver updates to the latest drivers may help solve some of your issues. Try the drivers from nvidia.com. Also are you running dual 260s? If so, perhaps the game is not optimized for SLI.

Also to get your max in game temp, run HWMonitor while your gaming. You can also use GPU-Z which you can set up to record a .txt log of your temps and GPU clocks. Generally anything uner 90*C should be fine. It would take continuous high temps maybe 105*C to cause damage. the M17x has an excellent cooling system. Shouldn't really ever get over 80*C.

As far as the noise, you may have a fan going bad. If it emits a whinning noise, kinda like "eeee" then that may just be the GPU coil noise which is normal. My advice is to check out M17x DPC Latency, Stuttering, and Lock Ups . Long thread, but if you post at the end, you may get an answer as to what all you need to change as far as drivers ect. But first I would update your BIOS with the latest from Drivers & Downloads for Alienware Laptop M17x

 

thanks for the reply. BIOS is already updated. I checked the thread and it seems pretty relevant thanks again will post my query there

Sorry for not being detailed, I'm running a Windows 7 64-Bit, Quad Core Q9000 @ 2.00GhZ, 4 GB RAM and all drivers updated except for command center and my GPU which is still at 186.82 as recommended at http://m17x.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-m17x-configuration_4886.html. I'm using single not dual 260.

I'll post my max ingame temp sometime soon. How does a fan go bad in such a short time? Yes it's just like the normal "eeee" like you mentioned, just that it gets faster and higher pitched when i'm playing.

 

Well, my M1730's 9800M GTX idles rolleyes at that temp, so don't be too worried if that's all it gets to under load.

 

Just found out that it goes up to 100*C max and 92*C min the moment i alt-tab out from ingame. should i worry?

 

my m1730's 9800M GTX idles at 80

 

Single GPU or SLI?

Only happening in 1 game or several?

Driver version#?

Ensure proper airflow? Proper airflow is unrestricted airflow - meaning, do not have the system sitting in a confined space with the vents blocked. Believe me, there have been a couple of cases where people have posted pics of their setup and the system is up against the back of a desk with little room for free airflow.

Bottom intake grilles have a coating of dust? If so, its time to wipe them clean and give a nice blast of compressed air.

Post a screencap of HWMonitor.

 

Erm i'm not sure if it's single or SLI but it has the Hybrid kind where I can switch between 9400 and 260M? But I followed the steps in m17x.blogspot.com and disabled low performance in BIOS to make it fully dedicated to 260M GTX for pure gaming purposes.

Only happening in 1 game as it's basically the only game I play nowadays.

Driver version is mentioned earlier, 186.82 as recommended in http://m17x.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-m17x-configuration_4886.html#more

Reasonable amount of space behind enough to measure another alienware laptop and a half.

Bottom intake grills cleaned consistently each week and just did it in fact (this machine is a real dust sucker) but no difference made.

Will post a screenup as soon as I instantly alt+tab out of game again but GPU just recorded highest so far 103*C when I saw it earlier (saw it first and closed it before reading your post BatBoy). Funny thing is I did a performance test on the game and when it's hot I usually get 39ish for average FPS, 82ish for max fps, and usually a red highlighted 9 ish (meaning not so good) for min FPS. But now I just did it and it has about the same average and max FPSes but i have 17.7 min FPS instead which is better than before. It's pretty erratic sometimes as sometimes I get really smooth games even when there's alot of detail onscreen but sometimes it chokes up a little.

 

hey batboy sorry for the late reply and I didn't notice that the blog i was talking about was authored by you till now. it's been such a great help referring to it and i'm glad that there's a blog dedicated for m17x users like us
anyway here's the screencap of the HWMonitor.

hope it helps and i sincerely am starting to believe that these graphical slowdowns are due to the heat.

 

any help please?

 

That's your fan. Stop playing, turn the system off for now and call Dell, they should replace the fan.

 

I agree with akimox probably it's the fan

 

Firstly, please don't triple post. There is an 'edit' button.

On topic, that is SERIOUS. Those temperatures WILL damage your GPU. It is most likely due to a fan failure, contact DELL immediately and I suggest until they fix it, switch to the onboard 9400M before the 260M gets fried, or at the very least don't play ANY games.

 

Thanks for the heads up guys. I immediately contacted Dell and they'll be sending a tech over on Friday to replace the fan. He said if it's still hot then they won't take any chances and replace the whole GPU too.

Any chance that the HWMonitor results might indicate the GPU being a problem too or is it just exclusively the fan?

Edit : @Corsair : sorry for the triple post. Still new around here