Inspiron E1705 GPU Overheating Problem (nvidia go 7900 gs)

Hey everyone, I just joined these forums recently, kept referring to them for advice on laptops and figured might as well join and figure out a solution to my problem. Over the past week or so the GPU in my Inspiron E1705 has been hitting some pretty high temperatures. It runs at 73C to 76c with the fans on slow, and at 72C with them on high. The GPU is a nvidia go 7900 gs card which from what I've read is supposed to run fairly cool. I read that a cooling pad might be a solution to the problem, so I went out and picked up one. While it keeps everything else in the lappy quite chilled, the GPU is still parked above 70C even with the fans set to high. I'm curious about two things. First, in terms of Graphics cards, what is considered an "acceptable" range of temperature for them to run at while idling and while gaming. I would also like to know what steps I should take to prevent my GPU from burning out as I really do not want to shell out more cash to replace it. Thanks in advance for any information I can be provided.

 

So long as these are the "stressed" temperatures, you're fine. Anything below 85 Celsius is fine for the CPU or GPU to operate at. Once you start nearing 100, there could be problems. At least for Intel CPU's, 125 is the "critical" point (don't know the nVIDIA GPU level ATM). 76 Celsius at load is not excessive at all. I haven't checked my GPU temps at load, but my CPU hits 82 after several minutes at full load with no problems. These components are designed to last a decade running at stock frequencies, which implies running at these temperatues. It's highly unlikely you'll have to replace it due to overheating.

Unless you're having "artifacts" - graphical glitches - appear that didn't used to be there, or these are you idle temperatues, your GPU isn't overheating.

 

Thats just it though, the GPU is pushing temps over 70c with no load on it at all... unless browsing the web and posting on forums is somehow graphics intensive. These over 70c temps are under no stress with a cooling pad on the laptop as well. If I do play a game, say Oblivion for instance, the temp creeps up another 10c into the 80c-89c range where it bounces around there then. All this is with the cooling pad applied. The CPU used to heat up to 70c tops while under heavy load, now with the cooling pad it only pushes 60c+ very rarely, whereas the GPU which used to park itself at 50c-60c under no load, and 72c under full load, now just idles at 73c even with cooling pad. Makes no sense.

 

I'm having the same problem with my e1705, here's the details

I live in central florida now after moving from nothern indiana. Considerable temperature change. Now if I don't have the A/C in on my room my laptop and external harddrive will heat up my room like an oven and the keyboard gets to the point where it's almost too hot to even touch with heat escaping from the keys. I'm sick and tired of this and have considered buying a laptop fan to put under it. I tried taking it apart and trying to clean the fans but I couldn't figure out how to take the case off and the manual wasn't much help either. I've only had it like a year at the most. I'm just wondering if it's normal to get overheated because of the environment I live in or what. The summers in indiana can get fairly hot. It might be that I have it on my desk in corner and isn't getting ventilated, I dont know. I guess I'll just buy a fan.

 

I too had the E1705 / Go 7900gs and it fried! There've been quite a few posts here about the video overheating and thus causing checkered screens/ artifacts/ vertical lines at bootup/ BSOD memory parity errors/etc. If your video card is still working, I HIGHLY recommend using I8kfangui to change the temp/fan profiles so that the fans come on earlier as the temps increase. And if you are out of warranty, inspect the heatsink compound. Otherwise you'll fall into the same boat as the rest of us with a non functional vid card and a notebook that can only boot up with a VGA driver
or safe mode.

By the way, if you do need a new vid card and decide to get one on ebay, get one with a DOA warranty. Don't buy untested cards!

 

Thats definitely abnormal... you definitely want to stop using it if it gets that hot. Just using a fan only helps marginally. If it has problems like that, a fan is seriously not going to do you any good. Plus, its a laptop. Your not going to be carrying your fan around all the time.

 

Thanks I'll try what I can, also I have a weird problem with my screen, it's really dark on one side. I run it at its 1920 X 1280 resolution and had a very bright (well beige) classic windows theme. This is so annoying when playing games especially trying to read the chatbox haha. I thought about sending it in but I got this laptop from a friend and I have no warranty nor do I wanna renew it for a 2 yr old laptop. I even opened up the screen just to check the connections not much I could do on my end at that point. Strange thing though after a while it just fixed itself almost for a few weeks then bam it got dark again. I don't really wanna go without it for more than a week if I send it in. If I have to then I'll do it. Despite all the recent problems I love this laptop... besides all of the problems are probably my fault haha. Any ideas?

 

If you left your laptop closed while its still on, and the keyboard is scalding hot, and the innards are overheating.... you get the drift?

I'd recommend sending it by all means.

 

I had issues with my former E1705 getting really warm (fans kicking on high A LOT), and had contacted Dell about it. Even just web browsing and they'd kick in, only solution was to change the power settings in vista to power saver.
They said, there were no issues with that model overheating, or they'd know about it. That was after cleaning out the vents and the problem still persisted.
I feel they lied to me, and I'm glad I sold it. (This was before the nvidia fiasco came to light).
Thankfully for me, it wasn't too much of an issue, and it still had nearly 2 years of warranty left when I sold it, so it's covered, but still...

 

Could this be caused by the thermal paste between the card and the heat sink drying up?

 

I was thinking the same thing chelet, so I took apart my non-functional 7900gs to see if that's what happened and it looks like they used thermal tape instead of paste for the memory chips. Also I saw a gap between the heat shield/sink and the chips before I took it apart; but that may be due to taking the card out and relieving pressure on the heatsink. Who knows...

All I know is that the laptop seemed abnormally hot for a couple of days before it died but at the time I didn't know about I8kfangui to check the temps. Lesson learned...

Now I'm running my E1705 with a lowly Ati X1400. *sigh*

 

Mine had overheated since the day I got it. I had the blue screen, randomly, and tech support couldn't help me. This was while it was still in warranty. They conveniently do not have that tech support call in their records. It took 3 hours of time time, however.

Now that it's OOW, they can't even go through a phone call to go over prices with me. I don't know where to take it and I'm not sure I can dig inside on my own. I'm confident in trying if I knew a littel more about laptops, I'm fine with PCs.

My laptop doesn't even boot most of the time. Usually it sits there for 20 or 30 min with a black screen, then plays the Windows startup music. The screen never leaves black. Every once in a while the screen with start up but it will quickly turn very pixelated. It will then go to a blue screen stating the memory parity error. A friend was able to boot it long enough to reinstall a driver but it didn't help. He thinks the video card must be fried.

Can someone direct me exactly what video card I should purchase and a decent price range? I guess I can try the video card if it's cheap enough, I've heard that to replace the mb isn't worth the price.

 

Hello All,
This comes from someone who had 2 graphic cards replaced on an E1705 but my 3rd one is running strong..I believe the earlier cards failed because the E1705 has a design flaw when it comes to venting out heat and the fans dont kick in until the temps are too high..
There is an app called I8fangui use it and set the bios to run the GPU fan at low speeds at idling and fast speeds after 55C..I have been doing this on my 3rd new replacement GeForce 7800 Go and i guess thats keeping it going until date..

 

Sorry to bump a really old thread but I have this issue too and was wondering if anything has come to light as how to fix it.

I have made a video of the artifacting I'm getting...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIWi1srZusw

 

Hi,

mine fried 3 cards within 6 months, the last one only lasted 1 month without any gaming or so. There seems to be a serious design flaw, it is a very common problem obvoiously.

Luckily in Germany, you have 6 months of warranty by law, also for replacement parts. That's why they had to replace it under this warranty everytime, even when my system was oow already. Now I bought a sweet small Samsung because the Dell really bothered me. Don't think, I'll buy one again as the last exchange was really a drama.

Cheers
Tobi

 

I've had 2 7900 GS cards overheat and crap out in my Inspiron 9400 (E1705)..

I'm just getting in touch with dell again now as the 7800 they put in last time is starting to overheat (hits 101 C during 3dMark06) and I think it throttles down to save itself - in any case the whole machine chugs at a really slow speed when it gets hot, I get 665 in 3dMark06 (average for this model of dell is 3000+).

Hope they replace it one last time before warrnty expires (March), as I don't want to have to run a 3d benchmark on endless loop to force a failure (and possibly burn down my house lol)..

it appears this model of dell has a lot of problems with graphic cards overheating... of course you never know this at the time (and I guess Dell probably doesn't either if it's a new model)..

dems da breaks!

 

OK, my second card is on the way out on my 3 year old 1705. I was torn between trashing a fairly good laptop or calling Dell to check options. All the cards listed on EBay were pulled cards for big bucks. I was also hearing people getting ripped on bad cards.

Well, Dell made me an offer of $170 for a 7900GS PLUS extended warranty for one year. That’s the card and laptop covered..so I went for it. If the 1705 lasts two more years as a back up machine then I think it's worth it.

I have to wait seven days before making claim, no problem. My screen hinges are getting loose so I'll get them to look at those as well.

If this works out it will beat any $300 dollar pulled card on EBay, no?

 

Yeah, that's better than a $300 eBay card that may or may not last. If you still use the E1705 a good amount, it may be worth it - it'll still cost a lot more than that to get a similarly-performing 17-inch laptop (7900 GS is still better than Intel's latest integrated graphics). I'm somewhat surprised you're still using the E1705 a lot with a P6831FX, but if you are, it's not a bad deal.

Also, you might want to download the December 2009 BIOS update for the E1705 if you haven't already. Word is that it works to adjust temperatures, probably decreasing GPU heat and thus lowering the chance of failure... which it sounds like would be something beneficial for you.

 

Yeah, I don't game on the 1705 as I do the 6831. However, when doing drive maintenance or other downloading chores, having my 1705 ready helps ease the pain when 6831 is tied up.

I really like the 1705 layout for ease of maintenance. While no Clevo, I can still get to fans or main board in about 5 minutes. This would take an hour on the my P6831 plastic wonder.

I also miss not having the rigid magnesium casing not found on todays plastiky cases.

 

Got 1705 back in 6 days. New motherboard with new 7900GS installed and hinges fixed. I still have 330 days left on warranty.

I would say this is much better deal than buying an unknown card off ebay but not as good as ASUS replacing certain laptops with updated machines for free.

 

If you are fairly technical you can try baking your gpu (or gpu's if you have a few old ones laying around). See the link below. And yes it does work. I received an old E1705 that had video artifacts and I type this message now using that same laptop, with a baked gpu. You can bake it several times. This is my second. My first bake I did not remove and reapply new thermal paste. My second time I did and it now runs at 55c idle.

Here is the link, I hope you find it of some use.

Shake n' Bake - Fixing a dead nVidia 7900gs from a Dell 9400 / e1705 | stuff.thatblogs.com

Best of luck,
Dave