M1330 Overheating Query (Is Mine?)

Solved! - It was a major dust buildup in the fan vent.

Hello Everyone!

I've read a lot here about the XPS M1330 overheating issues. Mine seems to overheat as well, but I think it's a bit different the the issues other people are reporting. Read on, tell me if I'm insane or not!

So I've had my M1330 for just over a year now. It's a 2.2Ghz with the NVIDIA chip, 2G of RAM. It has the Intel A,B,G Radio in it, not the N. I have recently installed the WWAN 5520 into the laptop as well. It's a second hand card not purchased from Dell directly, but it's a Dell branded card and works fine in my laptop.

This is the second motherboard I've had, it got replaced about 4 months ago. You'll never guess what happened! Yes, the GPU died!

Recently I've noticed that it's getting really hot, even when doing nothing. Just sitting there, being boring. The base gets really hot, the usual symptoms. The fan eventually gets up to full whirrrrrr. It's also started just turning itself off. No warning, nothing, just poof and it's off.

When I power it back on though, I don't get a message saying "Your laptop got too hot" from the BIOS, like I have once when I put it my backpack when it was was running Linux. It got REALLY hot and when I turned it on later, it told me it had shut itself down due to overheating.

The other thing that I really don't get is that the all the temp gauges (from CoreTemp, HWMonitor, Intel's TAT) don't show it being that hot. See attached screenshot please.

The temp's aren't that high, are they? Yet you can see the CPU is being throttled to snail's pace. The blue in TAT indicates throttling, the Mhz speak for themselves. They went down to 250Mhz after this screencap was taken. The fan (definitely the cooling fan, not the GPU fan) will be whirrrring at it's max at this stage. However, after a while the CPU throttling will stop and the fan will slow to a medium speed. The temp's don't decrease though, but the laptop feels cooler.

Does anyone know what other gauges the m1330 uses to tell the CPU/System to Throttle? Also, what temperatures are used to trigger the cooling fan?

I'm wondering if it's the WWAN card that's causing this, I've only been having these problems since I installed the WWAN card. However, it'll happened even when the card's not in use and powered off, so I don't think it's the cause. Does anyone else with the WWAN card have problems at all similar to mine?

The laptop's still under warranty, so I'm going to make it Dell's problem. I'm sick of the system throttling all the time even when surfing, so I'm hoping Dell will fix it quickly. But I'm curious as to what the problem could be. Do those temps posted seem hot enough to make the system shutdown? I've seen my GPU up to 100 before (though that was using FurMark, I'm not sure if it reads the same sensor as HWMonitor) and the system has run fine. The CPU as I understand it should be able to get up to 100 before it decides it's too hot, and it's not getting anywhere near that. But the laptop's base is very hot when this happens!!

Any clues? Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Tim

 

Your temps seem very high, especially the GPU. This should idle around 60C without copper mod.

Your CPU seems hot also. It should idle in the 40's, not the 60's.

You may want to check to ensure the heatsink is installed properly.

 

Ok thanks. I wonder if when the Motherboard replacement was done if the heatsinks were replaced properly.

I'll ring Dell again and get them to send someone to fix the thing.

Thanks for your input.

 

Idling at 85C is bit too hot. Mine usually hovers at 65C and reaches 85C and maybe even more under load. Set _Vista power mode to Power Saver, update your graphics drivers and the BIOS (especially if you have anything older than A12). Current version is A15.

Maybe the heatsink was not properly installed, you can take a look by removing the back panel over the heatsink.



Make sure the thermal pads are in place and not damaged (but don't touch the pads or try to move them if they are out of place).

 

@PhoenixFx: Thanks the comments. I'm running XP, with NVIDIA driver version 174.31

I already have BIOS A15, still the same problem.

Do you know of any pictures for what I'm looking at when I open it up?

Cheers,
Tim

 

I've just cleaned out a massive amount of dust from the CPU fan. Delicate operation, but it seems to have made a big difference. It's amazing how much has got in there over a year!

 

So what are your idle GPU and CPU temps now?

 

Yes, it is a good idea to clean your notebook from time to time. But I thought you had the motherboard replaced just over 4 months ago, how can there be so much dust in just 4 months are you living in a desert or something ?

You should look at the blue heat pads between the GPU and heat sink (GPU is the one on the left)

 

Well the NVIDIA chip failed in my laptop, so I just assumed the whole motherboard was replaced. I didn't think that included the fan bits and pieces though? I'm fairly sure the fan is still the same.

Our house IS very dusty though, so from now on I'll be keeping a close eye on it.

I just ran the FurMark demo and TAT Stress Test all night and the laptop stayed much cooler (though the fan was running high) and survived the night.

Idle Temps are now

CPU: 39c
GPU: 62c
ACPI: 40c

I will look at heatpads tonight, though I don't remember seeing any blue bits when I was looking at it last night. I'll take some photos, we have a digitial camera that takes good macro pictures.

Thanks both for your help with this.

Tim

 

Those are much better temps

 

Yes, the FAN will be same, but DELL normally clean everything when they do a repair. When they replaced my motherboard it came back all clean (even with the same heat sink and chassis)

That is quite normal for a M1330. No need to worry about anything with those temps.

 

When I had the NVIDIA fail,the Dell guy came to my house and he had the whole thing to bits in about 5 minutes (I mean bits. Bits everywhere!) but 10 minutes later it was all back together again. I don't think he cleaned anything though, he was keen to get onto his next job.

Glad the temp's are normal, the laptop is much nicer to use today - not getting hot at all!!

Tim

 

Could a mod update the title of this thread please?
I updated the title in my first post, but it doesn't seem to reflect on the whole thread...

Thanks,
Tim

 

I see, I had to send mine to DELL service center, because I didnt buy the athome service ....

No need to change the title, In your first post put something like
Solved , so everyone will see.

 

@PhoenixFx: When I bought mine here in the UK, the warranty included next business day onsite support. I don't think it was possible to downgrade either. Maybe it was though.

Will update first post.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

Tim