Whoa!! Can't type on E1705 Keyboard!

Hey guys I've got an E1705 with the 7800 video card and last night I was playing company of heroes for the first time and after about 20-30 minutes the right side of the keyboard was friggin hot to the point I didn't want to type anymore? Is this normal? Or do I have a bad card?

 

The 7800 gets hot...if you have hard #'s we can help you more. Check NHC, i8kfanGUI or another program that will give numbers. You may want to check out a cooling pad.

 

Check to make sure your cooling vents are clean, and that both fans are running properly. And was your laptop on a hard smooth surface when this happened?

 

It's on my kitchen table. I make sure to keep the fans and system super clean at all times so it's not that. It only happens when I'm playing company of heroes or using photoshop.

 

So it's a processor problem. Your 7800 wouldn't get that hot with a 2D app like Photoshop.

 

No. It happens with photoshop or company of heroes which is a 3d game. I just talked to dell and they told me that I needed to flash my bios. I did and now i guess i'll just wait if that fixes the problem.

 

I've had both chips and two 7900's. After two hours of Oblivion my keyboard, right side over GPU, is "friggin hot" as well. This is the price we pay for performance so I just keep a glass of water handy

For reference my temps hit 80-81C with fans on high after 2 or three hours game play with the 7900, same as my old Go7800...check your temps with I8kfan but add the +8C to match your NVidia panel temp.

 

I see. So there is no difference heat-wise between the 7800 and 7900 gpus?

 

Well, the Go 7900 is built on a 90 nm process, so that means it should be cooler. But other factors like clockspeed and voltages also apply. The TDP for the Go 7800 is still higher than the Go 7900, but they both can still emit large amounts of heat. So, a small difference to an already large output, will result in not much of a difference overall.

 

I concur with Zero...

The 7900 is a 20 watt part so should be cooler than the 40 watt Go7800, right?

After having both 1705's I can assure you they both run very hot when pushed but the 7800 gets there faster. If you have a bad thermal pad or dusted up heat sink then that's a whole new can of worms. The 7900 has a built in 100C throttle, I'm not sure for the 7800.

 

Can you post your I8kfan temps? Start I8kfan before game play and use logging only to record your peaks. You can check your max temps after you quit game of choice. As long as your 80 to 84C with fans on high you should be good. If your above 86C I would call Dell ASAP, imho, as long as we are talking about an average 73F-74F degree room and no OC. If your are just plain unhappy with the 7800 call Dell for a 7900 swap. all they can say is no?

 

I had the same thing happen with my E1705. Got so hot I almost called 911. Dell replaced the motherboard on mine and now it is fine. I have no idea if my situation was different than yours, but mine is A.O.K now.