S96J (yes this) CPU too hot!

I know this laptop is supposed to be one of the coolest (temp-wise) laptops out there... and I remember mine used to be fine - but its been just over 2 years since I've had it and now (I have T2400) the CPU starts 55 degrees from cool, and then steadily goes up to about 85 degrees at idle.. just sitting there. This kicks in the fan at one notch from full blast, meaning my laptop is ridiculously loud all the time...

It tops out at 85 degrees when idle. Bios is the newest (i think - did it in 2006 or something). I could start buying some cooling acc. but I have a feeling that running stock it shouldn't be this hot.

I honestly can't remember when it started... one other thing is that my harddrive took a hit (literally) and is constantly failing since part of it is perm damaged.(it will be out in a wk). I can't imagine this could be related to the CPU temp...

Any wisdom is appreciated, thanks.

 

If your laptop suffered a sharp hit or drop there is a chance the cpu-heatsink came dislodged somehow (very unlikely) I would reccomend removing the heatsink and cpu, cleaning if off and applying some good thermal paste, also clean all the dust out of the fan and hestsink vents, that should clear up your problem.

 

yup silvr6 is correct. try to clean up the heatsink with pressure air, if that doesn't help, I have a tutorial posted in the s96s(pretty much the same) for arctic silver. GOOD LUCK

 

About HDD: back up your data ASAP if you didn't already, and get a new one (from warranty or elseway).

 

cool thanks will do all the above cleaning/maintenance. As for the hdd my data is backed up, im just waiting for esata cable to come in so I can run windows from ext hd. Thanks again.

Btw: anyone know how seagate is for warranty issues. ie. if my harddrive appears to have been physically damaged(chipped i guess) will they give me the benefit of the doubt and repair/replace it anyways?

 

Technically your warranty is void. It's up to you if you try and get is serviced under warranty, or not.

 

Over 2 years old? Are you in the US? The notebook was first available in US in May 2006. I know this very well because I was waiting for it and I got one immediately after they were available. The warranty is 2 years so if you got notebook in US you should still be covered. Where did you buy it?

It could be 3 things:
1. Heat sink fins are clogged with dust etc. Have you blown out the fins? You can check the fins by looking at them (on back on notebook). I recommend doing this from inside with compressed air. Take bottom panel off and blow out through were fan is (pointing to where fins are).

2. Heatsink is not seated well on CPU. This can be fixed by you by just tightening screws. I truly think this is not what is happening. The heatsink is screwed in with 4 screws over the CPU. The chance it is loose to me is a long shot. If it is loose and it is still running hot you have a thermal paste problem.

3. Thermal paste has deteriorated or has come off CPU for some reason. If you have done this kind of thing before you could put thermal paste on CPU to fix.

I truly think that number 1 is your problem.

Goodluck!

 

hey im bumping this back up... I have tried steps 1 and 2 above, everything looks good. Cleaned it out etc... Now today I had the laptop sitting on a desk for a few hours (idle), checked the temperature... 98 degrees!

I have ordered Artic Silver 5 paste, will put it on in a couple days... but honestly im not super optimistic. 98 degrees is ridiculous, 100 is the max safe temp. I believe. So what is likely defective here, the heatsink/laptop or could it be the CPU? Is it possible to find out? ( I have no spare CPU/laptop/heatsink) to test.

 

Are you sure your fans are running? Listen to them carefully. Maybe the fan is damaged.

Other than this, i don't have other ideas than those mentioned above.

 

just double checking....this is in celsius, right?

 

Mine is falling apart after about a year and a half. the motherboard is toast. I can get it to work if I set it on a flat surface and try to boot it a few times and don't bump it Though occasionally it'll crash anyway... one dimm slot doesn't work...

Anyway... You should open it up and blow it out with compressed air, at the least. After a couple years the dust buildup can cause heat issues.

Make sure your fan is still working well too.

Krista

 

to answer some questions/comments:
I have used compressed air and blown out dust.
The temperature is celsius unfortunately.
The fan is running fine, which is awful because its at full bore all the time... I can't keep my computer running at night because I can't sleep its so loud. Will try paste tomorrow and will post results here. Thanks for the comments, sorry to hear about the laptop Krista.. its a shame its got such a good reputation, but I guess theres always a few bad apples in the bunch.

 

Do you feel heat circulating out of the system when the fan isn't running at full power? It could be one of the heat sensors in the body of the laptop that is meant to turn the fan on at a mid-range temperature has been damaged or has failed completely and so the fan doesn't come on until the CPU actually starts hitting a critically high temperature. Since you've cleaned the fans and heatsink, reseated the heatsink, and are still having the problem, it would seem to be a failed component in the cooling system, and since the fan works fine and the heatsink is secure and you're going to add new paste to it, all I can think of is some aspect of the monitoring hardware/software that is responsible for controlling fan speed and doing those little bursts of air that are meant to keep the temperature down before it ever gets to that level.

 

Did you just blow air from the outside of the notebook? In the more radical cases of dust clog-up, that will not fix the problem. You really need to take the notebook apart, remove the fan, and clean the heatsink with cotton swabs or something. While you're at it, also exchange the thermal paste (unless you are still under warranty), and reseat the heatsink.

I can imagine if there was a big shock to the notebook, and the heatsink was not screwed in properly, it might have come off the CPU half a milimeter or so. That's enough to completely ruin the cooling efficiency.

 

Update: To clarify I have taken the whole thing apart a couple times, cleaned/blown everything. Have now applied AS5 thermal paste... and dun dun dun: Nothing.... at least it still managed to hit 100 deg Celsius while installing Nero.
With regards to the fan not turning on properly, maybe there is some stealth action that is missing, but for the most part the fan comes on pretty strong (2-3 settings below max speed) fairly quickly (within 20-30 mins from cold). It then usually stays at the 2nd highest setting until about 90 degress when it switches to the fastest. So I dont think it can be that, since at 75-80 degrees with the fan at the right level, it shouldn't keep climbing.

So.. I guess my question is, what's next? Try and get my hands on another CPU, cooling unit, or even laptop?

Theres probably no good answer to that, I'll try my best to figure it out. Thanks for all the helpful comments.

 

shoot, this is bad news. You have done pretty much everything and no result? still under warranty? if not u probably need a new laptop(i think there this something wrong with the motherboard......)

 

It's difficult to see how a hardware defect could cause the computer to overheat as long as the fan is running normally, the heatsink is clean, and there is good thermal contact between it and the CPU...

Maybe the thermal sensor is damaged? When the fan is running, is the air that comes out of it hot?

Another thing to keep in mind is that overheating could also be the result of bad GPU cooling. Did you also replace the thermal paste on the GPU? (or perhaps it's a thermal pad in which case it's more difficult to replace).

And finally, are you sure your CPU is not always running at full blast due to corrupt ACPI drivers or bad power profiles? It should be speedstepping (i.e., low clock speed when idle, and higher clocks only kick in when there are intensive CPU tasks to be done). Use MobileMeter or RMClock to check this. If the CPU is always fullblast and in the cramped space of the S96, I can imagine that it can get very hot.