XPS M1730 - Performance drops after 20 mins of gaming!

Hi, I have a M1730 with 8700gt sli GPU's. My problem is that, if i turn on the notebook and start playing a newish game, it will run great for 20 mins or so, then its performance will drop dramatically, to the point of not being able to play due to framerate drop.

My instincts tell me that it is a heat problem, beacuse if i turn it off and leave it for a bit, i can turn it back on and play fine again.

Does anyone have any idea what i can do to sort this out?

Cheers.

 

Welcome to the NBR forums.

Sounds like overheating.... is causing your videocard(s) to downclock itself.

please tell me you monitor your temps. .... also check out the NBR Cooling Central.

If you are overheating... usually any temp over 90C degrees is bad.

when was the last time that you cleaned out the fans and vents thoroughly...?

if never, then thats why.

1) remove battery
2) remove/unscrew the panels on the bottom of the notebook to get to fans and vents ( if possible, if not its okay)
3) use flashlight to look through vents for the dust (if you cant see the light on the other end, then the vents are clogged up)
4) go outside, get some compressed air (cans or compressor @ 50 PSI) and give the vents a good airing out all directions ( concentrating on the vents)
.... you might want to brace the fan blade(s) when airing it out (with a toothpick or paperclip to prevent it from spinning out too much)
.... or use short bursts (1-2 secs) of air instead of bracing the fans.
5) go get some Q-tips and swab the fan blades and the area around it
6) then go do a second airing with compressed air (all directions again focusing on the fans and vents) to push out the dust that was dislodged from the Q-tips

7*) Now go use the flashlight again and look through the vents (shine the flashlight from the fan, you look through the other end) for anymore dust clogs.

8) Then start up the notebook... and let the fans cycle up (use the Fan Toggle at max speed if your system has it) to push out any other dust that might have been stuck.

If all goes well you should be able to close up the notebook and...

you're done.

*repeat this step until its cleaned out.

Thats pretty much it.

Just make sure to do this every two-three months... it should take about 15-20min per cleaning if you want to be thorough.

________________________

Gaming notebooks are a new thing, you must realize that you have to take some extra care of them over typical use notebooks:

1) Battery: to maintain the longevity of any rechargeable battery
- you must NEVER overcharge it [especially for long durations of time, like 24/7] by keeping it plugged into AC
- you can just charge it to 50%+ and remove the battery and store in cool place.. not the fridge [remember to give it full charge cycles it occasionally 3-4 time a years].

2.) Heat: to prevent a healthy notebook from overheating
- ALWAYS use the notebook on a clean, hard & flat surface
- RECOMMENDED to be used on a notebook cooler... visit the Notebook Coolers : A Buyers Guide
- check your fans underneath occasionally (at least once a month or two) for any dust clogs [clean them out with Q-tips and air cans/compressors]
- ALWAYS monitor the temps (CPU, GPU, HDD, etc..) to watch for fluctuations, which would indicate overheating by dust usually
(for Clevo notebooks) use the Fan Toggle to switch all fans to Max Speed when gaming and such.

By doing these simple things, your entire system will easily last for more than 3 years.

 

Sounds defiantely like a heating problem, find out what temps you're getting with a program like rivatuner in the background, then we can see if the card is going into dangerous temperature range. If it is a heat problem you could a) buy a cooler pad for your laptop b) If you know what your doing, reapply thermal paste to the gpu's and heatsink and see if their is a decrease in temps c) Send it to Dell

 

Hi, I've installed RivaTuner. I'm a little bit confused as to how to use it. I've check the documentation but would be greatful of a breif description of how I should use it to monitor temperatures.

 

It's ok I've worked that out. Sorry for the hastey post.

 

My GPU core temperature seems to be 80 degrees C when idle. That seems quite high to me, seeing as I'm being told anything over 90 can cause problems. Is there anyone out there with a similar rig who can tell me what temp they are getting when idle?

Thanks

 

80C is not a good idle temp for the most part, it shoul dusually stay around 60C or below.

you should really clean out your vents and make sure you are not block the airflow (vents and fans).

like I said in my temps thread.... idle temps are not as important as the temp at full load... like during gaming.

did you try to play some games and see what the max temp is (using the RivaTuner OSD)?

 

I'm at work at the moment and am only remoting in on my home xps, so I can't run any game until I get home. I will pickup some compressed air today and try to clean the vents later. Also I'm looking into getting a cooling pad for the laptop to sit on. There seems to be quite a lot, all with different layouts. Is there one that is particularly suited to the M1730?

Thanks

 

yeah, sounds like overheating problem allright.

try HW monitor perhaps? google HW monitor, the maker is CPUID. and see the gpu's temperature (i think HW monitor might be able to monitor gpu, but not sure).

it is unlikely that the computer is chokefull of dust, the m1730 is reasonably new computer.

the old 8400/8600/8700 and many of the 8-series variant, is widely known to have a defect with regards to the chip heating and causing the soldering between the gpu and its packaging board to separate.

i think you should speak to DELL.

 

Yes i've only had it for under a year and it was brand new, out of the box when i bought it.

 

Notebook Coolers : A Buyers Guide

 

Judging by what other M1730 owners are saying, i think that 80 degrees while idle is proof that there is a hardware fault somewhere. I am going to get onto dell about this.

 

you should because i have it and its stays in 60c while idle dell should help theyve been helpful to me

 

Thought I'd post this in case it can help any other M1730 owners. Last night i decided to 'blow' into the fans and the general ventilation system, almost like a harmonica. Probably not the recommended way of doing it. You could hear the fans whizzing round and plumes of dust started coming out. After doing this for a while I fired it up and the temp now sits at a lovely cool 57C while idle, with small little peaks every 10 mins or so up to about 68C before the fans kick back in. I started playing some games and the tempt never exceeded 75C and ran like an absolute dream. I can't believe the solution was so simple. I think I'm going to buy some compressed air and do a proper job on cleaning the vents as Gophn advised earlier on this post, but I have to say that my makeshift 'harmonica' method certainly did the job.

I'm quite surprised that Dell don't issue a maintenance guide with the laptop itself. Can't see any proceedure for cleaning out the dust in the manual.

 

scooter, for future reference - when you 'vent the dust' (compressed air blast), before doing so grab a small paperclip, toothpick or long sewing needle and insert it into the fan between the blades. By doing so you will prevent the blades from spinning at an unsafe rotation speed. Just a quick step to prevent any more 'problems'.

Its amazing how much dust gets sucked into those fins and the fan housing. On a whim I cracked open my machine tonight to give it a good air blasting and to my surprise there was very little dust to be found inside the chassis.

Glad to hear your heat issue is gone.

 

Thanks for the tip BatBoy. I'll make sure to do that when i use the compressed air. It's nice to be able to start loving my M1730 again, and to remember why I bought it in the first place.

 

glad to hear you have learned the dangers of dust clogs

I am pretty annoyed at notebook vendors that sell these high-end performance notebooks and do not do an adequate job on telling the consumers on how to take care of their systems.

... maybe they don't care or maybe want it to break so that you will have to get it serviced or make you buy a new one

In any case, make sure you take care of your notebook if you want it to take care of you.