The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Inspiron E1705 Nvidia 7900 GS Overheating Problem

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by masterxellos, Jan 9, 2008.

  1. masterxellos

    masterxellos Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hello everyone, I've recently encountered a problem with the video card in this unit. I received this laptop back in May 07 and up until now it has run pretty cool. The GPU would rarely go above 72C under stress. After playing Crysis recently, the GPU reached record high temps for this laptop, moving up to a scorching 90C at it's highest point. Noticing this I stopped playing Crysis and promptly uninstalled it. The problem is that ever since then the GPU runs at around 72C constantly now. I bought a cooling pad for the laptop, and while it keeps everything else cool, the GPU still stays at around 72C. I was wondering if there was any chance that the GPU got so hot that it burnt out it's thermal compound (which is Dell stock btw). If that isn't a plausible source of the problem, does anyone know what might be the problem then? I've cleaned out the heatsinks and the fan with compressed air, and have searched everywhere for a solution to no avail. One final question is what temperature range is the Nvidia Go 7900 GS card rated for and is the fact that it's constantly running at 72C while idling a very bad thing or not too bad. One final thing to note is that while I would call dell and send the laptop in, I can't because I used this laptop everyday to handle college work and I have no other computers to use. Thanks in advance to all those who might have advice.
     
  2. Magnus72

    Magnus72 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,136
    Messages:
    2,903
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Chances are that the thermal tape is burnt out, Dell use a crappy thermal tape design. Open it up and apply Arctic Silver 5 instead to the GPU.
     
  3. masterxellos

    masterxellos Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thanks for the response, luckily my roomate has some on hand so I should be able to do that tomorrow then. Will post again with results.
     
  4. SeaSlorg

    SeaSlorg Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    87
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I've experienced and heard about problems with the 7900 GS in Dell E1705s. Hopefully you will be able to avert the early deaths that others have experienced.
     
  5. masterxellos

    masterxellos Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Well I applied to Arctic Silver 5 compound to the GPU. Nothing has changed though, the thing still idles around the 70s... I also gave it another thorough cleaning while I was in there. Anyone have any other ideas about what might be the problem?
     
  6. Magnus72

    Magnus72 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,136
    Messages:
    2,903
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Is the heatsink of the GPU properly installed, so there is no gap in between? It shouldn´t idle at 70. My go 7800GTX that gets really hot idles at 58 degrees
     
  7. masterxellos

    masterxellos Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Yeah I believe it is seated very tightly, I mean I screwed it back on as tightly as I could go without stripping the screws.
     
  8. masterxellos

    masterxellos Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Bump for great justice
     
  9. ACHlLLES

    ACHlLLES Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    303
    Messages:
    2,199
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Reaching 90C while playing Crysis is normal.

    Recent driver update does change temp changes though.

    ATItool temp is pretty accurate to go with.
     
  10. masterxellos

    masterxellos Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Yes, reaching 90c while playing Crysis is normal, but the GPU still idling in the 70s after the fact is not normal.