Dell Studio 1557

Hi,

In all reviews I found, Arctic MX-4 is better than Shin-Etsu G751. However, when I tested it myself, I found it's the opposite. I believe whether the thermal compound work best or not depend on few factors. In all reviews I found, they all tested the thermal compound on desktop computer. For sure heatsink on desktop computer put more pressure to the CPU than on notebook & desktop CPU have heat spreader while notebook CPU have heat cap. Someone told me certain thermal compound, e.g. ICD7, need under pressure to work best. So far, all people I talked to said Shin-Etsu is recommended for notebooks. One thing for sure, it does deliver good job.

It doesn't say on the syringe but I think I have 0.5g or 1g. I bought two just in case. I only have use one syringe on two of my notebooks & there is still some left in it. Shin-Etsu X23 also good too. You can see here for the X23 performance.

 

Hi again,

X23 seems to be even more difficult to find, I will stick to G751. I know that good steady contact is important for the proper functioning of the thermal paste. I was a little worried by the ultra thick ICD7. I did exactly as suggested, just put big blob of paste in the middle and press the heat sink/cup onto it. It kinda worked as expected but I was afraid that the spreading was not even in all directions. Well, there was still considerable reduction in temperatures, but should also be part of the copper shim mod effects. Now I am still idling at 55 degrees C but the max load temperatures got higher and higher with time reaching 84-85 and even 90 after prolonged game play at high resolution. With normal everyday use max temps don't exceed 75 deg C but it is the high load occasions that troubles me. It just feels that the cooling has become somewhat slower, less effective compared to what it used to be months after the mod.

 

For thicker thermal compound like ICD7, you need to spread them, for example using credit card. Since it's very thick, recommended to apply a thin layer for best performance. G751 is much easier to apply. You can use "blob" or "pea" method on ATI chipset & "a line" method on processor. Then press heatsink to spread them.

I didn't play many games, only Bad Company 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Shift & Dirt 2. CPU temperature never over 80C. Maximum 76C - 77C. Of course, I'm using cooling pad. Room temperature are higher (32C - 36C) & air are hotter here, so cooling pad is a must to improved air flow. Basically just need to raise the back of notebook a little bit.

 

Hello to you all, I'm really looking for some help with some very irritating BSOD occurring on my laptop. Now I know I could traipse through the world of google and find my answer, and believe me I have. As my BSOD is never quite the same, and I've also tried almost every suggestion under the sun, I'm beginning to lose my patience with this thing. Im looking for anyone out the to help me slowly rule out common issues one by one so I can try and determine what my issue might be. I have done the copper shim mod, My GPU temps are fine, although my wifi card and I assumed southbridge/chipset, which ever it is gets very hot. I have also tried what I can assume is every combination of drivers under the sun. I have read almost everywhere Ive looked that CCC is an issue, or the driver its self, Ive tried removing it, Using it, Turning off power play, old drivers, new drivers. Almost everything (I say almost as im sure ive bound to have missed something) Ive reinstalled windows so many times. is doing my head in.

I need to start from the bottom. I guess the first thing id like to know, is if anyone in here has a stable system? That means being able to boot, work, Watch youtube and video edit, without any issue. Im going to try to remove the driver as being a cause first. So if anyone here has a stable system, Any chance you could give me a list of driver versions and what not so I can compare, get my system to the same place and test from there.

I will add that the majority of my BSOD come from youtube vids. I have tried the hardware acceleration setting but its doesnt make a difference. And its very random. I havent been able to recreate the situation to determine the cause. But other than youtube, the system has been known to BSOD while just sat on desktop. For no reason.

But lets crack the drivers first, and then go from there. If anyone can help, I would be so grateful

Thanks

 

Hi,

My notebook is stable. I can't remember when the last time I got BSOD on this notebook. I watch youtube a lot, sometime fullscreen. No problem whatsoever. I'm using Catalyst 11.10 now. Even with older version, no problem at all. Other drivers are from Dell support website. My touchpad not too hot, just warm little bit when playing games. So, the south bridge chipset (PM55) not overheat. I replaced thermal pad on the south bridge chipset with thermal paste.

On our notebook, if overheating, the BIOS settings usually reset to default. Did you noticed such behavior? If it BSOD while idling, probably motherboard is failing. You can try the old school trick; removed the battery, AC adapter & press the power button for 20 seconds to discharge any "bad" charge. You also can try removed the CMOS/RTC battery for 20 seconds to reset the CMOS.

 

Thanks for taking the time to get back to me, I took your advice, and tried the discharge. I will point out I doubt that the motherboards on its way out, It only recently got replace, since getting the 1557, Ive had a new mobo, new hd and new LCD screen. I will run it for a few hours try some youtube vids and let you know the results. I have a lot of BSOD dumps if theres any need to check them out. I'll post back soon. Thanks again for your help. Oh...didnt really understand the bios stuff. One area ive never really taken much time over, I know my way around it, but rarely change any settings.

 

Ok an update, Watched a few vids on youtube, Decided to pick a 1080p video. Watched in a small screen, and everything crashed. Nothing would respond, and the sound from the speakers crashed too, meaning that awful sound. Sometimes this causes a BSOD, however it didnt, had to manually shutdown the laptop in order to start again. Any suggestions. Running the latest drivers.

 

The reason why I suspect the motherboard because you already reinstall windows many time but the problem still persist. Please post the BSOD dumps. I'll try take a look. If BSOD Bug Check Codes are random every time BSOD, perhaps the DDR3 memory module(s) is/are faulty. You can test them by using only one module at a time. See which one causing the BSOD.

EDIT: Please post the link to 1080p video, the one you watched. I want to try it on my notebook. Which browser did you use, IE or Firefox? I'm using Firefox. Currently Shockwave Flash v11.1.102.55 is installed. Are you using video driver from Dell or ATI? I use driver from ATI.

 

Ok heres some of the most recent BSOD dumps. I'll give the ram a go, I have run sooo many memtests. trying to see if I can find any problems, but never seems to pick up on any, Havent tried them one at a time. I will give that a go

the video on youtube was "Big Buck Bunny animation (1080p HD)"

It only crashed at the end when I decided to rewind and watch the last few seconds again. Then it just died on me.

Thanks again for trying to help. Will give the solo ram a go, Just wish I could re create the BSOD to get a good understanding as to which ram stick it is. I have tried stress testing the GPU but there never seems to cause an issue, Which is why I needed to rule out driver issues. Because I seriously doubt its my GPU, even though I know this can be an issue. Can I ask do you run catalyst centre? I have the latest ATI drivers. but did have the dell driver on here previously, I removed them with driver sweeper, as told to, but either one Im still gettting the same issue. Glad to know someone has a stable system was losing the will to live. Thanks again, Will post about solo ram. Any ideas on what I can do to try to force the ram to fail, and show a BSOD. so I know that thats the problem?

 

Official (not Dell) ATI Catalyst driver: 11.10
Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium

	Firefox 8		Internet Explorer 9
Video	Big Buck Bunny animation (1080p HD) - YouTube
Flash Player version	11.1.102.55		10.2.152.26
Settings	1080p & hardware acceleration enabled
	Normal screen	Full screen	Normal screen	Full screen
Result	No BSOD or crash

I installed Catalyst Control Center but I didn't change any settings in it. Everything are defaults. PowerPlay is enabled all the time. I also did not overclock.

I have examined the BSOD dumps. I don't think the memory modules are faulty. One dump show the ATI driver crashed which explain the youtube video problem & the other two show IRQ problem (Bug Check 0xA). The IRQ problem, if I'm not mistaken, happen because one (or more) device(s) is/are suddenly turn off/disabled/disconnected. In summary, look like the problem you're experiencing is drivers related.

Download the 1080p video & play it using windows media player or media player classic. See if it also cause the same problem (BSOD or crash or hang).

Then, try downgrade the ATI driver to 11.10 or 10.XX. Also make sure the Flash Player have the same version like mine.

 

OK man I will try all of your suggestions, Just thought Id update you on something else,

Just been playing Skyrim for the last couple of hours and got this BSOD. Oddly, gaming was fine temps got to about 72 degress. which i think is ok. But the BSOD only happened once I paused it to go get a cup of tea. Annoying. Thought you could have a look and see. cheers for your help again pal.

Will follow ur advice and get the same flash and ati drivers. Will let you know how it goes. I thought the ATI was the issue. but tried so many driver versions That id lost hope.

Will post back soon

 

The latest BSOD also show that the graphic card stop responding. Windows tried to re-initialize the graphic card but failed, resulting BSOD. The source of the problem can be anything, either hardware or software. I can only guessing & I think the memory module(s) might be bad. Bad memory can interrupt communication between graphic card & system. Sometime memtest unable to detect bad memory. It's hard to narrow down which one causing the problem. We already eliminate overheating because temperature is normal. What is the temperature of thermal sensors, TZ00 & TZ01? TZ00 should be lower than TZ01 & TZ01 should be similar with CPU temp.

To check system file integrity, you can run System File Check in command prompt window:-

Code:

sfc /scannow

 

As I write this

TZ00 is 27 deg
TZ01 is 56 deg

And CPU is 56

Im glad someone has explained memtest isnt all that, I read on the internet so many people explaining how great it was bla bla, being that my memory hasnt been changed since purchase, but all the other parts have, I was leading my self to believe it was that, I wish there was a way to test this better. I will run the scan later and let you know the results. and i'll get cracking with downgrading the ATI driver. If I was just able to recreate the BSOD, force it to occur, I could then begin testing new memory, but because its so random, I could go a few days with now BSOD and pow! it'll just happen again. will post back soon

 

Thermal sensors temp look good. Nothing wrong there. I'm just guessing the memory is bad. I could be wrong though. Memtest is does good tool to check/detect bad memory. You might want to read this article. This guy also use memtest to test the memory but didn't found any error. Installed new memory module & problem go away. Computer memory nowadays more advanced, I think it can fixed/correct any minor problem itself which explain why memtest didn't find any error. You might thinking "if so, why it unable to fixed itself when I'm using windows, while watching youtube & playing games?". To be honest, I can't answer it. I'm not following latest memory technology anyway. For sure, windows is more complex than DOS. If memtest can test communication between graphic card & memory, it might be able to detect the problem.

Good idea to test older driver first. I'm hoping it just driver issue. You might want to check HDD too if you haven't done so. Good luck!

 

Ok!! dont think ive ever been this excited in my life. So.....its 3:30am here in England, and ive been playing Skyrim for hours! When suddenly I started getting repeat freezes interrupting me slaying dragons!

So I borrowed another 2gb stick of ram and decided to swap it with on of the sticks in my laptop. Played on for a further 4 hours, and had no issue what so ever, So decided while taking a break to swap the original stick with the now spare, got about 30 minutes of play and BAM! freeze....sooo Im going to go ahead and say, that is my problem, one of my sticks had failed. If anyone can prompt me and confirm this is most likely the case.

i'll add this as a closing, ive had this problem now for months. BSOD haunting me for so long, and I searched through every forum possible to find the answer.

Ive tried drivers of all kinds, hd tests, cpu tests, gpu tests, and even the highly approved and I quote "will find any bad ram" Memtest86+ and found no issue what so ever.

And after all that, it was down to one stick causing my problems. Well....so far. Of course I need to do a bit more gaming and testing to make sure. But I thought id add this in for anyone else experiencing the same issue, if you are running the latest drivers, and your system is up to date, you've run stress tests and hd scans and all other manner of diagnostics tools. Check your memory. It may be pain staking, and sometimes hard to replicate results. But in the end, there it is, faulty memory causes all manner of issues.

Thanks to kizwan for all of your help. I came here looking for a place to start trouble shooting and with a little patience and trial and error, it looks to be that we got there. Will come back soon with an update, I always find it so annoying when forums never have the answer, or people never follow up.

 

I'm glad to hear you found the source of the problem. I hope the problem is now really solved.

 

Well, ha, woke up this morning to watch a few youtube videos and bam! another BSOD. It really doesnt like flash, Im now on 11.10 like you kizwan, so I can rule out the driver, the hard drive got replaced recently. So now I guess the only option is both sticks of ram are faulty somehow. I just didnt want to buy two new sticks only to realise thats not the problem, And then after that, where do i go, Ive posted the latest BSOD. just incase theres something there

 

The latest crash dump also show the video device stop responding, windows try to reinitialized it but failed, resulting BSOD.

I don't think anymore RAM is the cause of the problem. This problem happen right after you did the copper shims mod, right? You might want to disassemble your notebook & check the copper shims again. Make sure it doesn't move and/or touch anything.

 

No when I first got the system it was doing this. But to rule it out, a few weeks ago I rechecked the shim mod, re applied paste and made sure it was correct. But no improvement. In fact, after the Dell engineer came and replaced the mother board when i first bought it, he reapplied new heat pads, and paste, but it still BSOD. Dam, still no closer to finding out this issue, Im just curious why I can play Skyrim for hours with now issue, but then a few youtube vids and it crashes, or why I can go sol long with out any issue, but then all of a sudden have 3 or 4 a day. Grrr. Still no closer to solving this then.

 

Been reading a little more info online, seems hardware acceleration can cause some trouble. Kizwan, do you have hardware acceleration in flash setting enabled or disabled? Im trying to use logic to determine the issue, running a GPU stress tests yields no problems, playing games for hours doesn't either, well, now and then I can have a problem. But flash videos, particularly youtube. and im BSOD like crazy. Im now running all the same drivers as you, so there has to be something here im missing. Just ran the dell approved CPU stress test, that came back fine. Im sure its not brilliant. But I wanted to rule it out. I even tried going on a few flash heavy websites earlier, but no crashes, Im just trying to replicate the crash so I can test hardware. Its really starting to annoy me. Its such a good laptop when it doesn't crash, I don't want to part with it. If I can just find a way to force a crash everytime, I can then look at testing my memory to see if its both sticks or one, or even none. Any idea how to try and force the crash? flash stress test maybe, like i said GPU stress tests I dont have any issues. Driving me crazy

 

Sorry to spam the crap out of this, trying to give as much info as poss. so maybe someone can see the issue that i cant, Just ran furmark extreme brun in, along side an AIDA64 full system scan (cpu, memory etc) nothing, not a single crash. Im lost. Im trying to force this laptop to fail and it wont. Stupid thing ha

 

On my notebook, hardware acceleration in flash is enabled. I like to watch Air Crash Investigation video on youtube. I watched several episodes back-to-back without any problem, both normal & full screen. When I'm at home I use external monitor but I watched youtube video on internal LCD too. Sorry, I don't know how to force the crash though.

Dell changed the motherboard but didn't changed the RAM, right? I don't think this is software/drivers issue. You're using latest driver from Dell (except graphic card), right? Windows up-to-date, applied all important patches, right? BIOS up-to-date (A09), right? Flash player version also the same with the one I use & also official 11.10 driver from ATI. What you can do right now is test both RAM sticks thoroughly.

I'm just curious, Windows 7 you're using right now is not preinstalled windows, which came with this notebook, right? I mean you already did fresh windows installation using windows installer DVD at some point in the past, right? I'm not using preinstalled windows if you want to know.

BSOD while watching youtube/flash video on this notebook does happen in the past but that with 1080p on full screen & on battery only. This has been fixed long time ago. I'm sure your BSOD is not the same. We just don't know what causing it yet.

I got BSOD a lot when my notebook overheating & the BSOD is not related to video device at all, it's random. Since I changed the thermal paste, I'm no longer get BSOD. At least not regularly. The only time BSOD can happen if my external HDD is connected to eSATA port & suddenly power failure. Unfortunately, my external HDD doesn't support hot-plug. So when power failure happen, my notebook will BSOD after a minute or two.

 

Hi, no dell wont change the ram until I can provide the correct error code to show that there is an issue, I have tried to see if I can fake the error code so they send new sticks, but cant find anything on the internet to show what code I can quote. I have installed the latest chipset drivers from intel? Not sure if that would be an issue. Im hopeful that driver/software is ruled out. I am using the original windows disk that came with the laptop. I used it to do a fresh install only a few weeks ago, as suggested by the dell team, who told me to only use the dell drivers, which i know are balls.

Temps deffo not a problem, I mean I can play skyrim on full settings for hours, and the only thing to get very hot is the little heat sink next to the wifi card.

So lets talk about ram testing.

I know people swear by memtest86+, whats the best way to go about this? one stick at a time I take it.

Seeing as sometimes youtube works and other times its craps up, I take it flash based videos are heavy on the ram? if so I guess that would explain the crashing only being on youtube.

Im trying to understand this in my head, what is going on with my laptop that gaming is a breeze, but youtube isnt. Is windows doing something different?

Cheers again man, hope im not doing your head in

 

I think we have ruled out driver/software as the cause/source of the problem. The fact that you can play skyrim now for hours without any problem show that your notebook (hardware) is OK. I'm sure at least one of the memory stick, the one you already swap with another one, is really faulty. Before you swap the memory stick, skyrim also give the same problem, right? At least we have make some progress.

I don't think it's necessary but I think running memtest86 with one stick at a time is good idea too. I can't blame memtest86 though. It does great tool but like other tools, is not perfect. The problem you're experiencing is considered intermittent. If not, you will get BSOD every time you try to boot into windows or at least consistent BSOD. Since it's intermittent, I'm not surprise memtest86 unable to detect the problem. BTW, what is the brand/model of your memory sticks? On mine, both are Samsung.

I don't think flash videos are heavy on the RAM. Flash video also doesn't utilized the graphic processor too, only less than 20%. RAM is part of the core components, so even if you only running Notepad & the memory sticks does bad, you'll get BSOD/crash too. I also don't think windows doing something different.

I think we did make some progress. You're now able to isolate the problem to flash/youtube videos only. Regardless any brand of memory sticks, they all should work the same but some memory sticks are not compatible on some notebooks. If you have a friend who do have a perfect working notebook, you can swap both memory sticks with your friend. See whether your problem goes away & whether your friend now get the same problem or not.

OK, now we ruled out driver/software since we both use the same driver/software. Also we ruled out motherboard because yours already replaced by Dell but the problem persist. What left is RAM, I think.

 

Right, I know I keep adding every BSOD, its only that they appear to be changing. This one happened last night. But with the old sticks in. Now its pointing to the CPU, take a look see what you think.

Skyrim played for a few hours with the old ram in, not a lot though. Once I replaced that stick I got a good few hours gaming out of them.

Both are samsung, and likely the original ones from the day of purchase. So bound to have taken a beating from the high temps. I'll give memtest a go on each stick. See if I get anything. And ill put the supposed "busted" stick in my work laptop and see what happens.

Would it be an idea to run a cpu stress test? I ran one the other day using AIDA64 and temps reached 95 deg. sure thats normally being under so much load for so long. Let me know what you think. Im positive we will crack this. Just think of all the fellow Dell 1557 users out there haha

 

I forgot to add earlier regarding the heatsink next to the wifi card. Under the heatsink is PM55 chipset. Did you copper shim this heatsink too? You might want to replace the original thermal pad with thermal paste if you hasn't done so. On mine, I replaced the original thermal pad with thermal paste & touchpad doesn't too hot anymore. Interestingly, the thermal paste I use is Arctic MX-4. It failed on CPU & GPU but working nicely on PM55 chipset.

The one of the latest minidump file show your notebook experienced BSOD with BugCheck 0x101. This is my first time to see this BugCheck. I googled "CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT_8_PROC" & found this.

Even though the latest minidump pointing to the CPU, I think it's the bad memory. You get BSOD with the original memory sticks when playing skyrim but everything OK when you replaced the bad memory stick. What else could it be, right? BSOD BugCheck keep changing also a sign of bad memory.

IIRC, you did run Dell diagnostic test, right? I don't think the CPU is failing though. BTW, it's normal for CPU temp to reach 95C during CPU stress test. This is mine when doing 2 hours CPU stress test using prime95. My notebook is on top of cooling pad when running prime95.

When using the original & the swapped memory sticks, did you experience any BSOD so far?

It's possible the PM55 chipset is overheating & causing your notebook unstable, which also causing the "bad" memory...erm...look bad. AFAIK we can't monitor PM55 chipset temperature. You might want to try make the PM55 chipset run cooler. Then, try the original memory sticks again.

 

Ok thought id update you, Thanks again for this. Right. Ran memtest on both sticks. No luck. However one stick at a time I tried out a few intense youtube videos.

The stick I considered "bad" wouldnt make it through even one video without a BSOD or screen freeze.

The second stick the one I thought was ok has made it through loads, crashed once, but has been ok.

So this would suggest, the first stick is definitely dead, the second however is "going" bad. My next step is to keep watching vids on the "good" stick and see if I can crash it again, Then use the stick from my work laptop and try the tests again, If the work laptop stick doesnt cause any issues I can then be sure both original sticks of ram are dead.

As for the chip you are talking about, under the heatsink next to the wifi, I followed the advice on the forum about "copper shim thickness" for the 1557, And on there one of the guys suggested to replace the thermal pad with paste, but to remove the spacers to apply more pressure, I will go ahead and re do this, as I may have applied the past too thickly.

Will let you know how it goes, Thanks for all your help pal.

 

Right more testing update. This becomes infuriating

I took the stick I assumed was bad from my laptop and put it into my work laptop. This stick is the one that wont last a few minutes on youtube. However on my work laptop, not a problem. No BSOD so far. Annoying.

I used the ram from my work laptop in my Dell 1557, and it took a while, but eventually after several videos I got a BSOD.

Now we spoke about that heatsink. I included a pic showing you which one im on about, this is now getting too hot to touch by hand, obv as it is now, but also through the plastic cover. Im now thinking this may be an issue.

But even so, im curious as to why one stick of my old ram out preforms the other, but in the work laptop is absolutely fine. Its infuriating.

Im going to take the laptop apart and re do the thermal past on this heatsink. And see what happens. Trial and error I guess.

 

Just a thought, have you ruled out the external power supply as being possibly faulty.
Do you get any instances of BSOD when running only on the internal battery.

 

Yeah power supply failed on me a few weeks after I bought it, Its a brand new one. The only parts left on this laptop that are the original are the memory the CPU and the laptop casing iteslf. All other parts have been replaced ha.

Since re doing the heatsink by the touchpad again, the top is much cooler, However the heatsink itself still gets rather hot.

Im lost now, the ram in this laptop used in my work laptop works fine, but on here, im BSOD'ing like crazy. Frustrating now. Since I thought we were on to something. dam.

 

Yeah, I'm running out of ideas too. If you have extra HDD, swap your notebook HDD with the extra & install windows in it. Don't install any software, just install the drivers & make sure windows up-to-date. Then try play youtube videos. We might have better luck with fresh copy of windows & with no other software installed. If BSOD, it's much easier to narrow down which drivers causing it.

 

You know I was going to suggest that, I remember you saying you dont run dells version of windows 7. So Im going to try that. Lets make sure I get the installation right.

Obv I'll do a fresh install. Run all nesesary updates, and of course flash. I'll stick on the same ATI drivers as you have. using safe mode and Driver Sweeper to clean the old out. But leave all the dell related crap alone. Once the system is working I mean "working" ha, ill use the dell multimedia key driver. I do find that handy.

then see where we go from there.

logic would suggest with all thats happening that the graphics card, and driver are running fine, being that gaming is not an issue,

CPU is fine as Prime95 ran for 10 hours with not a single issue.

The HD is brand new and tests on that indicate that its all fine.

And software wise (which we will see after a fresh install) also cant be an issue because Dell have told me numerous times to reinstall using their disk and yet still with all stock software the system flakes out

Soooo it would suggest that RAM has to be the gremlin in the system, but im curious as to why my work laptop can use it fine with now issue.

I mean I could just go out a buy 2 new sticks of 2gb/4gb ram and hope for the best, however I dont want to find out once Ive bought it the laptop still craps out, and ive essentially wasted money.

I will give all this a go, And let you know what happens.

Again thanks for your patience and help. Its nice to know someone out there is willing to help. Sod paying dell tech support for this either. When I know we can solve it

 

Our notebook came with recovery/restore partition & Win 7 install DVD. I use Win 7 install DVD to reinstall windows. We also can burn the recovery/restore partition to DVD. Do not use recovery/restore partition/DVD when installing windows. Use the Win 7 install DVD instead because we want to install windows only. Unlike recovery/restore partition/DVD, Win 7 install DVD will not install any Dell driver/software. Then download latest drivers from Dell website. For ATI, use official driver. I also use "Intel Rapid Storage Technology" driver, downloaded from Intel, not Dell.

 

Right people.

Windows has been reinstalled.

All clean and new

then I headed over to the Dell site and downloaded the following drivers

Audio, Bluetooth, Card Reader, Chipset, Quick Settings, Accelerometer, touchpad and wireless.

Then installed the ATI 11.10 driver you suggested. Then Flash, ran Youtube and this BSOD came up.

So...what do we think my issue is? Would you like me to try my work memory and see what results I get?

Or should I just buy new RAM?

 

Hey Lewis,

I came back to this thread after quite some time.

I just skimmed through last two pages reading your BSOD problem. I don't know if you have monitored CPU temperature.

If not, then please install a CPU monitor gadget. Switch off the laptop for 5-10 minutes to cool it off. Then start again and monitor CPU core temp until you get BSOD.

 

No CPU temps are fine, Ive done the copper shim mod. The CPU idles at around 50-60 degress. No issue there.

Ran Windows 7 driver verifier for the last 2 days aswell just to make sure, and had no issues. It simply has to be ram

Will look to get 2 new sticks of 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz. Should sort it. Although memtest yeilds no results. What else could it be right.

 

After getting my hand on a Dell Studio 1557 which had tons of problems this site has helped me a lot, I've succesfully done the copper shim mod using a piece of a cooling fin from an old cpu heatsink (now THAT'S what you call DIY ). But I also read something about the 90W adapter not being strong enough. I don't know if this has already been proven not to be true but I'm pretty sure it's not. I personally use a 65W adapter atm because my 90W broke.

I've done some benchmarks with the 65W and after that I've done the same with a 90W from a friend (which was the same model adapter that came with the Studio 1557) because I wanted to know if it's was necessary to buy another 90W one. Turns out there is no difference in performance, only when I have a battery installed that is being charged. With the charging battery installed and running Prime95 the CPU will only use about 20-25W max and without the charging battery it will run exactly the same as with the 90W with a max usage of 45-50W with Prime95.

Also the 3DMark score is the same, with 65W the score is P1447 and with 90W it's P1422. I've only done one run with both adapters so that's why the 90W scores lower. Furmark scores in both cases 215 (benchmark preset 720P).

BTW, I can't get the CPU to run at 2.8 GHz, when running Prime95 on all cores they will run at 1.6GHz (without HT 1.8). It seems that only 1 or 2 cores can run at 2.4+GHz at the same time. Can anyone confirm this?

I'm sorry if these thinks have already been said before, but I don't have the time and honestly don't feel like spending the next 3+ hours reading all 189 pages

 

I also has done shims mod using a piece of cooling fin from an old CPU heatsink but mine is aluminum.

This is how Turbo Boost calculated:-
i7-720QM
Turbo Ratio 1/1/6/9

• the first number is the multiple of 133.33 MHz supported when four cores are active
• the second number is the multiple of 133.33 MHz supported when three cores are active
• the third number is the multiple of 133.33 MHz supported when two cores are active
• the fourth number is the multiple of 133.33 MHz supported when one core is active.

Normal operating frequency is 1.6 GHz = 1600 MHz

• With 3 or 4 cores active: to 1.733 GHz --> 1600 + 1 x 133.33 = 1600 + 133.33 ≃ 1733.33
• With 2 cores active: to 2.400 GHz --> 1600 + 6 x 133.33 = 1600 + 799.98 ≃ 2399.98
• With only 1 core active: to 2.800 GHz --> 1600 + 9 x 133.33 = 1600 + 1199.97 ≃ 2799.97

You see when all cores active, CPU frequency is between 1.6GHz to 1.7GHz. Don't compare this number with dual-core processor because even though it's running at 1.7GHz, all four cores are active. Tasks will finished faster. Turbo Boost is limited by temperature, power & current consumption and number of active cores. When any of this reached the limits, processor frequency will dynamically decreased. Even if you're running single-core application, other cores can easily wake up from sleep when other tasks need CPU processing power. So, you will not see it Turbo Boost 2.8GHz all the time.

 

Never Mind

 

Discussion on running Mac OS X on non-Apple computer is prohibited by Forum Rules.

 

Ok, my bad, messaged you on ''the other site'' if you're willing to talk about it.

 

Hello
So today i disassembled my studio 1557 to clean it a bit and reapply thermal compound, no problem.
however after i finished puting everything back together and turn on my laptop the bios screen would show properly then to windows logo and the it turns off.
i disconect the AC adapter, remove the battery wait a bit then reconect and try again. And again after a few seconds it turns off.

i tried going to bios set up instead of windows, displays everything i can move around in the menu but after a few seconds turns off.

so to sum it up whenever i try to turn on my laptop it turns off on its own after less than a minute.
i have tried with only battery or just AC or both but happens the same thing.

any idea of what might be the cause? it was working just fine yesterday. thanks.

 

Please make sure thermal paste is applied properly & the heatsink is properly seated. You also might want to check all cables are connected properly. Re-connect or re-seated all cables & also heatsink usually the best way to troubleshoot this kind of problem.

 

thanks for the answer, i checked all cables and heatsink, i believe i applied the thermal paste right this is how i did it:

removed the dry thermal pads it had from factory with a credit card then cleaned the surface with alcohol 70%.
applied a pea sized amount of thermal paste and spread with a plastic wrapped around my finger to leave a thin layer.
Finally placed the heatsink again.

however after reading your post a double checked and removed the heatsink, i realized that the gpu chip is not making contact with the copper plate since the plate didnt have any thermal paste on it.

So should i reapply thermal paste in a different way? or you believe is just the heatsink not sitting properly? although im pretty sure i placed it correctly.

Edit 1:forgot to mention that if i continue trying to turn the laptop on after it turns off it takes less time for it to turn off again which i think points to a temperature problem since the gpu or cpu is already warm from the previous attempts, the time for it to reach a critical temperature is less.

Edit 2: ok guys problem solved. it was indeed the copper plate not making contact with the gpu chip there is a space between them that the thermal pads cover and the thermal paste cant so i went ahead and did the shim mod in both the chip and the memory, and now the laptop remains on and cool ;3
I used aluminium tho not copper, not sure how big the difference is.

 

Good to hear you solved the problem. I'm using aluminum too. Works great for me. Of course copper is better because it have better thermal conductivity than aluminum.

 

so i compared the temps before and after the shim mod and the difference is of about 2°, i was expecting better results so i'm wondering if i applied the thermal paste correctly. this is what i did:

Applied thin layer of thermal paste in the gpu chip and memories
Then i placed the aluminium shims
After that i applied thermal paste on the copper plates of the heatsink
Finally i installed the heatsink.

is this how its supposed to be done?
thanks in advance.

 

Yes, roughly like that. For the VRAM, you should put thermal pad between VRAM & aluminum shim, and put thermal paste between aluminum shim & heatsink. I don't know your previous temperature but even if you use better reviewed thermal paste, the difference is just a couple of degree Celsius. If you use copper instead of aluminum, it should reduced a couple of degrees more.

In case poor contact, certain thermal paste can give better result, sometime can reduced up to 10C. Several thermal paste in the market can perform better than other thermal paste in poor contact condition. Some thermal paste that get a thumbs up in reviews failed considerably when in this condition.

 

i used artic silver 5
the contact might not be the best but i did try to get the shims as flat as possible. Should i use a bit more thermal paste between the shims and the heatsink than normal?

and i'll place the thermal pads again between the vram and the aluminium shim

 

Try that but don't put too much. AS5 is thick thermal paste, so if you put too much, it won't be able to perform best too.

 

Hi,

I'm having a strange problem with my laptop. I doesn't want to read any cd or dvd anymore. If I insert a cd the player will still spin up but when I click on the cd drive in windows explorer it just ejects the cd. I also tried booting an Ubuntu live cd but that didn't work either so it isn't a Windows problem. I ran the Dell Diagnostics (the one you can select on startup) but that didn't find any issue as well.

Any ideas what might be going on?