Monitoring Notebook Temps: nVidia & ATI, CPU, HDD - Do your temps worry you?

I was wondering is this temperature high for my processor? I am using NHC to measure..

During game temps:
GPU temp: 85 c
CPU temp: 78-91 c

AMD turion 64 x2 TL-58 (1,9 GHz, 2 x 512 KB L2 cache)
2 GB DDR2 RAM
GeForce 8600M GS, 128-bit, 512 MB DDR2
Windows Vista home premium 32 bit
AVG anti-virus
250 GB 5400rpm HDD

 

yes, those temps are extremely high.

If you are overheating... usually any temp over 90C degrees is bad.

when was the last time that you cleaned out the fans and vents thoroughly...?

if never, then thats why.

1) remove battery
2) remove/unscrew the panels on the bottom of the notebook to get to fans and vents
3) use flashlight to look through vents for the dust (if you cant see the light on the other end, then the vents are clogged up)
4) go outside, get some compressed air (cans or compressor @ 50 PSI) and give the vents a good airing out all directions (concentrating on the vents)
5) go get some Q-tips and swab the fan blades and the area around it
6) then go do a second airing with compressed air (all directions again focusing on the fans and vents) to push out the dust that was dislodged from the Q-tips

7*) Now go use the flashlight again and look through the vents (shine the flashlight from the fan, you look through the other end) for anymore dust clogs.

8) Then start up the notebook... and let the fans cycle up (use the Fan Toggle at max speed if your system has it) to push out any other dust that might have been stuck.

If all goes well you should be able to close up the notebook and...

you're done.

*repeat this step until its cleaned out.

Thats pretty much it.

Just make sure to do this every two-three months... it should take about 15-20min per cleaning if you want to be thorough.

________________________

Gaming notebooks are a new thing, you must realize that you have to take some extra care of them over typical use notebooks:

1) Battery: to maintain the longevity of any rechargeable battery
- you must NEVER overcharge it [especially for long durations of time] by keeping it plugged into AC
- when it reaches 100% you should unplug it and let it discharge to 5-15%, then plug it back to power
- OR you can just charge it to 50%+ and remove the battery and store in cool place.. not the fridge [remember to use it occasionally 3-4 time a year to charge and discharge it].

2.) Heat: to prevent a healthy notebook from overheating
- ALWAYS use the notebook on a clean, hard & flat surface
- RECOMMENDED to be used on a notebook cooler... namely the Zalman ZM-NC1000 or ZM-NC2000
- check your fans underneath occasionally (at least once a month or two) for any dust clogs [clean them out with Q-tips and air cans/compressors]
- ALWAYS monitor the temps (CPU, GPU, HDD, etc..) to watch for fluctuations, which would indicate overheating by dust usually
(for Clevo notebooks) use the Fan Toggle to switch all fans to Max Speed when gaming and such.

By doing these simple things, your entire system will easily last for more than 3 years.

 

Quick bit of advise with compressed air. Jam the fan with something first. The RPM that they can get up to with compressed air can destroy the bearings before you can blink.

I've just opened mine for a cpu upgrade and found a mess. Not only was the heat sink clogged with dust at the fan end, but I found that there wasn't enough heat paste on the CPU either.


Regardless, after separating the heatsink from the CPU it needs to be cleaned and new arctic silver applied as the old stuff is dried out and won't contact evenly again.

For interest, I've just replaced my Athlon X2 3800+ with an Opteron 180D. It is peaking at 53 degrees C so far. Sitting fairly idle I watched it drop to 26 according to RMclock.

As for the battery, charging it adds to your system heat. If you only use the machine on your desk take it out, in fact the manual with mine (yes I actually read it) recommended this. Charge it, discharge it, recharge it once a year for longevity but otherwise remove it.
I've also raised my laptop off the desk by about half an inch to get more airflow underneath. I've used four rubber "feet" designed for the bottom larger equipment like amplifiers. I don't know how well those commercial laptop cooler platforms really work if the gap between it and your laptop is the same as when it is sitting on a desk anyway. This only cost a few cents.

 

I read like the first 3 pages and skipped to the end so dunno if it was brought up but I wanted to mention speedfan & ntune to monitor temps.

I was having crashes with my c90s and the great thing about both programs is it did a log of sorts on the temps. So I could run 3dmark or something and after a crash open up the log file to see the entire readout of temps up until the crash.

With live monitoring if you dont see it while it happens you lose that data. It has ram useage, fan speed ect all that stuff can be monitored. Rivatuner is supposed to be great but I just never found that I needed it so have not used it.

 

I need some help I think...

I just got my Sager 5793 with and I'm having trouble getting a reliable temperature monitoring program. Specs are:

T8300 processor
4GB RAM
8800M GTX (currently 174.90)
1G Turbo Memory (I now realize it's probably worthless)
320GB 5200rpm HDD
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1

I tried using RivaTuner (2.09) and, while I can run it, I get the driver digital signature failure. It appears that in Vista now you can no longer run non-digitally signed drivers.

I downloaded and installed Nvidia NTune, and the first time I ran it I got instant BSOD. Notebook Hardware Control runs into the signed driver problem.

Is there any program out there that I can use to monitor temps? Also, I was planning on undervoltaging, but I suspect that program is not signed either. Any ideas?

 

You can bypass the digital signature, since RivaTuner is best to use for in-game temp monitoring.

A number of owners with that same notebook use RivaTuner... you can ask them for any details.

 

here:

Turn off Digital Driver Signing Check in Vista:

1. Create a shortcut on the desktop to cmd.exe

2. Right-click on the shortcut and select Run as administrator

3. When the command window opens, type or paste the following and press ENTER:

bcdedit.exe /set nointegritychecks ON
bcdedit.exe /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

4. Reboot

Note: Make sure you don't have any of the following updates installed

KB932596
KB938979
KB938194

These all reinforce driver integrity checks. So uninstall them from the Add/Remove Programs section if they are there.

 

Hmm... I tried the bcdedit steps, but on reboot nothing changed. I'm guessing I have the listed updates installed, but they don't show under Control Panel > Uninstall a Program > View Installed Updates.

Is there a way to remove these updates if they don't show up in there? I'd prefer not to reload Vista (but I can if I must), and my DVD has Service Pack 1. I'm guessing that these updates are included in SP1. Anyone got a workaround?

 

RivaTuner 2.09 should work fine Vista x64 SP1.

Maybe its the drivers you are using.

Try this:
Start -> run -> cmd:

bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

I also recommend to go to the Sager/Clevo sub-forum and ask some owners there that have the same system.

 

^

Moved my issue to new thread in Sager/Clevo forums...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3484302#post3484302

 

FYI: you don't have to use start menu to automatically start the rivatuner statistics server, just right click on the server tray icon, click setup and select run at windows startup at the top of the window

 

ah.. too bad. i cant use riva to monitor my GPU. x1600 here. the frame/sec OSD work though. ive been using NHC for a year now. Is there anything similar to that software? one that could control the brightness of the LCD too?

 

May be you need a plugin?Did you check all the plugins in the set up box?

 

Nah, thats not it.

In the first few pages of this thread, I realized that a number of the ATI mobile GPUs do not have a temp sensor that (to my knowledge and tests) a software can tap into for monitoring... which kinda sucks for the ATI GPU owners.

While on the other hand, pretty much all discrete Nvidia mobile GPUs seem to function fine with Rivatuner.

Lastly, RivaTuner and their developers specifically said that they will not support mobile GPUs... making plugins for them and such. "So if it works for you, then fine."

 

Hey, just discovered something neat, a program called WindowHidie, good for many porn-related purposes (hit windowkey+z) and that programs window disappears, as well as its taskbar presence AND its task manager presence). You can use it to completely hide the RivaTuner Hardware Monitor so you just see temp in the taskbar.

 

in some post on this thread that shows another program that can hide windows... i forgot which one it was.

 

hi all! im totally newby here, hope some one can give me a hand:

my notebook specs:

toshiba satellite por a200 ez2204x
core 2 duo 2ghz t7250
ram 2038 MB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM
gma x3100 onboard gpu
toshiba mk2546gsx hd

right now the cpu 1 and 2 cores is 76-85 c degrees, with firefox, skype, ie, and avg antivirus scaning open (everest test).

are those temperatures too high? what are normal temperatures? if an extremely high temperature appears, the notebook shuts down on preventive? my worry appears last few days when i noticed the air coming out from de lateral vent was hotter (or seemed that to me) than before, and maybe the cooler is noisier and more time on.

thanks in advance

andres

 

My temps, rigth now, while I'm ''watchin' a movie, are: HDD: 48, Cores - 55, 57; GPU - 60, the ambient temp is quite high - 31 C... during load (like Medal of honor airborne) Hdd goes slightly above 50, cores between 80 - 90, the gpu goes between 85 - 95. I don't know if that's normal, you tell me.

 

I can not seem to find 2.05 is 2.09 OK to use?

 

Yes, I need to update this guide.

Get the latest RivaTuner... always.

 

The GPU temp is getting towards danger temps if it goes beyond 90C degrees and stays there.

Make sure to clean out the dust from the vents every two to three months.

And use the notebook on only clean, flat, hard surfaces... recommended a good notebook cooler (like Zalman ZM-NC1000/NC2000).

Never use it on a soft surface (bed, couch, lap, etc..) that would block the vents.

 

thanks for the reply, I've cleaned the vents several times, but it's the same to me, anyway maybe I'll get notebook cooler, as you suggested, to cool the thing down. You said nothing about the CPU and HDD temps

 

CPU is safe when its under 70C (at full load)
HDD is safe when its under 60-65C (at full load)

 

Thanks for the help

 

awesome thread, thanks for your lengthy efforts gophn

 

Is it possible to make RivaTuner report your temps in F instead of C? or both?

 

I think it it an option in when you get to a point in the guide.

But Celsius is the best to help people compared temps with you.

Celsius is 99% more common for temp readings internationally than Fahrenheit.

 

Hi, my laptop seems too hot, I did some google and happened to bump into this great thread. So I follow the guide to install RivaTuner and NHC, most are working fine except it does not show HD Temp, is there anything I can do about it? Thanks in advance.

 

For the Notebook Hardware Control Monitor v 2.0, how do you display the watts next to the charge rate next to the batter status on the main display like the example on the first page and how to display the lifetime, mine says unavailable. I'm running Vista 32 bit on a HP laptop, thanks!

 

I would also try RMclock for CPUs, NHC is not perfect for all systems.

 

Hi, my NHC does not show HD Temp (only 3 dots are showed), can someone tell me what I can do to to fix this problem?
Thank you.

 

Have you tried:
- HWmonitor
- Everest
- Speedfan

 

Gophn, thanks for your reply, I have not tried those software yet (a bit reluctant to install more). So for NHC, if it does not show HD Temp, then nothing can be done there?

BTW, the day when I installed Rivatuner, the GPU temp was at 80s even at idle (very hot, and that is why I did goole and found your thread ), and I did noticed that the fan barely ran (I can hardly felt any air flowing out the fan vent). My laptop is less than one month old.

Now when idle or light use, GPU temp fluctuates between upper 50s and lower 70s (about 15 degree range, fan appears to ran ok). CPU temp fluctuates between upper 40s and lower 60s.

Anything I need to worry about?

 

those temps seem fine.

make sure you are not block the vents (on bottom, back/sides) so that the airflow would not be blocked... which can cause high temps.

you can get a good notebook cooler (like Zalman ZM-NC1000/NC2000) to help improve temps even more if you want.

 

Hi folks,

I have used HWMonitor and Everst Free Edition and Ultimate ...and even tried RivaTuner.

By far the "Least" intrusive and easiest to me are as follows:

1) HWMonitor 1.10 (latest ver). If you want a Freeware that gives you the best instantenous Temp reading of your CPU, GPU, and HDD at the same time with Min, Max and current reading.

2) Everest Ultimate Edition 4.50 but not a freeware.

What I like these 2 programs they are self-contained in a zipped file whern opened up and put in Folder you can activate them "Without" installing them ... so they are kinda "portabelish".

BTW, Gophn, I am going to check out Speedfan ... 1st time I've heard of it. THX!

G!

 

I'm interested in getting a Sager notebook, one of the gaming ones, the ones with the 9800 graphics cards.

What's the highest temperature these cards will go before getting unstable? I'm new to laptops, I haven't purchased one yet, but I am planning on getting one in late Sept/early October. I'm leaning towards Sager for the price/performance value.

I am also a gamer, so getting a good graphics card is important to me.

With a cooling solution like the Zalman, what kind of improvement can I see if I use one? and what would the temp be without one? Just curious if anyone can answer.

To give an idea, the game I have in mind for my system to be able to play is Oblivion with most settings maxed.

 

As long as the GPU temp does not exceed 90-95C degrees you are good.

The Zalman is the best overall notebook cooler. There are MANY review of it here and on other sites.

Visit the NBR Cooling Central for more info.

 

My notebook (With the 8800M GTX) can handle Oblivion at 1680x1050 w/ all settings maxed and qarl's texture pack 3 and a horde of other mods, and never drop below 25fps - and it's a struggle to get it that low. The performance of the 8800M GTX is - as has been shown by the recent benchmarks - virtually identical to the 9800 GT, so you should be safe there.

Temp wise, even overclocked, my GPU never tops 67 degrees, and I'm not using a cooler. My understanding is that the 9800 GT runs on a smaller die (not sure, I wasn't as interested in it's specs as how it compares to the 8800m gtx), so will likely produce even less heat.

Note that the FPS above is obtained with a CPU overclock - I haven't loaded up oblivion since OC'ing my GPU. Probably better than that now.

Clevo (Sagers are Clevos) makes a somewhat noisy but extremely efficient cooling system. It's really not much of a concern.

So... yeah, I wouldn't be too worried. These notebooks can handle some serious gaming. Just don't expect to get a lot of battery life when doing it (though battery life is great if you stay in 2D)

 

I gave both of you reputation, both of you answered questions that I have had for a few days now adequately enough.

I feel secure about buying a gaming laptop, it's just that I know that I CAN extend the life of the laptop by keeping it properly cooled as notebooks run hot enough to sterilize you if they are left in your lap (lap)top, heh

I know it's also a matter of time before a gaming notebook will have one kind of failure or another before long. I'd be satisfied if I spent $1.5k on a notebook and it lasted at least 2-3 years, that'd be satisfactory to me.

Of course I want it to last longer than that. In your experience what's the longest you've had a gaming (or heavy duty) notebook last? Should I make another thread asking this question?

 

My gaming notebook has been good to me for about 2.5 years now and near mint condition
... no hardware failures (expect HDD that I replaced, not the notebooks fault)
... games better than most gaming notebooks today.

I made sure to always keep it clean from dust (the vents and fans).

And I always use it on a notebook cooler.

Like I always say:
"If you take care of your system, it will take care of you."

 

That gives me even more reassurance, I think I should post a thread, and see what the average lifespan of a gaming notebook is, i think we might find some interesting answers.

 

a lot of gaming notebook owners do not realize that they should take care of those systems more than a typical (non-gaming) notebook.

I have heard many people complaining about their gaming systems (within 1-2 years)... usually do to their carelessness.

A lot of my lectures are all over this forum... yelling at people for not taking of of their systems.

 

I got RivaTuner/Notebook Hardware Control

but on NHC i dont get a HDD reading either? does it have to do with downloading Microsoft .NET framework? because i didnt install that. what does that do anyways?

 

Hi JL,

Is it asking u for the .NET ... if so, then you have to install it.
I am still on Win 2K and have .net 2.0 and Riva and NHC run A-OK on mine.

G!

 

Yes, you need to install .NET Framework 2.0 to fully use NHC.

 

Hey I tried to install the notebook hardware control and I have .NET framework 2.0, but when I start it up I get an error stating "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

 

Make sure that you disable UAC and/or make sure the program is "Run as Admin"

 

can you control the fan speed on the ASUS M51sn, if so, what program can you use and where can you download it?

thanks

 

No, there is no general software that controls notebook fan speeds.

Only a few notebooks have specific software/firmware that can control or toggle the fan speeds... namely:
- Clevo gaming notebooks
- Dell gaming notebooks.

 

I've read the majority of this thread and I understand the basics of how to maintain my notebook, but I still have temps up to almost 102 C. The card at that point must downclock or something because no matter what I'm doing, either in a benchmark or a game, it goes to almost 0 fps and I can't do anything.

Is there anything at all I can do? I've opened it up and cleaned the fans, the heatsink, everything that I can clean... I have even changed drivers updating and rolling back... It never used to do this, it only started 7 or 8 months ago.

My system:
Sager NP5720
Pentium M 2.13Ghz
2gb ram
Geforce Go 7800 GTX

The following image was taken after running 3DMark06, the peaks are during the graphics tests.