Studio 1555 + ATI 4570 = GPU 108ºC

Hello everyone.

I've had this laptop for more than a year and until now everything has always been fine. But that's because I never wanted to play any decent game on it.

Until this week, I had only plaid CS 1.6 on it, and no problems so far. But this week I wanted to try Assassins Creed and the nightmare started. I thought it was this particular game, but same thing goes on for CS:S.

The GPU gets hot to the point the left part of the keyboard almost burns. Looking at OpenHardwareMonitor and GpuZ, the temperature goes from 90 to 100ºC and back to 90ºC all the time. When it gets above 100ºC, usually at 101ºC, the GPU clock is set at 300Mhz, and when the temps gets down to 90ºC, the clock goes back to 680Mhz. And endlessly like this.



But the problem doesn't end here! Today I was trying to place a fan under the laptop (one of those USB plugged), when the temperature went up to 108ºC. I immediately closed the game and it went down to 60ºC. I haven't been able to reproduce this again, however, I'm afraid abusing the oscillating temperature situation isn't any good at all.



I know it: 100ºC is VERY hot, and 108ºC is above the deadline of this card (105ºC).

What the hell is going on?

 

Make sure the air is proper circulating around the fan areas.
Keep the laptop mounted on some extra height.

 

i have exact same problem, but my gpu usually only hits 104 degrees. when the game is off, it goes down to like 60 in like 20 secs. i think my idle are pretty high too usually around 58-60.

im going to replace my thermal paste and clean out my laptop today, tell u if that helps

 

The laptop is already using the dell 9 cell battery, so it's already higher than most of the laptops (1 inch or so).

I don't think cleaning the laptop is going to help, this sounds like a factory defect. Maybe too small fans or something?

 

Sounds like the 1555 alright. Mine kept doing that, and I gave up after three motherboard/GPU replacements. It finally died for good a little less than a month after my year's warranty expired.

 

Sure seems like a typically 1555 to me as well... mine used to hit 105-106*C while playing Unreal Tournament 3, even with the graphics settings turned down... good luck fixing it.

 

Well, then the question is... if this is the normal thing, is the laptop supposed to be able to hold it?

My one year warranty just expired, so I don't thing I can contact dell for any help at all...

 

From back it is ok, but under the keypad one is thr. It should also breath properly.

 

Welcome to the hot Dell Studio 1555.. Mine hits around 98 degrees when hard gaming (I try to keep it cool by using a fan to suck out the hot air from the back of it). Even when i do that it hits 86 degrees. Try undervolting your CPU, if the CPU is even a little cooler it MIGHT help cool your GPU just a little (not guaranteed.) It's just a hot laptop, especially under the mouse pad where the wireless card is located. Just make sure none of the vents are blocked, you might want to consider getting a laptop cooler. This might not cool your laptop a lot but it will help keeping the air circulated. If your warranty is still in tact you might consider calling them up. I'm sure all they'll do is replace your motherboard or something but its worth a shot. Hope this helps, good luck!

 

i have a coolermaster "notepal infinite" cooler. to be honest whether it is on or not makes little to no difference to the gpu temp. it does however keep the bottom of the laptop cool.

 

Hi guys,

My ATI 4570 also behave the same when playing games. The only solution which already proven to work is by modifying the heatsink. I haven't done it since my dell still under warranty. I'm thinking to call Dell one more time to complain about the GPU high temperature.

With GPU-Z, I noticed the voltage supplied to GPU is 1.2V. If I set to "Maximize Battery Life" in the PowerPlay section in CCC, the voltage go down to 1.0V. This will make GPU run much cooler but of course, games will run slower. If we can figure out how to overclock the GPU core clock & memory clock without increasing the voltage, it should run much cooler. I mean overclock it just enough to play games. I already tried "undervolt" the GPU to 0.9V, it only caused notebook to crash.

 

How did u undervolt it??

 

I use AMD GPU Clock Tool.

 

Try Ati tray tools, it works with voltage.
http://radeon.ru/downloads/att/attsetup.exe

 

I tried AMD Gpu Clock tool but I couldn't find the voltage control! Could you post the screenshot!!

 

I already uninstalled it. I use v0.9.8 downloaded at techpowerup.

BTW, I already log report to Dell support about the GPU high temperature.

 

I still couldn't find the option! lemme know if u remember anythin!

Also wat did dell say bout it??

i'm really fed up of this card! wish i could replace it with a better one!

 

Dell support said "it is normal for the video card temperature to increase while playing games". I already include the GPU temperature in the report (107 degrees celsius). How can they say 100 degrees is normal.

I actually very satisfied with this card. With GDDR3 memory it performed very well.

 

Ya i can play most games at 720p with low-mid settings at 30 fps which is pretty good!

N no 107 is not normal! Clearly the construction is lacking! especially when ppl have made simple mods to reduce the temperature..

 

So far I haven't been looking at my GPU temp, only at my core temps. When gaming (Team Fortress 2, Star Trek Online) I have not seen it get alarmingly high. Now I am wondering what the GPU temps are.

One thing that I noticed really affected my temperatures was the BIOS revision. IIRC when I went from A04 or A08 things seemed to be much better. I can't recommend any particular version but it may be something worth looking into.

If anyone would like to recommend their preferred GPU temp monitoring program I'd be interested to see what my results are since I have this model of laptop and video card.

 

@sidhu88,
Do you have Dell Studio? I think on your notebook, changing the GPU voltage is not allowed or not supported by AMD GPU Clock Tool. I will installed it later & post here the screenshot.

@Wes of StarArmy,
Yes, you're right. CPU & GPU are directly controlled by BIOS. When the temperature is high, BIOS will speed up the fan. It also throttling the CPU & GPU speed according to load & temperature. BIOS also capable to automatically turned off the computer if the temperature is too high or reaching maximum allowed temperature. However, all of these "defense" only exist if the BIOS programmer wrote it in BIOS. I hope Dell is not too lazy when writing BIOS for their computer. I haven't look thoroughly my Dell Studio BIOS but I can say, at least, the throttling control & fan control is exist in A05. I believe it should be much better in A08. CPU's temperature is fine with A05 & I can see the improvement in this area after updated to A08 (latest for 1557). However, the GPU's temperature still reaching 100 degrees Celsius. I can see improvement in GPU's idle temperature though. If you want to check your GPU temperature, you can use HWMonitor & GPU-Z.

I just contacted Dell support through email. I have done what they requested from me; 1) Update BIOS to latest one (A08), 2) Install Dell latest driver for video card & 3) Run Dell 32bit Diagnostic. Dell 32bit Diagnostic run with Extended test (3 to 4 hours). They told me, if my notebook doesn't have symptom like BSOD, sudden power off, freeze, error message with Dell 32bit Diagnostic or anything that can indicate hardware failure, they can't/won't do anything. I agree with their decision but 100 degrees Celsius when playing games seems to high, don't you think? They also claimed the HWMonitor reading is sometime not accurate & if the notebook is overheated, a warning message should appear. Well, I can't disagree with them on the first part & I do hope it is true for second part.

My notebook warranty is expired on the first month next year. I wonder if I still can buy extended warranty. I'm going to call them for this one.

 

ya i have a dell studio....

Wat cpu temps do u guys get? I play BFBC2 a lot and peak cpu temp is 98 and GPU is 104!! Isn't that too high? i tried talking to dell too but they just say its normal n that if i want more support i need to pay for some kind of special support!

There is no real point in complaining coz the most they will do is replace the motherboard which wont help in anyway.. only pray that if n wen the gpu burns out u still hv warranty to replace it

 

I played NFS Shift a lot. CPU temperature actually fine on mine, 75C. I'm going to play BFBC2 later.

Sorry, I gave wrong version. It should be v0.9.26.

 

Thanx a lot n as u said i cant change voltage coz that box doesn't come on mine...

how come? ur on a studio as well!!!

 

It is the same version (v0.9.26)? Maybe you have different chipset (motherboard).

 

ya it shows now! i just put it at 0.9V and clicked on set voltage n the system just froze with a blank screen!! I had to force shutdown..

 

I wonder if we undervolt it to 1V & then try to "overclock" it to 3D clocks (680MHz for the Core Clock & 800MHz Memory Clock). Can it run stable at 1V (Normally 1.2V)? Or maybe 1.1V? If we can reduced it at least 0.1V, I believe the GPU's temperature should be improved too.

 

It would definitely cut it by a few degrees.. main problem is that there is no seperate cooling system for the GPU.. i've been wanting to do the shim mod for a long time now but I'm not too sure bout dismantling it.. if i could find a video i would've dome it by now..

I tried setting it to 1 V.. the screen became red for 10 seconds n then it went blank.. i think maybe if we just shut it down instead of a force restart it may apply the voltages.. gotta try tho..

 

Ok so much for my bright idea! the system cant be made to shutdown.. i thought the screen was simply blank but the system would still respond. but it doesn't

Anyway i set it to 1.1 using the tool n it din crash.. i kept clocks at 740MHz/850MHz (core/mem). I tried playing NFS HP n i got the same frame rates as before.. max temp was 85 degrees.. I think yesterday for the same thing the temp reached around 90 so i feel there is an improvement.. gotta run more tests.. performance isn't taking a hit as far as i can see..

 

This is good news. It actually can run stable with 3D clocks + overclock on 1.1V. Do you use cooling pad when playing games? Combination of GPU undervolt & cooling pad surely will improve the GPU's temperature during heavy load.

Which cooling pad is suitable for our Dell Studio? There should be at least two fans, top & bottom. The position of both fans should be adjustable so that the top fan can be position directly under the notebook fan while the bottom fan should be position directly under the RAM & wireless air intake holes. I just experiment myself by putting fan directly under the RAM & wireless air intake holes & it does improved the GPU's temperature.

 

I use a notepal infinite.. its not too effective for the studio tho... but it keeps the touchpad cool!

H