Is my laptop temperature too high?

So recently i had major trouble with my laptop fan, laptop was reaching 100% on idle so i replaced the fan which fixed the problem.
However now a couple of months have passed and i noticed the laptop is still hot. My main problem is that i usually like to lay on my bed and keep my laptop on my chest/knees, the laptop is making too much heat and i can't stand it! I even start sweating sometimes! It's very stressfull because i can't even watch a movie on my bed. The laptop's temperature on idle is about 55°C. When i open my programs, i normally have a few open and chrome with a couple of tabs it gets to about 65°C, (58°C without VLC) Here's a pic: http://i.imgur.com/xw9HPyU.png

I have a pretty good laptop, has good specs, it's kind of a gaming laptop.
Intel Core i7 3610QM @ 2.30GHz
2048MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M

Now my question is, is this normal for a powefull laptop to have this temperature with a few programs open?
If not what temperature should i be having?

 

Did you re-paste your CPU when you had the laptop open to replace the faulty fan? Temps are not too bad, but could be improved a bit. Try running some stress test, which loads your CPU 100% and see what temps you get.

 

Thanks for the reply. I actually did not replace the fan myself, a tech did it for me so i assume he did.
I ran realtemp load tester and it came to 78°C after 10 minutes. However my rainmeter cpu monitor says 16% is being used of the cpu. Not sure if that's right...
"could be improved a bit" Will i have the same temp if i buy a brand new gaming laptop?

 

It depends on the CPU used and thermal properties of the laptop (heatsinks, fans, chasis etc). Try running Heavy load:
HeavyLoad - Free Stress Test Tool for Your PC , Intel burn test, aida64 stress test, prime 95 or something, which gives you 100% CPU load. It's hard to tell how much the temperature can be improved by repasting the CPU and graphics card with some good thermal paste (Liquid ultra, IC Diamond, MX4) as tech might have already repasted it when replacing the fan. A lot of fans though can be removed separately from the heatsink, so repasting might not have been done.

If after 10mins after 100% you your max temp is 78, this is normal for your CPU. I used to have exactly the same CPU, but swapped it for i7 3740QM for overclocking capabilities.

 

Thank you again for your reply. I just made a test with your recommended software and the CPU temperature reached 95°C after exactly 10 minutes.
This is not normal right? Should i get a new laptop? I can't be bothered trying to fix the fan again cause it will only cost more money and time.

 

You mentioned it got hot when your using it in bed, are you doing these test there too? Because that would most certainly be your problem right there.

Either way, a ball cooler, sorry, laptop cooler, will surely fix your problem. It rarely does much to the temp of your PC except if you're blocking the intake fans on the bottom. but in that case it will help a lot and cool you down as well.

 

For a quick (CPU-only, not GPU) test, I generally run wPrime 1024M. If Heavy Load is similar in demands, 95 is too high. It's not immediately harmful, but it's awfully close. This is assume you're testing on a desk and not somewhere that ventilation is blocked.

55 for idle also seems rather high (again, if this is when ventilation is adequate).

It is worth noting that your CPU is a more power-hungry one than most laptop CPUs. For the most part, they consume 35 Watts at a maximum (and an increasing number only consume about half that), but your consumes 45 Watts at a maximum, which in turn produces more heat. So to a certain extent you can expect it to be a relatively warm (although powerful) laptop. But, if tested in good-ventilation conditions, it still seems high.

For my laptop, which has a 35 Watt CPU and also has a dedicated GPU, it generally does not get above the mid-80's at load unless I have a lot of dust in the fans, and I've never done anything to particularly help the cooling. It can still get too hot to use literally on my lap if it's doing something intensive, so I'm not surprised that yours gets too hot with significantly higher temperatures.

 

If I were you I would not get a new laptop now. Especially since nvidia will be releasing 9xx series graphics cards. If you had this temp while testing with the PC on flat hard surface (table for eg), then this is too high. Temps can be improved by simply repasting the CPU with good quality thermal paste. My 3740qm reaches ~85 when overlocked to 4Ghz, while 3610 was running a bit cooler. Our cooling is different, but still 95 is too high.

 

95C is usually in the zone where CPUs start to throttle themselves. HWiNFO has a nice dynamic CPU speed display that shows if this is happening.

If you've been using the computer on a soft surface (eg bed) then not only does the flow of air into any bottom vents get impeded but also the system tends to act as a vacuum cleaner and sucks up any fluff to store inside the cooking system where it blocks the inside of the cooling vents.

So (i) use a lap tray when on a bed, (ii) clear out any fluff from the cooling system then, if things are still very hot, (iii) redo the thermal paste.

John

 

What it is the temp of room?, because my y510p (single 755m) have 55C in idle(av+messenger+firewall open) at room temp of 31C, so I don't think it is bad , at me at least(also I repasted cpu and gpu)...

 

Thanks for the help guys, now i am sure that this is not normal.

 

okay your temps are not bad at all. my graphics card gets to 96C thats 204.6F and my processor is a full fledged desktop processor and it gets ultra omega super hot just like the GPU. but what you're at is nothing to worry about and if there are vents you can clean id recommend that if its bother you so much