Inspiron 1520 Overheating (Very Hot!!)

Hiya,

I've had my 1520 for about 6-7 months now, and I really love it, but it gets VERY hot. I was playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 with the laptop plugged in and sitting in my lap (fan not blocked) and according to I8kfanGUI, I hit 183F (84C). Wasn't doing much, RCT isn't an intense game. This happens a lot. I'll be sitting in my office typing on Word and it'll hit 150F. If I switch to power saver mode, it will immediately drop about 20 degrees and start to cool down SLOWLY.

I use my laptop like a desktop. It's usually never turned off, although it is in hibernate mode to/from work and meetings.

Core 2 Duo T7500, 2GB DDR2, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, 160G 7200RPM SATA, 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery

Any Ideas?

~Fred

 

Yeap... Clean the air exhausts with compressed air! Dust is an insulator and will prevent the laptop's heat sink from doing its job of dissipating heat.

Also, RCT3 is a graphically intense game. A poorly optimized one at that . But it will work the GPU regardless...

 

Running the notebook under Performance profile or forcing the CPU to run at 100% all the time will certainly cause heat to gradually buildup. Use the balanced or power saver profile, you won’t see any difference when working with office. When gaming, try to use a notebook cooling pad (also make sure you are not blocking any of the vents, not only the fan intake).

Maybe a lot of dust and dirt has built up inside. Cleaning it will also help.

 

Compare ATItool's temp and I8kfan. Unless you change few things, I don't think I8kfan will give you an accurate GPU temp.

ATItools temps are usually more accurate, so make sure they match up.

I had to change few things on my i8kfan settings to get to ATItool's temps numbers.