Why is my computer getting so hot?

So this discussion started in a different thread, but then it evolved to the point where it's way off topic so I thought I'd put this in a more suited thread. I am having some heat issues with my Asus. Here's some info about what I'm running:

I am running an Asus G60VX and the specs are as follows:
Physical Memory (RAM): 4GB
Total Available Virtual Memory (but that doesn't matter much because I don't make use of page file memory): 8GB
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P7450 @ 2.13 2.13
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 Bit) (factory installed)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 2600M Cuda 1GB

And here's my problem:
(and all of these readings are WITH my very nice cooling pad, without the pad after playing Second Life for about half an hour it shuts off to protect its self from overheating )

When it's first booted up:
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z402/borninajunkyard/cupid.jpg

When I first start playing a game:
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z402/borninajunkyard/cupid2.jpg

When I'm using a lot of resources within minutes:
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z402/borninajunkyard/cupid3.jpg

I don't have any long use readings because I'm afraid to let it get hotter.
This appears to be a common issue for this laptop as there are many forums about this issue, but I'd like to start one focused around my specific situation.

This is WAY too hot for me. Here's a few things I've been chewing on in my head.
1. I could try reapplying the thermal paste, but I've only messed around with PC hardware and I'm afraid I may mess something up.

2. I could add a vent to the removable plate on the bottom of the laptop to increase airflow.

3. My fan doesn't kick in until it's about 190* F so I may cut the PMW wire to make it run at 100% all the time, because people on the net have been saying there isn't any software that will work on this laptop to accomplish manual fan control, unless somebody knows of one that will work. And will I have to install some kind of a switch to manually control fan speed or will it just run 100% all the time without anything else?

I clean out my software very well, so there are never any unnecessary programs running in the background.

And I had a pretty big house fan next to the outtake vent backwards sucking the hot air out of the laptop and it only kept it cooler by, like, 5*C... I'd like a bigger difference than that.

Does anybody have any suggestions besides what I have been thinking about? If not what should I try first?

Also, I'm thinking of selling and upgrading to the next one up in the series so I don't want to do anything to lower the value of the computer until I decide.

All help is much appreciated.

 

Reapply thermal paste. Some good quality stuff. Arctic Cooling or some IC Diamond.

Just watch a bunch of videos on YouTube until you're comfortable and then give it a shot. In a worst case scenario, you can just wipe the paste off and try again.

 

do you clean your fans out regularly.

 

+1 to Nascentes
The paste if done correctly should have a sig. impact for lowering temps.
Just the disassembly will give you a chance to check for dust , etc.
Suggestions 2 or 3 - you are basically altering the design of the machine, If you have that little trust in ASUS engineers I am not sure why you would want to by another one.

Also , Just proping up the back of the laptop so that it sits at about a 10 degree angle may help slightly. With my G73 I notice a good 5 degree C decrease in temp just by using it in a well ventilated area of my room as opposed to under my roll top desk.
Are you looking at the G74 ?

 

maybe use a gaint fan to blow air onto the laptop.

My friend use one of those giant milk cart carriers put a fan under the cart that blows air right to the top of cart. Use his laptop onto of the cart and the temp drops by a good 20 to 30 degree C. It will look ugly but it helps lol.
http://www.corkboard.it/posting/show/8008-plastic-milk-crates-for-vinyl-records
http://www.realsimple.com/home-orga...cool-down-any-space-10000001057828/page3.html

I got an A/C in my room so it stays cool all the time XD

 

The laptop itself was designed for lower power components such as the 9800m GS, so when they slapped in a 9800m GTX, they basically got a hot machine. It won't break but your usual idle temps will be arond 56C, and your gaming temps near 95 or near 100C.

If you fall in that range, you have a "normal" laptop. Adding a cooler, drilling holes, adding copper blocks and many other mods help ease the temps, but you are not really overheating, you just run hot.

My previous G51J with ID7 thermal paste ran furmark up to 97C, I never moded my laptop and even after a year of constant user in high performance apps and games, it never had temps higher than that.

Keep your notebook clean, and you won't have problems. Don't like how hot it is? Get the newer versions with higher performing parts and better cooling.

Just keep in mind, in the end, the laptop was designed that way and will always run at such temps unless you mod. It, howerver, will continue to work well without mods and despite such temps.

My G51J, sold to another person, still works after now near 2 years of abuse.

The downside? You have very little room to overclock to real 260m GTX speeds. I do recommend a new machine. Not for the cooling, but because newer cards like HD5870m, 460m/560m offer a very nice bump in performance to the 260m GTX equipped on Asus G51/60 line.

 

My old macbook (white) runs at about 90C or more when gaming. Almost 5 years later (my sister uses it), it still runs flawless, like new.

 

Yeah, but even if It's not overheating, I don't like it. I want it to be 85 C max, not 98 C.
I heard from a friend you'll fry your system if you have more than half a rice grain of thermal paste in any newer machine. Is that true? How easy is it to fry your machine with thermal paste?
I am definitely going to get a newer machine, but I can't afford it at the moment, so I am looking for a good temporary fix.
Tilting my laptop does help by 2* C, thanks for the sugestion, but it's still not as cool as I'd like. I don't want to lower the value, because I WILL sell this thing when I save more cash.

 

your friend is a *****

open your laptop, disassemble the fan, clean it, repaste and be done with it

 

Your friend sounds like a moron. There is no chance of thermal paste "frying" your computer unless you apply it incorrectly because you didn't do any research on application. You CAN harm your other components if you use electrically conductive paste and you use too much or let it get onto components besides its destination.

The standard application amount for a CPU is generally the size of a full grain of rice to a pea. Depending on size and preference.

Edit:

Also, what the hell is up with your username?

 

May I suggest you first check the amount of dust inside your laptop and clean it out (unless you already have)?

Accumulation of dust easily generates higher temperatures.

Aside from that, the current view on how much cooling paste goes on the cpu is the following: size of a gull grain of rice to a pea (which is then distributed evenly over the cpu surface with an object such as a credit card).

First check just how dusty your laptop is, and then check the paste amount (too much paste and it won't really be effective).

 

After a while dust accumulated in laptops become dander, and that insulates as well as asbestos when packed tightly. Clean that out man, its like clearing out a stuffy chest cough.

 

No no no no no, you put the pea sized paste on the center of the cpu and just let the heatsink do the distribution when screwing down the heatsink. And screw using the criss-cross fashion, and don't tighten it from the beginning, you want evenly distributed force down to the heatsink.

DON'T distribute the paste using credit cards or your fingers!(Or squeezes or whatever) That'll cause uneven surface of the paste and when you clamp down the heatsink, potentially you can have air pockets. Which means less heat transfer between the contacts of the cpu to paste to heatsink.

YouTube - ‪How Thermal Compound Spreads‬‏

That video is good reference on how the paste spreads. Remember though, human forcing down the heatshink is different from the screws forcing down the heatsink, it may or may not spread more or less (also depending on the viscosity of the paste as well).

You also don't want too much because then it can decrease the rate of heat transfer from the cpu surface to the heatsink surface. Less is more.

 

Also, bear in mind that the "pea" rule is a for desktops really. Laptops have a far smaller area which needs to be covered so you don't need as much. The newer quad core mobile processors have a slightly larger die area but for example my C2D has a die size of around 15*15mm.

What you can do if you're interested is to use a piece of glass and use that to see how much paste you need. Just put a bit on the chip and press the glass on top, work up from a small size untill you have a rough idea for the amount you need to cover the whole chip.

The golden rule though is to remember that you want to use as little as possible. Any more than the minimum that is necessary isn't going to do you any good.

 

Funky monk and others are right. You can't "fry" components with thermal paste unless you slather it on like toothpaste. Apply the minimum amount of compound required to cover the surface of the CPU die.

Btw, consider a name change. Your current one is creeping everyone out.

 

If you want to run your laptop at 85c max. You have to either drill holes or just remove the backplate. You could even buy a backplate from ebay and mod that, so later when you want to sell it you could just put back the original one. You could even repaste but it wont help you much as the laptop generally works that hot. (As the fan gets to its maximum speed at 93c)
But other than there is pretty much no way to reduce those temps as it was designed to work that hot.

 

Exactly.... The laptop works that way. You don't like it? gonna need to mod it, drill holes, copper block etc.

As Illz said, and I mentioned, I even had mine repasted and still had such temps. Never had a problem with it, never failed. It was designed that way. Sure it sucks they did it like that but there is no other way but heavy modding+cooler pad.

 

How about you check task manager and see if any process is eating up your CPU, some processes tend to be stubborn and just hog the CPU. This stresses the CPU and can give out high temps