CANNOT keep my M1730 cool

Hey guys, my M1730 is really starting to p*ss me off now

I've had it almost 2 years and im beginning to think the graphics cards are giving up on me

right now it is idle running very few programs, and my temps are (according to HWMonitor)

CPU Core 0 -54-51-63
CPU Core 1 -54-51-62

8700M GT 1 67-67-68
8700M GT 2 -79-79-80

HDD 43-43-44

surely the second GT shouldnt be in the high 70's being idle?!

the top of the XPS (above the keypad just below the screen) is also almost too hot to touch, not long ago I took it apart and gave it a good clean to get rid of the dust but there didnt seem to be much dust at all

I have ordered an aluminium notebook cooler to see if that helps, its also sitting up at the back for air to flow through, but i have yet to see the temps come below 78 on the second GT - its also impossible to play games because of the graphics lag

anyone have any suggestions?

 

Notebook coolers for the M1730 are great, but for me the best remedy would be to open your M1730 apart and clean out for any dust bunnies that lurk in the heat sinks, vents, fans, etc. These cooling components can trap dust easily and thus because of this, they CAN cause a temperature raise.

I would suggest cleaning your M1730 slightly more often. Since you said you've clean it, when was the last time you check for dust bunnies?

Have you ever also accessed the GPU cores before? If you do, I may also suggest applying AS5/MX2 on the cores of your 8700s. They can help to drop temperatures by 6-8 degrees depending. What CPU are you using by the way?

I once had heating issues with my 8800s hovering in the 80s while gaming for an hour, but now I do regular maintenance, I strip my M1730 apart every 3 months for cleaning and reapplying thermal paste. Now its temps are around in the 50s.

EDIT: If you do have an X9000 CPU, What I did was to OC' it to 3.2 - 3.4GHz, and the BIOS will automatically turn up the rpm speed all 3 fans, both GPU (2 fans) and CPU (1 fan) real loud and fast, thus cooling down your GPU further.

Also what GPU drivers are you using BTW?

 

Rizen - when you give a shot of air from your air can, be sure to lock the fans in place by inserting a small paperclip between the fan blades. This will prevent the fans from spinning @ an unsafe RPM. A compressed air blast can spin those fans pretty fast which is not good.

Also, just my 2 cents here... I've never put much stock in coolers to be honest. I have my m1730 sitting on a Logitech Alto stand. Granted it states its for use with up to 15" laptops, but it is quite sturdy and the m1730 fits it perfectly.

Take a look:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3289&cl=US,EN

I have had my m1730 for over a year now and have no issues with temps. To give you an idea, my laptop has been powered on now for the last 6 hours - for the most part idle. No gaming tonight - temps are currently sitting @ 36c CPU and 53c GPUs. SLI enabled. Granted I am using the 185.81 driver which as we all know enables Powermizer correctly with SLi and the cards are downclocking correctly. Room temp is 72f and I have not applied AS5 to either the GPUs or the CPU. No undervolting of the CPU either.

Anyway, just a thought.

Keep an eye on those GPU temps though - seems a bit odd to me that you are seeing a 12 degree difference on GPUs. I use HWMonitor as well and have never seen a difference between the GPUs. Be sure you are using the current version of HWMonitor also (v1.14)... http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

If the difference persists, I would contact XPS Support.

 

Hey, thanks for the replies, maybe its time i opened 'er up again

heres just an example of whats annoying me, im playing a FLASH game (yes web based 20MB flash game) on ArmorGames and here is a screenshot of whats going on on screen and my temps:

http://i41.tinypic.com/2rwmi2o.jpg

using HWMonitor 1.14

 

If you still have dell warranty, then use it. 8700m is pretty much the same as 8600m- which has quite high failure rate. Better be safe than having a broken laptop-if they don't fix the high temperature, you can demand 8800m for the trouble...

If you don't have warranty, then make sure you know how to put it back.

 

Just going to chime in, when I applied AS5 to my gpus, it dropped the temps by at LEAST 10C. No dust bunnies or whatever because I just got this 1730 not too long ago (during pricing "error"). If you open it up and see how they applied it, you quickly understand why temps are sucking so much. The paste is pretty much engulfing the dye, die, or whatever the heck that part you apply AS5 on is called.

 

Seems like something is dying. Might not be the card itself, maybe just some cooling fan? I have 2.40GHz cpu which fluctuates between 42-45 when idle (web browsing, listening to mp3's, text editing), and dual 8800GTX (which generate much more heat than 8700GT) which stay between 48-54 while idle and 72-80 when under full load (which is same temp as you idling with lower spec).

First thing i would do is to buy Airduster (compressed air in the can), it's quite cheap and will last you a quite some time for regular cleaning. Blow into laptop from the bottom and make sure to point the back side away, it's best to do it outside or near window. Once you give it a proper blow (sounds wrong lol) blow into read vents to get rid od some leftover dust that might get out through bottom. If nothing happens, it might be a good time to call tech support before the dying part causes actual damage to other parts. And once you are at it, maybe you can try and bargain for 8800/9800 replacement, you never know.

And about the space above keyboard being very hot - that's pretty normal on M1730 when under full load (even though disturbing when idle), it scares you when you first touch it but you get used to it. DVI port on the left side is even hotter if you touch it's metal part