XPS M1530 Temperatures Just Won't Stop Rising!!! Even After Replacement!

There is something wrong with the XPS M1530. Almost every owner seems to have overheating problems and those that don't may just not realise it. It seems to happen amongst gamers. Is the overheating because we're gaming 'too much'? Should the XPS M1530 be able to cope? I have so many questions because I'm having my share of overheating problems...something which I recently feel is unavoidable...


After owning my laptop for 8 months, I only just started to monitor the temperatures after I was getting huge drops in fps while gaming after a length of time as well as some artifacting.

On the 15/12/08 which is just over 2 weeks ago I had my motherboard and heatsink/fan replaced because of the following high temperatures I would get when playing games.






After, they were replaced I played some COD4 for 30 mins or so and got the following temperatures. When I saw these temps, I thought "Awesome, my temps are finally normal".






On the 22nd, 1 week after the replacement, I monitored my temperatures as I played TF2 for an hour. As you can see, there was a increase in my max temperatures and at this point, I wondered if maybe the temps will slowly become high again.






Another week later, yesterday on the 30th, I once again monitored my temps and played L4D for 20 mins or so to find that my temps have yet again risen but this time quite a bit more.






Alright so the question is, what the hec is going on with the XPS M1530 and why do the temperatures just keep going up even after getting a new motherboard and heatsink/fan!?!? Seriously, in just two weeks, my temps have risen by as much as 10 degrees celcius! Is this some kind of hardware failure or is this normal? Is it the thermal paste that's melting away or what? What could be going wrong?

Has anyone else noticed their temps rising again after getting a replacement?

This is extremely frustrating because I can't do anything without worrying and constantly monitoring my temperatures. At this rate, I reckon within a month, my temps will reach back up to the 90's.

So many people have overheating problems with the XPS M1530. My friend too has just had his motherboard and heatsink/fan replaced because of the same problems.

I've got less than 4 months warranty remaining and I'm getting pretty annoyed with what's going on. If I'm having problems now, I'll most likely have them after the 4 months as well.

Does anyone know if Dell can give a FULL refund or replacement because of the continuous problems I'm having? I also had my heatsink/fan replaced about 4 months ago not because of overheating but because it rattled (problem with the bearing or something) so that is a unrelated problem.

I really like the XPS M1530 overall. It's sleek, looks awesome, runs well and has some really cool features that other laptops don't have, but this one big overheating issue is just really bringing down the whole experience.

I shouldn't have to have my motherboard and heatsink/fan replaced every month just to be able to keep low temperatures. I have even undervolted my CPU and temperatures dropped significantly (~10 degrees celcius), but within a week, they rose back up to the temperatures I was getting before I undervolted. I have a Zalman NC1000 laptop cooler on the way which I should get in a couple weeks but that too will most likely do the same as undervolting did. I'll see a drop in temps, but it won't stop them from rising.

 

I have seen very few reports of M1530s overheating, on this site or anywhere else. Considering it is a hugely popular model, with a lot of sales, I would need to see dozens more reports before I could consider it a high % failure rate.

Call Dell if you think your system is overheating.

 

I think something wrong with Dell thermal /paste grease quality.
Wow, just a couple of weeks already dried up?

Btw, what is your CPU type? Mine is T7700. This thing is really produce heat.
Before undervolting max temperature is around 82 C, now is 72 C.

I already applied Tuniq TX-2 for my M1530. So far temperatures are pretty stable.

max temp: CPU 72 C, GPU 80 C
my ambient temperature is around 30 C.

 

Yours looks like its ready to BLOW!

 

"I think something wrong with Dell thermal /paste grease quality.
Wow, just a couple of weeks already dried up?"

I'm going to heavily second this. I removed my heatsink and replaced the crud that Dell refers to as heatsink grease with Dynex silver paste (not the best but good enough) from Best Buy. I believe that this along with undervolting will completely eliminate your symptoms.

I had issues until I did the above. The system as I received it would not perform normally (without downclocking at 85c) much less overclock. After my mods the same GPU that most would have thought was defective will now overclock 600/800 (or more, haven't pushed it), score over 6,100 in 3dmark 06, and blow through Area 51 at default settings and 1440x900. It also runs through Crysis at med/low settings and 1024x768 without stuttering, not even once. It probably will handle 1280x800 just fine, I just haven't bothered to try.

It is indeed a design flaw brought to you by the engineers at Dell. However you can fix this. It also might help if you get the better revision of the heatsink (I'm guessing you have the one with aluminum over the northbridge and GPU like I have). These machines should have never left the drawing board with the temps they run at. Add bad production quality and you have a GPU waiting to melt down.

If you want to read all the details go here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=336462

Warning: if you have no experience at this kind of thing get a friend that knows what he's doing. You need a light touch and you want to put very little grease on the chips before reassembly. The most common mistake that I see people make is that they glob the stuff on there, the reassembly sandwiches the grease over the sides of the chip, and that just cost them about 3 - 4 deggrees celcius because the grease is now insulating the GPU and CPU.

 

I believe it was more of a coincidence that you happened to get overheating hardware on your repairs. Also, I recommend building your own notebook cooler, that can very much help out the temps. My max temps have dropped ~10 Celsius for both GPU and CPU with my fan. GL on the issue.

 

"I believe it was more of a coincidence that you happened to get overheating hardware on your repairs. Also, I recommend building your own notebook cooler, that can very much help out the temps. My max temps have dropped ~10 Celsius for both GPU and CPU with my fan. GL on the issue."

I don't think this is coincidence. What he is reporting is right on par with my own account and numerous other accounts. If he follows my very detailed guide that I linked to he'll get more than 10c improvement and won't have to use a cooler. However I will also say that if you are someone who is weary of taking the thing appart, a cooler is an excellent option.

I think that thereason it is getting worse over time is because the absolute garbage that Dell is using for heatsink paste is drying up over a very small amount of time and destroying the thermal conductivity of the CPU/GPU dies and their heatsink contacts. This is precisely what I observed when I pulled mine apart. The grease was completely dried up. And what's worse is that the amount that spilled over the sides of the CPU/GPU was insulating.

One more note - this problem is heavily linked to the CPU. I noted that when during strictly CPU tests, the GPU followed the CPU temp even though it was doing nothing. The CPU would be at 65 and the GPU would be at 75 - always 9 or 10c higher than the CPU. As the test ended and the CPU was coming back down, the GPU would follow right along and come down with it, always staying 10c above the CPU. What is happening here is that the brainiacs at Dell have a design where heat from the CPU is jacking up the GPU even when the GPU is doing nothing. That explains why undervolting works to solve this. Undervolting by only 150 milivolts will buy 10c + decrease in CPU AND GPU temps.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=296353

That thread shows many people with overheating problems. This is my second time experiencing overheating. My friend is getting overheating. All this from my eyes doesn't seem like a coincidence one bit. Even the Dell technician said my problem is one of the bigger problems he's seeing.

I'm certain it happens to gamers cause playing games is what increases temps right? So playing games is what wears out the thermal paste. I'm sure those that don't have noticeable problems don't play games much or they just haven't checked their temps before because they don't know about it.

And I don't want to call Dell 2 weeks after I got mine repaired....that's just ridiculous. I know the same thing is just going to happen.

My CPU is a T8300 2.4GHz.

Yeah I've always felt that it was the thermal paste melting away. I couldn't see any other reason for a huge increase in temps in only 2 weeks. Maybe I'll try out some Arctic Silver 5...I heard that was good.

My brother has the ASUS M51Sn which he's had for 6 months or so and his CPU temps have remained stable the whole time. No increase.

In regards to the heatsink I have, I'm not 100% certain but from memory I think I have the aluminum one. However I thought the aluminum ones were the new ones to replace the copper ones? Either way, I've had my heatsink/fan replaced twice now so I'm sure I have whichever the latest one is.

Thanks for the replies guys. More help/advice/stories would be appreciated!

 

bboy1, could you remove your cover and take a picture of your heatsink? That will be very helpful in improving our overall picture of this situation as we discussed in my other thread.

 

One more thing - this really gripes me because let's assume that it's the worst case and it costs Dell $10 per unit to use the good heatsink. Just add it into the price Dell and we we'll gladly pay the freakin $10 so that we have sound machines that don't overheat.

I'm glad we have a competent and friendly community to help solve problems. With our collective work we don't have to be their victims.

 

Hi,

I had also overheating issues! My GPU went to 93c! Now I have for 2 months a new mainbord + heatsink !

I've got the same tempature rising like bboy, but I don't mind, now it's stable for 1 month. Like your latest picture. I hope everything is fine with my gpu now.

BBOY when you are gaming now? and running HWmonitor? What kind of output you then get?

greetz

 

Hey man sorry for getting back to the request late. I opened the back to see what heatsink I have and surprise surprise I have the aluminum one. Do you think I should get Dell to come and replace it with the first copper revision?

Since my last post 2 weeks ago my temperatures have risen a few degrees as you can see. Still not good. Another thing I've noticed is that my idle temperatures are higher than they were before I got the motherboard and heatsink replaced. My GPU idle temps for example used to go down to 53 at the lowest but now 58 is the lowest it will go down to while most of the time when it's idle it'll stay above 60. Same applies for CPU and ACPI temps.

My fan used to turn off at 53 and turn back on at 62. Now it turns off at 58 and comes back on at 65. I still reckon the temps will gradually keep rising until they reach the temps I had before.






Oh and another thing...my friend got his motherboard replaced but it made no difference to his high temps. So he's going to get his heatsink replaced which is most likely the cause of all this overheating. He said there wasn't much thermal paste left and of what was there, it was all dried up.

 

Hey,

Mmm if it keeps rising it's not good.

I've reached a 87c temperature after doing some stress tests :s wow back those high temperatures like before.

But still, when I'm online gaming (Wolfenstein Enemy Territory) (don't know it stresses a lot) I have average of 75c. So that's better, because before replacement it was hitting average 86c. So it's still cooler, and I hope it stats like that. Because my warrenty period is over. (and had 3 mainboard replacements so far).

grtz

 

Just out of curiosity ... is the 7800 GTX in the same 'league' as 8600m gt in terms of heating issue ?

I used to own an Inspiron 9300 and at that time was crazy about wanting to get a 7800 gtx (but never got to it ... too expensive). Ive heard from a lot of people saying the 7800 gtx can go over 100'C (thats the impression i get from A LOT of people saying 'my laptop is like a kettle').

So ... in that case ... is the 7800 gtx over heating ? or just normal operation temperature ?

 

Well, does 80c count as overheating? I have never broken the 75 barrier, but I would only consider overheating as 85+. I would have thought 80 after playing games intensively would be okay, provided the gpu returns to normal temps after you stop stressing it. On the temp survey posts, everyone says their gpu hits mid 70's at least whilst gaming, so would 80c really be that much of a difference?

I normally idle at 55-60. Although I seem to idle between 50 and 55 if I am running off battery

 

Sorry for bumping a old post, but I just thought I would chime in and say that my average idle temps for my XPS M1530 are usually right around 72-75 and when I go full load it will easily jump up to 90. I talked with dell and they are sending a replacement, but from what I gather from here I am not sure how helpful that will be...

 

Just updating. My temperatures have almost risen up to what they were when I first started this thread. Not good. I emailed Dell and after some convincing and a few emails they said they'd send me a copper heatsink this time. Don't know which revision it is but it should be better. I'll see how it goes. Less than 2 months warranty remaining.

 

Please update your temperatures with your new heatsink.
We also need a couple weeks to see whether temperatures will increase like previous one.

 

To be honest I think it will still rise. I think it's a combination of the heatsink and thermal paste. I'll probably get some AS5 and apply it to the copper heatsink eventually.

 

Grr stupid Dell. They sent an aluminum heatsink again! The guy in the email said he'll make sure that this time a copper heatsink will be sent but to no surprise that wasn't the case..

I just sent another email telling him that I got the aluminum one again...

Oh and when the technician was taking off the old heatsink, he had to scratch off the thermal paste which was all dried up on the CPU, GPU. It had all melted...

 

Ok, played CoH for 1 hour. Results were good but this is the case with every new heatsink. Temperatures will rise eventually.

These max temps were with the new heatsink (aluminum though), undervolting my CPU and with a Zalman NC-1000 notebook cooler!

I know this doesn't say much for comparisons sake since I'm undervolting and using a cooler but if you refer to my first pic in the very first post, I'm sure my temps without undervolting and a cooler would be the same as that since it's the exact same scenario with the aluminum heatsink.




Even though I don't have the copper heatsink I don't think that's the real problem. Copper should be better than aluminum but the differences are probably minimal since it's the thermal plates that are different metals. The actual heatsink or pipes or wtv is still copper in all revisions. So I think all this overheating lies with the thermal paste. In other words, the one Dell uses is crap or it doesn't last very long.

I don't know if I'll be getting the copper heatsink and I don't know if I should even bother since I can't imagine it making much of a difference.

I expect my temperatures to rise again. If they do, I'll just be replacing the thermal paste with some Arctic Silver 5.

 

They are fantastic max temps after an hour of gaming. No problems here at all.

 

is there a website on how to apply thermal paste on our xps m1530 step by step starting from removing the case plate under the laptop? i just want to make sure.....itz a bit tricky that if you happened to slip your screwdriver and nick the motherboard......... :'(

 

This is a good 10 step tutorial if you haven't already found it

http://www.robertbromfield.com/Tutorials/Changing the thermal paste on the M1530.pdf

 

I have the same problems. I have been working with dell to resolve this over the last few months. It's getting ridiculous. They have upgraded my bios to the exact same thing four times now. They have replaced my motherboard, heat sinc (copper) and fan twice now (within a few weeks of each other). The reason for the second replacement was "the first parts we replaced were defective".
My laptop just gets super hot, shuts down, and won't come back up for about a half an hour. It will no longer suspend, sleep, or hibernate either. I have been on dell chat for hours and hours working with technicians who do the same thing, over and over again with no resolution.
Today, a dell technician is restoring everything to factory settings. I highly doubt this will fix everything as I have had the problem since I un-boxed the laptop. Anyone have any suggestions?