7800 go drastic overheating - Dell replaced for 7900

HI,

I have dell 9400 with 7800 go card. When I got the laptop the idle temps were around 60 and during gameplay up to about 80 until fans kick in then back down.

NOW - it idle at 75 and that is only if I set fan control to force both fans high speed. Or it climbs into the 80's

If I play a game it goes into the 90's!!! surely this is too high.

I dont understand how this has suddenly happened it never use to get up to these temps.

I was using 81.97 mobileforce drivers then went back to stock but it has not helped. Also this temps are with the card at stock settings not overclocked.

Please any help or assistance.

 

have you checked for heavy dust buildup or blocked vents?

 

ditto for dust

 

sounds like blockage to me as well, be it dust or other wise.

 

What fan program are you using? If you are using I8kfangui are you sure you are not reading the peak values as opposed to the realtime values.

xor

 

Hi,

Thanks for the quick responses. Ive had a look into the vents and can see no dust or blockage I have sprayed a little compressed air in but nothing seemed to change.

I am ensuring that there is plenty of airflow around the laptop also.

I am using I8kfangui and it is realtime and i have adjusted it for the error and the temp now matches what it does in the nvidia graphics utility.

And when I came out of a game it peaked at 93, which is the temperature the core automatically down speeds itself.

Like I said all is the same setup it was a few months ago and my temp readings were 15-20 degress lower and never went above the low 80's even during heavy gameplay.

Any more ideas suggestions?

someone suggested getting a hover tube next to the vent and trying to suck out dust or blockage, Im not 100% happy with this idea but maybe its worth a try as long as it wont damage anything.

 

I was having the same problem not that high though. It was hot for the computer to touch my leg through blue jeans. I changed the 7800 for a 7900gs it seems to have helped in some respects. Mine never got as hot as yours though I would have gotten them to take it back. But I can say this overclocked my 7900 GS is not near as hot feeling as the 7800 not overclocked. My problem now is it seems like the fans do not want to stay blowing they cut on then right off then back on again. Which is strange since they never used to come on until I got the I8kfangui. They only came on low if at all. I am obviously not telling you to do anything just stating a fact that the 7800 is very hot and they seem to not have very good fans. My Asus blows hot air all the time but atleast I know it works without sounding like it is dieing. I really wonder if there was a flaw in the first few batches of E1705/9400. Mine is several months old. I am considering a fan change or something that can get the temps down. My processor is not overclocked and never has been but it is getting hot enough to fry eggs. It is actually getting hotter than the GPU if the fans are not on. What adjustment for temps are you talking about with I8kfangui?

 

if you have never taken care of the dust inside of your notebook, then you need to open it up. it's probably compacted enough that simply blowing air into the vents isn't doing any good.

 

I understand dust I live in the desert. But if there is no dust then what? My fans sound like they are dieing. That is when they are on full speed. I changed the video card and that has helped with the heat. Without I8kfangui I get only low fan speed ever even when the thing had the 7800 and was so hot I could not stand it on my leg. No there was no OC. Now it is reasonably cool. With the 7900 gs temps only get high when OC and no high speed fans? I am just curious about this is why I am asking.

 

If the fans are dying, then you should contact Dell.

I would suggest getting a cooling pad regardless . . check our Accessories forum.

 

what speed are your fan running at. On high they should be 3800-4000rpm's.

xor

 

also, have you ever dropped your laptop. heat sink maybe loose from a drop or vibration. make sure you screws are tight. if under warrenty contact dell. if not under warrenty get new thermal assemblies as well as new fans and replace them. it will cost less than $100 to replace thermal assemblies and fans. it's cheaper than buying a new graphics card, cpu, motherboard and or laptop.

xor

ps at least replace than fans. are you sure they are running at high speed all the time. i havemine set to high speed all the time and don't have these issues. also try speedstep from the same guy who makes the fan program and select dynamic switching. under power setting is your laptop set to always on? do you have a 7200rpm harddrive. if so consider getting rip of it for either 5400 or 4200 as they operate at much lower temps. the harddrive is very close to the video card and could be adding to your thermal issues.

 

They are running about 3800 for first fan 4000 for the second. But uf they stay on they start sounding like hell. They start and stop very sporatically. They go high then slow then high then they oscillate at times. Sometimes they stay for a while not doing anything but high. That is if I set them with I8kfangui. If left to the system they never go on high.

 

Hi,

Well I decided the temps were just too hot and a drastic increase from when I first bought the laptop. Its only about 4 months old too.

I live in the UK and sent Dell an email sunday night and I got a reply monday which detailed arrangements for collection of the laptop for tuesday. Pretty impresive again from dell i must say.

Well laptop was collected today and it detailed for a graphics card replacement and system check. I think they are fully aware of the problem early releases of the 7800 card had.

Well hope they replace it and the problem is resolved - I should have asked what the posibility was of adding in the 7900 card as this has been reported of immiting much les heat.

One thing they best not do is put in the less ATI card as I have read about in other users experiences.

 

Hi, I just checked the dell uk site and the 7800 on the inspiron 9400 is not longer an option.

The only have the ati x1400 and the geforce 7900 cards

So what do you think they will replace my graphics with? Surely they wouldnt swop it with the ati one cause this is a much lower quality card.

I cant actually see them upgrade it to a 7900. I just wondered if they have no 7800's what they will do?

I would be so angry if they put the ati in as I paid about 200£ more to specifically have the 7800. they cant do that can they?

lol im very anxious!

 

If they do not have any Go7800 cards on hand, then they will put in a Go7900GS card. It wouldn't make sense for them to downgrade you to the X1400 256MB, which is a pathetic card in comparison to the Go7800/Go7900GS.

 

Believe me, even if your system was 5 years old, you will get the exact same parts (it's for legal reasons). At those temps I'm amazed that your notebook didn't melt.

 

Hi,

Thought Id post update the post.

Well what a success I have just got the laptop back from dell just over a week since they collected it.

It has a nice new 7900 GS card installed. Whilst the laptop was away I did send a few emails stating Id much prefer the 7900 card as it runs cooler but i didnt expect them to install one, i just expected a new version of the 7800 card.

Well good on you dell, I am yet again impressed. I so wanted this 7900 card and now thanks to the 7800 overheating I got it installed free.

This is dell uk by the way.

 

That's fantastic, thanks for telling us. Either Dell ran out of Go7800s, and/or it was cheaper to just put in a Go7900GS.

 

That's fantastic to hear! Getting a 7900GS in stead of a 7800Go, I wish the support of Fujitsu Siemens was like that.

Charlie

 

Hi,

Just to let everyone aware, they had not run out of 7800 cards. There initial reaction was to just replace it with the next edition of the 7800 card which apparently has had the heat issues addressed.

I even saw the 7800 card part number ordered ready for replacement in the online service call section.

What happened was I sent several emails to the tech support during the service call whilst the laptop was in diagnostics, who i think after 3 emails of me stating I wanted the 7900 card due to the known heat issues of the 7800 etc etc also I didnt want the inconvenience again, she had enough lol

I must admit I did go on, but eventually she said she would pass on instruction to the repair center to replace it with the 7900 instead.

So to everyone out there wanting an upgrade from the 7800 to 7900 there is hope especially if the 7800 is overheating like mine was lol.

Now I have the 7900 in and after many tests all i can say is FANTASTIC!

I have it running all the time now at 450/1100 which is only a small overclock but gives outstanding performance (7450 in 3dmark 05) and the temp never above 70 degrees during heavy gameplay and testing and idles in the mid 50's. Way way less than the 7800 and much more powerful whilst using much less battery, i notice an extra 30 mins on battery too now over 3hrs.lol

oh and now I can have it on my lap without getting burnt or very sweaty

I know it will overclock much more and many ive seen have 600+/1250 but I am very very happy with my current setup.

Anyone wants any further info just ask ill be happy to help. Trust me well worth the upgrade, and anyone in a similar situation to me, push dell and you should get the same result


Once again thanks dell!!