last 2 weeks warranty on my 1555!

hey guys, so my studio 1555 has 16 days of Next Business Day warranty left.

My computer has been running decent, because i undervolt the proc and always reinstall win7 once a year and diabled unnecessary startup items and services, etc.

but my ati card in games always go up to around 103 degrees and there has been cases of artifacts in games before (minor ones, and it seems to have stopped now.. weird).

now i was wondering if i should contact dell support before my warranty finished and tell them my gpu is overheating. Im not sure if that is a valid reason, as i heard 105 degrees is the limit of this card, and try as i might, i cannot manage to push above 104 degrees lol

what do u guys think? what can i expect from dell's response?

 

If it's artifacting in games and you haven't overclocked it, you have valid reason to contact them. It's not supposed to do that.

 

If you do decide to contact Dell, the sooner the better, and do it by one of the real-time methods (chat or phone), not e-mail of any sort. Dell can be a bit flighty about warranty coverage when there isn't very long left on your warranty, so it's a better idea to be direct about it if you suspect a problem (and this does sound non-normal, certainly shouldn't be running that hot or artifacting). Otherwise your e-mail might mysteriously fail to reach Dell's servers. Either that or theirs back gets mysteriously lost. Odd how that tends to happen near the warranty expiration date.

Dell also tends to say, "Hmm, probably a software issue" if it isn't happening across the board, or if it mostly happens in one game. So if the artifacts occasionally happened across the board, be sure to mention that it was across the board, with all the games you play, even if it mostly happened in one game.

If Dell doesn't cover it (really they ought to, but don't count on getting lucky), you probably ought to wait until the warranty expires (just in case it totally fails before the warranty expires, then they will definitely replace it) buy some compressed air, disassemble the chassis (following the instruction manual, which is decent on Dells), and clean out the grilles by the vents as well as other areas dust may have accumulated. That can make a dramatic difference in temperatures. Especially if your Studio is two years old, you might be surprised how much dust has accumulated. Done right (read some guides before jumping in with the compressed air), this could make a difference in the laptop's lifetime.