m15x gpu heat issues

noticed that im getting stuttering in games (cod mw2) periodically and when i use HWiNFO32 my gpu is up to 99 degrees, is there a way to increase the fan so that it constantly cools as ive noticed that the fan is not ramping up.

Cheers.

 

anyone got any ideas???

 

Be patient - its early morning for most US based members. Once more 1st gen m15x owners are on and see this I'm sure you'll have some responses.

 

I had overheating too like you and I cleaned out my fan and heatsink and still no good results.

Unfortunately, there is no way to control the fan. Unless, someone here knows enough about laptops and programming and actually owns an m15x can help us.

What you should do is to put some new thermal paste on the GPU. And make sure you clean off the old paste. It's most likely the old paste not being able to conduct the heat as well as it used to do.

I applied some new paste on my 8800 GPU a few days ago and it brought my max temp of 95C down to 85C when the fan's turned on full blast on 88C. I ran test's with the ATItool and you know how GPU demanding that program is...

Make sure you apply enough though. I was hitting over 100C with a bad application of the thermal paste. I had to reapply it again the 2nd time to be able to get the temps down to 85C.

 

further information:

hwinfo has gpu at 95/99 degrees - but when i run thermofan the fan speed is only around 2635 r/min and doesnt seem to step up.

game will slow down once gpu reaches 97 degrees until temp goes down.

the fans/exhaust are clean and clear also.

 

dhoang417, what speeds do your fans run at?

 

Here's what I got after running ATI tools for about 5 mins.

 

hmmm, still not getting full speed out of my fan. could a replacement fan be in order?

 

You could call Alienware and ask about it, but I doubt they'd do anything.

I'd highly recommend replacing the stock thermal paste if you haven't already. That should bring the temperature down to below 90C if you apply it right, which is at least within the 'safe' zone although it'll still likely burn out sometime.

 

im about to purchase some Akasa AK-450-5G silver based thermal compound from am4zon which should hopefully arrive tomorrow.

Regarding replacing the fan, does anyone know if you can buy the part? i'll contact AW regardless, but my past experiences have not been anything to write home about... probably be asked to send it in again.

 

If you are still under warranty, you won't be charged for a replacement fan.

 

No longer under warrently it would seem. They'll sell me the heatsink, but they wont sell me the fan.

Anyone know where you can get a replacement gfx fan for the m15x?

 

sorry this is so late, but what bios are you running? this is a problem many of us 1st time m15x users had in the beginning.

2635 is def not the full fan speed. once the gpu hits around 85, it should step up the speed. the bios dictates this.

before messing w/ the gpu and thermal paste, make sure ur running the latest bios (the one in my sig). good luck.

 

Yuppers, currently have X36 bios installed

Is the thermal paste straight forward to replace?

 

Ive been having the same problem for the past 3 months. Not been able to solve it at all AW said that as long as it was working, they would not replace the fan heatsink. Mine touches 103 degrees while gaming !! The good thing is no downclocking. The bad is the GPU is going to die any time.

 

If you find a sufficiant way to cool your alienware let me know because i have been trying to figure it out for 3 years....

 

For those that have had heating issues, what have you all done about it? My GPU temps are really high (70-72C while gaming) and my driver fails during play (tried more than one display driver as well).

I might need a new fan as well since my second fan speed is only 2514 r/m... I am no longer on warranty now though.

 

What do you mean by your driver is failing Ennea?

70-72 degrees while gaming is actually pretty low for the area 51 m15x.

 

maybe the airflow is not good enough ? What is your temperature for CPU and the Northbridge ?

 

I could've sworn I had gotten' much lower temps before but yeah, during gaming (l4d2 for example) with everything set to high, 2x anisotropic filtering and 1920x1200 res, the game freezes/crashes then a pop-up comes up saying that the driver failed. Usually it does successfully recover, and it will say it does, but it will just continually crash again. I assumed this was because of overheating or something but apparently not?

I don't think it's the drivers either because I tried both 186.xx drivers recommended on Dhoang's thread and I still get the error. If not my temperatures/fan, is it the GPU then? My CPU temps are far lower, they idle around 33C and only go up an additional 10 or so C during gaming.

 

My temps are really bad... hitting 109 while on a zalman cooler.... and with the fans over 5k rpm.... Im gonna reapply the thermal paste when it comes in the mail see if that helps, somethings wrong. glad i caught it b4 it went poof, i just expected the darn thing to work

 

Your fan speed is fine, the thermal paste should be the problem. Hope it works out for you

 

Hi all, got my thermal paste yesterday so will be applying it on saturday and will post back results.

I called AW regarding purchasing a replacement fan. No go. They will sell me the heatsink but they apparently dont stock the fan.. go figure.

The GPU fan seems to be stepping up but what i have noticed is the lack of heat coming from the vent; where as the CPU vent will literally melt your fingers its relatively cool coming from the GPU.

Fingers crossed a reapplication of paste will fix this problem and i wont have sporadic 2fps in CoD-MW2 every 10-15 mins.

 

When I installed the 260m GTX into my m15x the heatsink wasn't touching the GPU at first. When I turned on the laptop it would shutdown after 30 secs because of overheating. The fan however pumped at full power, never heard it that loud .. If your fan isn't kicking in, I think that is where your problem lies.

 

cheers Matrolz, but im certain that my fan is working fine.. its just blowing out cool(ish) air so am i right by thinking this is more of a heat transfer issue and not a fan issue? again this only really becomes a prob when the gpu is working hard.

Mind you, anyone that knows where to get replacment fans please speak up as i wouldnt mind getting one just incase.

 

Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing here the GPU fan is on the right side of the machine (when using the laptop facing the screen). The CPU fan is on the side with the Ethernet port and Smart Bay. GPU is on the HDMI side with media card readers. My CPU fan seems to be running faster all the time except when gaming. Idle temps for me, just sitting doing nothing, are anywhere from 68C - 77C. This scares me big time. Clean vents too. So let me know how the thermal paste works and post some pics. Regards,

Alex

 

reiterate what firecat says... gpu is on the right side and it definitely blows out pretty hot air. cpu fan on the left blows out much cooler air (and less of it too).

if you have not mixed up the fans and if you are still not getting air blown out of the right side (or cool air blown out) then maybe the heatsink is not touching the gpu.

firecat, those temps are pretty standard for the m15x w/ 8800m gtx.