Extremely hot GPU - 93°C!!! :(

So my GPU goes up to a worrying 93°C during high game loads (e.g. Crysis 3 beta). On idle it sits at a nice 36-40°C. Is this dust? I'm pretty sure it is as I can remember my max temp was around 10°C cooler when I first bought it in the summer of last year.

I have attempted to remove the back plate of my laptop in the past which was successful, but the fan and heat vents are hidden away within further encasing which I can't find a way to dismantle. I have tried to find a guide online but failed, the official Samsung manual says nothing about how to clean out the vents, can anyone help me?

 

Probably the best bet for you would be to go to an tech service and have it repasted. One year after the purchase my lappy was getting hot too, a simple reapplying of thermal compound solved the problem.

 

93c isnt bad, these gpu chips are designed for much higher temps. running at over 90c as being harmful to the gpu is a myth created on the web. mine will average 87c to 90c and sometimes hit 100c while gaming with my home temp turned up to 30c.

don't worry, nothing to worry about. if it throttles and causes lag then you might want to de dust and reapply thermal paste and or invest in a cooler master strike force 19 cooling pad.

 

Um, you're wrong. While 90+C probably won't damage the gpu, it shouldn't be considered normal operating temperature. 100C is getting extremely close to the thermal threshold for most gpus, and will at best lead to throttling, at worst damage the gpu.

OP, I would repaste asap. My old 650m never got past the low 60s on stock clocks, so 93C definitely isn't normal.

 

o _ O

 

x32993x and failwheeldrive in a thread together again.. I'm grabbing my pop-corn.

Just wanted to add that high temperatures would severely limit the overclocking potential of your card so if you want that "free" performance then it's time to get the temps sorted..

 

Big chance that the P550 series' thermal system isn't efficient enough, and the heatsink is shared by the CPU and the GPU, you might need to watch your CPU too, with a little dust in the vent and the temperature breaks 90C easily in that model.

 

My old NP6165 had one fan for the cpu and gpu as well, but it still stayed really cool. I would expect the Samsung to run a little warmer due to the smaller chassis, but 93C is really high for this gpu. The NP6110 is even smaller and the 650m stays in the 60C range as well.

 

A repaste isn't going to bring it down 30 degrees.

 

You're right, never said it would. It should at least bring it down to more manageable levels (70s and 80s) unless something else is wrong. OP's laptop is smaller than the NP6165, and the Sager probably has better cooling as well. I was just giving an example from my experience with the 650m, which suggests that the gpu probably shouldn't be running that high.

 

A repaste could bring it down drastically depending how bad the current paste job is botched.

 

If you had cooler temps before, and you didn't touch anything, the problem is most likely dust buildup. If you can't easily get to the heatsink to clean it, get a can of electronics cleaner. A can of this stuff will blow very hard and get most dust out of your computer if you blow it into all the vent holes. It works really well, is easy to do, and it is very cheap.

Also, x32993x is correct that your temps don't pose any problems. If the computer isn't throttling, it is fine. So take your time. Don't let anyone tell you that you need to do anything ASAP.

 

Re-read my post Dao. OP made a thread asking for advice, so I told him what I would do in his situation. I never said he "needs" to do anything asap. I told him I would repaste asap, something that has helped hundreds of people on this forum in the past (myself included, my old 7970m used to hit 90C and throttle when I first got it, and repasting brought temps down to the low 80s max.)

 

Always always clean first. Repaste is not the first way to go unless the original problem was a bad pastejob, which has different symptoms than those described by OP.

 

I agree that you should clean first, but I don't see how a bad paste job has different symptoms. Care to explain?

Most people report better temps after a proper repaste with a good thermal compound, so I generally always recommend it whenever someone says they are experiencing high temperatures. Manufacturers have been known to improperly apply TIM from the factory (ex. using way to much) so it can't hurt to try as long as the person is comfortable with the procedure. Not sure why I'm catching so much flak for saying I would repaste if my gpu were hitting temps well into the 90s lol, I thought that was a common consensus these days.

 

Kepler GPUs throttle at 90C in case you don't know.

 

Not normal for Kepler (28nm), GT 650M should not be running over 80 degrees Celsius (safe before throttle) even last generation Fermi (40nm) GPU's should not go over 90 degrees Celsius (safe before throttle) and you're getting 93 degrees Celsius.

Contact costumer service immediately and send it back either for motherboard swap or heatsink/thermal compound re-paste/re-seating if it's still under warranty.

 

Definitely not normal. (1). What's the temperature in the room your PC is in? (2). Is there something blocking the intake vents for the laptop? (3). Assuming you have intake vents beneath, have you tried propping up the laptop with something to allow more air-flow beneath it to breathe? If the room temperature is below 75 degrees Fahrenheit and nothing is blocking the vents, you may have dust build up or bad paste. In which case you'll need to open the laptop up. It could also be crappy thermal pads, assuming your laptop has them.

If it's under warranty still, call and have someone help.

 

lol. his temps are fine. hot yes in trouble no. and yes a re paste can bring temps down 30c i know first hand

 

It's unlikely they will drop 30C, but I'm willing to bet it will help. Like hackness said, kepler card throttle at that temperature, so that's not exactly fine. AMD cards run quite a bit warmer than kepler cards from my experience, but even the 7970m will still throttle at 90+.

 

did he complain about throttle issues?

NO

Is 90c dangerous

NO

can a laptop with a poor paste job, be brought down 30c with ICD and a good paste job

YES

nuff said.. X ftw

 

lol have you ever owned a kepler card?

NO

do you have any experience with kepler cards?

NO

are you an authority on the subject?

NO

yet you still disagree with everyone in the thread who does have experience with kepler cards?

yep.

 

Fine as in they won't catch on fire? Sure, that's fine. But not "fine" as in normal operating temperatures.

A re-paste and this modification will likely bring it down 30C. I'll probably re-paste in the summer and see for myself.

---

Cakefish, I highly recommend you get some form of cooling pad for your laptop. At least prop it up to allow more air-flow.

 

switching topics

yes

evasive

yes

nothing to do with OP besides kepler and meaningless jargon

you bet

 

keplers your only hope failwheel

must read this:

Kepler: FAQ

 

That's pretty impressive. I just bought a u3 last week since my old ergostand doesn't fit the M17x, I was thinking about upgrading the fans because of your thread.

Oh and your unboxing video made me want an M18x lol. I considered returning my M17x for an M18x since I was approved for a $3k Dell preferred account, but I've changed laptops way too many times this year

cool story bro

 

YES.

It can frikkin burn you!

No but seriously, why don't people realize that laptops are like cars? Just because its running within "specified safe parameters" doesn't mean its actually running within safe parameters.

But here's the truth guys. I have no idea if 93c is safe in this particular scenario.
When the 8000 series came out, everyone thought 80c was safe! For sure everyone thought 70c was safe! But none of these were safe because they were all defective!
When you're talking about "dangerous temps" we aren't talking about the thing being on the verge of exploding, we are talking about long term effects down the road... manufacturers change their methods constantly, trying to make them better, and cheaper.
Nobody knows whats safe. The repercussions of this alleged "danger" haven't happened yet. There is no empirical data to go on here! These laptops could last 5 years and then die because the motherboard is warped from the temp changes, or not! Maybe they mastered the art of running stuff at 90c! And then they will all just fail because of something else and we still won't know if running them at 80c would have made them last 5 more years because they will fail from another problem first.

Theres no use in arguing about it at all. Its arguing about what you think will happen in the future. It gets to boasting and judgments of mental prowess immediately E. G. "I've thought this through more than you have" or "My perspective on this is less skewed because of my background". Blah blah blah I'm better than you.

 

It actually can, not 30C, but a lot, BUT it depends on some other factors, namely dust buildup. I know this from my own experience. Bought new lappy, 67C while gaming. Year+ later 85+C. After cleanup and repaste back to 67C.
Of course if your lappy reaches 80C on normal basis, repaste won't bring down a lot.

 

Well I'm pretty sure a re-paste isn't required. Temps were 10 degrees cooler back when I bought the laptop while running Furmark - 83ish degrees max. 100% certain it's dust. I wouldn't even begin to know how the heck to re-paste anything. It sounds very technical and I don't trust myself with things so delicate - my most technical experience with any laptop was simply swapping my HDD for an SSD!

Important maybe to note it doesn't always get to 93 degrees - only when hugely graphically demanding game using 99% GPU usage like all of the Crysis games and benchmarking software. Less intense games like Borderlands 2 will put temps to 80ish.

I don't experience a huge amount of throttling. It often boosts to the 950MHz Kepler boost clocks even at high temps (>80 but throttles at 90ish). Overclocking I definitely experience throttling back to factory boost clocks.

If I post a pic of my laptop with the innards exposed can any of you advise me how to access the interior with the fan - I have a copmpressed air can but can't find how to access the fan to actually use it properly!

Thanks guys for the advice!

 

How I just hate such closed-up constructions. No fun at all.
I don't even know how you could even use a can of compressed air.

 

Think Galaxy S2 backplate was a devil to get off? This is 100 times worse! It snaps into place but I could only get half of it of! I couldn't go any further - I just couldn't bear it - it felt as though it would actually snap in half before the damn thing would come off! Also all the components underneath were physically moving with the plate and I could see areas where wires actually looped into the backplate. It's almost impossible for a non professional like me to do this. I can't risk it.

Infact I stopped when a plastic bit physically snapped off from the inside. Tiny piece (<1mm) but just shows how this thing is built like a rock solid tank, never meant to be tampered with from the outside. You literally have to risk breaking it open to access the innards!

All I could do was prise it open as far as I dared and poke the plastic nozzle through where the fan/heatsink and CPU/GPU are and give a couple of bursts. But I'm sure that will do nothing as whatever dust is in there will just be trapped within the backplate and settle again. Arggh annoyed.

 

That really sucks man, I checked youtube but couldn't find any teardown vids of your laptop (just a screen replacement vid.) Hopefully you were able to clear some of the junk out of the fans/heatsink. Maybe try Crysis 3 again and see if things improved? Like others have suggested, a cooling pad would probably help, but it can also potentially introduce more dust into the chassis than normal.

For future reference though (in case you ever end up with a clevo/msi/AW) repasting is really simple. If you can swap a hard drive, you can repaste a gpu.

 

Unless the original paste was actually ketchup, I truly doubt it.

 

Temps when Crysis 2 running. No difference - it got to 91C again *sigh*

It's definitely throttling - it's supposed to be 950MHz core and 1.1V with GPU Boost enabled not 850MHz

I don't know what to do...

 

or chocolate. chocolate is an awful TIM

You're still under warranty, right? A last resort is sending it in to Samsung for a cleaning/repaste. What are your fan speeds? Is it running at full speed? Does stay at low speeds until the gpu gets really hot?

 

Pretty sure Samsung warranty doesn't cover removing dust :/

I've emailed a local computer store/service place, hopefully they can help.

Note to self: next time buy laptop which can be easily cleaned :S

 

If the high temps are causing throttling, it should cover that. I think Samsung is responsible if the cooling system isn't working properly.

Good luck though, hope you can get the throttling under control.

edit: It seems there are quite a few people having temp issues with these models http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/graphic-cards/160241-nvidia-gt-650m-overheating-samsung-laptop.html

Several people talk about sending them in to Samsung for repairs, but results vary. Some people say that using a cooler helps, others say it doesn't, and more still recommend a repaste. No disassembly guides though :/

 

Wow... the whole intake is covered and air is only allowed to suck in from the side vents at the back?

 

Sure it can, if the paste is dried and cracked. I've dropped temps 20C+ frequently with aged machines with OEM paste.

 

It's not that old though. I'm still going with dust buildup.

 

This is an older Samsung design but mine is very similar. My baseplate needs to be popped out too. As you can see it needs a lot of brute force. But I don't want to be as brutal and mindless as the guy in the vid, he's basically ripping his apart and scratching to to pieces, makes me cringe how careless he is.

Maybe I'll try another attempt at it...

He starts ripping it open at 5:30.

 

Game over. The damn screw head holding everything in has been stripped and eroded away even though I used the correct size manual screwdriver (I've only unscrewed it a few times before). It's impossible to get in to even the HDD & RAM bay now. Have to hope the repair shop can do something. Oh this just isn't my day

 

Damn, he is screwing his laptop up. You can see him leave scratches all over the chassis as he works.

It's definitely more work than it would be with a Clevo or MSI, but it doesn't look too difficult. Just keep track of your screws (I use plastic cups to keep them all separate,) be careful with tabs (especially around the palm rest) and make sure you're grounded before handling ram or touching any internals. Oh, and don't use a screwdriver to unclip the ram lol. Just use your fingers, it's safer that way. Just be careful and methodical and you'll do fine. Good luck!


Edit: I posted too soon sorry to hear about the stripped screw.

 

It's at a repair place now (typing this on my phone!). They're going to drill the darn screw out!

Then clean it of dust and if needed a repaste too. Just waiting to hear back what's needed.

EDIT: OK so they had a look and didn't notice hardly any dust in there but said the thermal paste was a bit 'solid'. So they slapped some Arctic Silver 5 paste in there. They noticed I had 3DMark 11 installed so gave that a go and apparently it's running cooler sooo all that's left is for me to collect and see for myself!

 

Good to hear! Don't mean to poke fun, but I am glad i got a clevo to avoid this.

I have seen quite a few mods where people put holes through the backplate to increase airflow. Maybe someone smarter than I can give some pointers?

 

a rather depth measure, drill holes in the back of your computer. It drops temps with around 5 C.

 

Rather, take the back cover off and drill holes in it! Don't take a drill to the computer, you may go all the way threw by accident, ha.

 

Yes ofcourse and all the dust

 

Glad the repaste solved the temp issues. Funny how some people argued against doing it lol.

 

Apparently Arctic Silver 5 takes 200 hours to fully 'settle' and get to it's optimum cooling capacity so things will get even better. I tested Crysis yesterday and it appeared to be 10 degrees cooler, although couldn't test for long. I'm going to test more in a few hours after a meeting I need to go to.

I also bought a Targus cooling pad with dual fans but that seems to cool by only 2-3 degrees or so, I guess every little helps!