Dell XPS M1710 CPU runs way too hot!

Hello everyone,

My Dell XPS M1710's Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 CPU temps are incredibly high no matter what I do. I opened it up a week ago, cleaned the dust and replaced the thermal paste. The GPU's temps dropped by almost 20 degrees celsius after that, but the CPU's temps stayed the same.

I thought that maybe the thermal paste hadn't spread properly, but I opened it up again today and saw that the compound has spread beautifully, so I changed it again (as i removed the heatsink) in the same manner and the CPU seems to be running a couple degrees hotter than before. That is mindblowing!

The idle temperature of the CPU is in mid 60s Celsius with the fan blowing at high speed. It's on low 70s now as I'm writing this.

The biggest problem is: when I play games, the CPU gets too hot and underclocks itself (I believe) to prevent damage, which results in HUGE fps drops every minute or so which don't go away for at least half a minute to even a few minutes!

Anyone, please help! I'm desperate here...

P.S. I'm using an aftermarket power supply, which I think is rated 20W below the original's 150W. Could that be the cause of this?

P.P.S. The chipset temperature is 10 degrees lower than the CPUs. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?!

 

Are you sure the vents are not blocked? That would be another reason for overheating CPU?

 

Yes, I am. The vents are clean as a whistle and the laptop sits on a desk with nothing else near it.

Thanks for the input.

 

And what Games and GPU do you have you didn't respond to the second question??? How ventilated is the room where it is at?

 

I'm so sorry, but there was no second question to respond to Games are Far Cry (2004), Team Fortress 2 and Battlefield P4F. The laptop has an NVIDIA Geforce Go 7950 GTX (512 MB, 256 bit). Since it's summer now, the ambient temperature of the room is mid to high 20s (Celsius).

 

Well how about this raise the backside of the laptop and see if the gap will allow more air flow to keep the system cooler? Only thing I can think of could be the GPU going bad possibly? If raising the back still causing the over heating then you might have a bigger problem at hand. And yes a high room temperature can also increase your laptop overheating as well so the environment needs to be taken into consideration when using a high power laptop heat added to room heat compounds the overheating. Maybe get a laptop cooler to see if that reduces the heat to manageable levels for good fps game play.

 

Wow, these things are still kicking!

 

Why not......I got my M1710 and M1730 with Windows 7x64 Ult Sp1 installed and those are working fine.....

 

Got two even older Inspiron 9300s going, one is running 7 just for kicks. Doesn't take much to keep these old beasts going, just a little investment and regular maintenance they will outlast most of the cheap stuff they make now days. Got a old school 6800 Go Ultra and it just keeps on going lol.