XPS1530 GPU 94C when gaming

Hey, thanks for reading!

I have owned my XPS 1530 for about 8 months now. It has been quite some time since i took my original temperatures, but i remember running games like warhammer online, call of duty, etc, at a temperature of 45c idle status , and like GPU 71c under hours of gaming. I think the hottest it got was GPU 79 degrees. 8 months later i decided to try gaming again and to my surprise my laptop is getting SO hot that it burns my hands and my speedfan shows the GPU at like GPU 64 idle ( 69 when the batter adapter is in) and up to 91-95 when on a game. I used to have a zalman laptop cooler which kept my comp a bit cooler, but i only noticed it effecting my temp. by about 2-3 degrees. I am going to undervolt and get my broken zalman replaced but I need to know one thing:

Do I have defective hardware? Is it normal to see an increase in temperatures as laptops get older? I am very afraid that something is damaged. Also, is there a specific driver that i should be running which can help my graphics card cool down, or am i one of the unlucky few who have been given a bugged 8600gt.

According to Dell's assistance webpage I have the most recent drivers ( the last one was in october of 2008 correct?) any help would be great .

 

I'd say its probably just dust building up, clogging your heatsink fan and the fan grills.

 

Yep, clean up your fan. If it's dusty, you will notice great improvement in temps when cleaned up.

 

In cases like this would a simple Air Spray do the job? And is it possible to do this without opening up the laptop?

(just for future reference )

 

I had my motherboard replaced because my gpu temps hit 100C while gaming. Now, with the new motherboard gpu temps go to 110-120C sometimes. So consider yourself lucky?

Ps. with 110Celcius, you cant really touch the palm rest anymore. too hot

 

Air spray would be perfect, though to really get rid of the dust you would probably need to remove the bottom panel. (Well it would make life easier for you anyway)

The most important thing when using airspray is to make sure that you're actually blowing the dust out of the laptop.

100-120!! I'd get back on to Dell straight away. Those sort of temperatures will drastically reduce the laptops lifespan. If your palmrest is too hot to touch then your hard-drive is also over-heating.

 

Call dell, or wait till your laptop exploses one of these days to get a replacement :S

 

i had just removed my case and cleaned out the actual fan. I didn't touch the processor or GPU, maybe I should do that! I am going to undervolt as well. so let's see how it goes! thanks for the help.

 

I just did what you all said and the temperature after 20 minutes of gaming is still 93c :-( should i call dell? is it defective?