Still running too hot....fix afoot! (M17)

Hi guys, (ALIENWARE M17)

Following on from a recent thread which I saw my CPU temps rise when running resource intensive applications to over 90c I have found Im still having issues.
(here is that thread if anyones interested;
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5252015#post5252015)

My temps are better now after I re-seated my CPU and reapplied paste hitting around 80c. Im still not happy though and believe the problem is related to me removing the thermal pad from ?? is it the heatsink? or is it the northbridge?

Well what I want to know guys is this;

I have these 2 items arriving through the post tomorrow.....which one would you use?

1) http://www.amazon.co.uk/akasa-AK-TT...ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1251767516&sr=8-2

2) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermal-Pad...ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1251767516&sr=8-7

I would prefer to use the first item....a adhesive thermal pad but it says it is semi-permanent....would it be easy to remove if ever I need to get access again to the CPU.....have any of you guys tried one of these?

I take it that the pad is on "the heatsink" and the "chipset" also....please clarify.

I really need some good input here guys....thanks as always.

 

hoesntly, the x9100 is just a very very hot chip. also the northbrigde isn't a joke either.

in project freeze. hellcry did a test where he cut the cpu heatsink and used a ramsink on the Northbridge and ran something stressful(i don't remember what it was)..... he claimed in less then 3 seconds, the northbrigde hit 80c.(remembering it's separate from the cpu([email protected]))

so i would recommend you to look for reviews for both pads. also prop the back of the notebook up so your notebook can breath.

 

I know for certain i would not use that semi permant pad IE a pain to get off . If you put it on and are not happy with it then it might take you quite awhile to get it off etc and thats a huge waste of time.

I would just use that other pad you have or see if you can get a hold of copper shim and use some paste along with that .

 

That pad was on your northbridge and if you're running your lappy without it then it's gonna burn out.

Go for pad 2.

@dondadah, it doesn't suprise me that the NB went up so fast. Mine goes up very quickly too although not quite that fast. It can jump up to about 70C in a matter of seconds from the idle of 56C...

 

well it jumped up that fast also because it was using alittle ramsink. it wasn't apart of the big heatsink as it was cut off.

 

Even so 80C seems (fairly) safe for the NB, and as it's a ramsink it'd help the CPU run cooler as that's one less thing connected to its heatsink.

 

yes i agree that 80 is ok. not great, for it to raise up so quickly was the problem.

i don't know that if it would help the cpu out much though. it wasn't really tested though.

here's the post.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4870559&postcount=202

 

Yea, jumping up that quickly could cause damage...

 

80C does not sound normal dude. My x9100 tops at 66C with my laptop flat on the desk.

 

80C is still well within thermal limits. He has nothin to be worried about.

 

The thermal limit is 105 so it's well within limits

the cooling on the m17 just sucks under heavy load and overclocked my m17 with my qx9300 in it used to hit mid 90's not a problem for the chip just hurt my knees!!

Same chip at 2.9ghz under load in my clevo hits mid 60's. Your problem is bad cooling on the CPU to start with I reseated mine 4/5 times before I was happy and still idled mid 60's. The heatsink on my clevo is the same size as the m17 one however the fan is 3x the size and the vent is in the correct place. Not too mention the northbridge has it's own cooler with copper pipe totally seperate as well.

You can minimise your heat but I would be extremly surprised if you got less then 78-80 under load without 'extreme' measures

pman

 

My NB temps reach 80C under load, and all I have is OCZ Freeze between it and the stock heatsink. I'm not worried about it at all.

 

I had the same as marve but As5 all i removed the pad (heap of junk) and put paste on and it hit 80 on load and never caused me any problems

 

Paste that's that thick can't perform as good as a thermal pad. My NB never hits 80C.

 

wasnt that thick really mate, no more then 1 or 2 mm

 

Nevertheless, my NB still runs cooler than yours and with you using the paste and me using the pad, it would appear 1-2mm of paste < thermal pad.

 

i just hate them, my NB now runs at about 50 degrees, but that might have something to do with me ditching my m17 on eBay

 

My old clevo used to idle at 35c and 60c at max load, but my GPU still got fried In the end its all a matter of luck

 

Hi gents and thanks for all the good responses.

Firtsly, the darn pads have not arrived today anyway so it may be tomorrow.

I think Don is right and these X9100s run hot to begin with....Im basing that not from his experience but from what Ive read on this forum and others.
I believe I could improve my situation a little though.
Also what Don said about its not that it hits 80c...its that it get up to 80c very fast is very true.
Right now its fine as usual at 50 to 60c....if I start unzipping a large file it hits 80c or if I run Kaspersky.
Its funny but I dont see it suffering whilst gaming though.

Also thanks Quadzilla, I see what you are saying about the adhesive tape suggestion and how difficult it could be to get it off.....will use the pad then.
@Don, I do have the notebook raised at the back because its on a Antec cooler and on a slant.
Also, bear in mind guys that I have not overclocked this machines CPU at all.

Thanks guys, I will post back with an update once I get the pad installed.
I must get some thin copper though.

 

yeah you wont really notice any thermal throttling until you hit upper 90's

only once did i hit the thermal throttle and i was running 2/4 cores at 98+ hehe

 

oh thats nice to know...LOL


Oh and in reply to an earlier post in this thread.....I didnt just remove the pad and leave it it...I did apply thermal paste instead.
Although I take it that if thermal paste was ok for this job then computer builders would not use pads.

Can anybody tell me if its the heatsink that the pad sits on or is it the chipset....what is that shiny chip that it sits on??

 

my one sat on the raised area of the heatsink

but tbh the one on mine was such poor quality it crumbled as i removed it, no pads for me, i stuck as5 on it and never looked back

 

Yeah Pman thats the one.....mine crumbled in my fingers as well so I couldnt keep it on if I wanted to.

 

The pads arrived this morning along with the thermal tape. I used a pad and placed the softer side of it down on the shiny heatsink.
Straight away its much quieter and sounds really nice and the fans did not come on at boot in a aggressive fashion


Thanks gents.

 

but my temps are worse now after 5 mins hitting well over 90c on a Kapsersky scan....Im starting to think I got a dodgy chip from Shirley!

 

Right before I send Shirley an E-mail letting him know that Im having problems(it went over 96c yesterday guys and I dare not do any gaming at all) can anyone confirm that I placed the pad down the correct way.....soft side facing down?

is that correct? the rougher side was facing up! there was no darn instructions or info on the packaging.

 

the cooling of the NB wont effect your chip, your chips temps were fine before you took your laptop apart.

The cooling of the M17/Whitebook was really really bad, if you were getting mid 80's on a extreme chip that is reasonable and cant be argued with really mate

I think your expecting too much

I'd replace the pad with some thermal grease and try that if it was mine

I dont think the chip is at fault

 

Hi Pman,

When I watch the temps rise it is the processor chips(core 1 and core 2) that is driving the overall(ACPI) temps rocketing to dangerous heights....They are hitting 99c now...see screen-shots......dont say those temps are accpetable on a chip that has never been overclocked!

 

Those last sets of temps are way to high. What thermal paste are you using? Considered using OCZ Freeze? My x9100 maxes out at about 68DegC with my NB hitting 80C (I'm using OCZ Freeze on both NB and X9100). I've considered opening it back up and putting a pad back on the NB, but I just haven't gotten around to ordering them yet, nor the desire to open it back up again.

Did you remove and reapply paste to your CPU when you put the pad on for the NB? Any time you remove the Heat sink from the CPU you should always clean off the old paste and apply a fresh batch to the CPU.

 

im not saying for a second Tony that is acceptable far from it mate, i just dont want you blaming the wrong part

its possible the pad as effected the cooling in a detrimental way, prior to using the pad you hit what? mid 80's? now with the pad your hitting upper 90's i would remove that pad sharpish

on mine with the qx300 all i used was a lapping of as5 on the NB

 

Yes Marvie I did reapply paste....it makes total sense to me to do that even if only working on the heatsink.
I use Thermaltake TG2 as my thermal paste.....I decided to try something different and are regretting it now. I have not read any reviews on TG2 but TG1 was rated very highly.

I will have to buy some different paste over the next week.

thanks.

 

Yes the pad will be getting removed this afternoon mate!

sorry for sounding out of tone....you are always there when I need help...I apologize!

 

this sounds very familiar to what happened to me when i tried using a copper shim but the shim was too thick, it lifted the cooling block albeit very slightly off the cpu and temps went banannas

its possible the pad is too large and its causing the heatsink not to sit flush beaing in mind the design of the cooler isnt the best.

Just ringing a few bells from my experiance when i was playing with the northbridge.

Like i say my solution was just a lapping of AS5 and with that it worked well, to check for covering i placed AS5 on the northbridge, screwed everything down and then unscrewed and removed it so see what kind of coverage was being made on the heatsink, i would say 90% was covered on mine and i didnt have any problems, far fewer then i had with that pad which made cotten wool seem a good idea!

re apology, dont worry mate, im like it when my baby is in trouble

 

Yeah I see what you mean there Pman about the pad and sitting flush...this worried me a little when I was fitting it.

Do you know what...Im gunna give it a few hours as the pad actually seems a similar texture to paste on the soft side and that is probably why mine and yours Pman crumbled in our hands. I can see looking at these pads how that happened.
I hate opening up my machine as I believe it devalues the machine with all this wear and tear.
I might even give it a day even. I hope I put the pad down the right way....soft side down!

thanks guys, will post back later with an update.

 

Hi gents,

well Im happier now than I was this morning as I have just seen the lowest temps ever seen on this machine.....in their low 20c but admittedly it was waking from sleep so I guess thats why that is.
Ive just ran a Kaspersky scan and hit a maximum of 83c so Im hoping this is the pad bedding in and if what Pman says is correct regarding the way the pad is sitting on the heatsink then perhaps its softening and and shaping as the notebook heats up and is pressing down making the pad thinner.

Looking better anyway.

If I get issues again Im going to reseat the processor and use paste instead of the pad.

thanks.

 

Good news,

heres hoping for it to stay that way

Pman

 

cheers mate!

 

WOW guys! Im in total fantasy land..........I decided to try a reseat of the processor and use that AKASI thermal adhesive tape where the pads once sat and Ive never heard the machine sound so quiet and see the temps so low under load.....my first screenshot of Kaspersky scan the temps would usually be at 90c at this stage prior to fitting the tape and would certainly not decrease as in the second scree-shot.

I may have found the holy grail guys and may help people with their quad-issues.....I know your laughing but I truly believe this.

BTW, the tape can easily be removed but just needs cleaning down after with Isopryl or something like that it says.

Even now its still purring and I have not heard that aggressive fan noise at all since boot and Ive ran 2 Kaspersky scans as well as a Superantisyware scan(both full)

thanks.

 

here it is again if anyone is interested;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/akasa-AK-TT...ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1251938360&sr=8-2

it also says "not ideal for CPUs, GPUs as you would expect.

Im so happy at this moment in time......I just hope it holds and does not start messing around again.

It sounds just like it did when new.

 

Jesus....I cant believe how good this thermal adhesive tape is....its still getting better temps wise and my M17 is no longer in pain.

 

can you run the everest cpu stability test? I hit 75C max on it w/ as5, just wondering if that tape really is the l33t you claim it is

 

or even sandra light (my preference to testing stuff) will give thermal tape a run for its money. tested it with P4's i tried 1 without any grease or tape, it got toasted. but yeah AS5 definately performs better than thermal tape as far as cpu's you just got to burn it in or use it for a bit first

 

Hi gents, yeah of course I will run some other tets tommorow and will post back with results.
Using Malware scanners as a gauge during my temps issue seems daft to yoy guys I know but at least its been consistent and has worked well for me.
I think some different tests are called for but its pretty obvious to me that my M17 has not run this good since I first purchased it 6 months ago and everyday tasks are running flawlessly without the fans kicking in unnecessarily every few minutes.
This is real world testing for me and these results are why Im so impressed.
As to whether it could help guys in the future with the quad-issue.....I dont really know and am aware its foolish to promise a holy grail type fix for the M17 but the massive improvement I have seen and total change in my temps/heating situation gives me confidence that it could really help.

 

temps still excellent today. Just sat idling at 38c whilst downloading in the back-ground
I will run some other tests this evening when I return from work.

 

see told you it wasnt the cpu

glad you got it sorted mate

 

you were definitely right on this one pman.

I honestly cannot believe how nice its running. I never thought I could fix an issue like this off my own back! Im really proud of myself and feel like my M17 has a whole new lease of life.

All I can hear most of the time is the sound of my Antec Cooler fan just humming away.
I can start any application or start a game and the fans dont kick in at all for a good minute or two and when they do its gentle and not screaming in pain like before.
Yeah you definitely were spot on with the CPU not being the culprit. I was having nightmares of trying to post it back to China.

Cheers.

 

Which everest should I get Maximus?

Ive just found this one;


http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/EVEREST-Ultimate-Edition.shtml

a 30day trial of the ultimate edition.

I shall look on the Everest site though for your referring to.

 

Pleased that all is now well mate, surprising what a little bit of bedding in can do huh

Think you will be a happy little camper now

 

Yes very much so! thanks Pman.

 

yeah that works they're all the same test probably

Thanks tony