Nvidia Hybrid Graphics

I have a Dell Vostro 3500 with Hybrid graphics which basically use integrated Intel graphics in power saver mode. Neat idea but there's a serious problem when I use the Nvidia graphic card (Geforce 310M). The temps can raise to over 90*C and occasionally the notebook shuts down. Normal temps is usually in the 80*C range.

I've had to start only using the power saver mode where normal temps are 50-70*C. One problem is I need to switch to power saver mode (control panel, power options) every time I reboot, and the Intel card won't let me use my HDTV as an external monitor (Nvidia will for a time before temps spike).

Dell hasn't and most likely won't come up with a new driver and Nvidia's driver for the 310M doesn't work with hybrid graphics.

What are my options?

 

blow out the vents and fan. the cooling fins are possibly full of crud

 

I've done that but had no apparent dust build up.

 

If your 310m is at 90C, then it is likely caused by a heatsink full of dust.

Wow, ninja'ed! Anyways, you could have thermal paste going bad too, it's rare, but it does happen.

 

After another attempt to watch a video on my HDTV and having the laptop shut down, I took a cover piece off the bottom where the heat sink is exposed and didn't see any dust, but it was definitely hot to the touch.

(the far left end is exposed (center bottom photo), the rest hidden under plastic)





I ordered a laptop cooler from Amazon, hopefully that will help. In the meantime, I'll just use power saver mode and the Intel graphics

 

If the stock cooling system isn't able to tame your temperatures, then a cooler is just a patch.
I would change that thermal paste if you already cleaned the heatsink fins.

 

is the fan itself running? ive had a few die on me.

 

That is a possibility as well.

 

Yup. It never shuts off. Usually low speed with the Intel graphics and high speed with Nvidia.

Heat and fan noise appear to is a very common problem with this model. From what I read when the warranties were valid Dell would replace this and that (including the motherboard) without helping very much.

 

I've only sprayed with canned air what I could by taking off the cover in the bottom photo above.

In order to get to the fan I'd have to...

1. Remove the battery.
2. Remove the base cover.
3. Remove the hard drive.
4. Remove the optical drive.
5. Remove the wireless local area network (WLAN) card.
6. Remove the wireless wide area network (WWAN) card.
7. Remove the keyboard.
8. Remove the palm rest.
9. Remove the display assembly.
10. Remove the ExpressCard cage.
11. Remove the system board.
12. Disconnect the fan cable from the system board.

Documentation

... which I'm reluctant to do. However, knowing me, I probably will end up doing it. Ummm, where does the thermal paste go?

 

You will see the old thermal paste when you remove the heatsink, it should look pretty self explanatory. Just be careful as there might be thermal pads on some components like VRAM and the PCH as instead of paste. Thermal pads have a rubbery texture.

 

Thanks.

One thing that leads me to believe it's not a problem with dust or thermal paste and more of a driver or hardware issue with Nvidia is the fact, the Intel graphics temps are typically 40*C lower.

 

I disagree. The Nvidia card will run hotter because it is much more powerful than the Intel video card. Add to that the fan/heatsink is possibly clogged. I haven't seen any reports of a hardware issue with the 310M. It's a solid card.

 

Actually there are lots of reports of overheating for the 310M

https://www.google.com/search?q=Nvidia+Geforce+310m+overheating&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a

... but you may be right.

I'll pull it apart in a couple days and post the results.

 

There is nothing wrong with the card itself, overheating occurs because there's something wrong with the cooling of the notebook (dust, dead fan, etc.) or because the cooling wasn't designed adequately, in both cases the problem doesn't lie with the GPU. It's lack of maintenance, premature failure of a part of the cooling solution or just plain bad design on the manufacturer's part.

There are always exceptions to that like the 8000m series fiasco with cracking solder leading to dead cards, but i haven't seen anything like that recently.

 

Update:

I pulled the machine apart, blew out the fan and adjacent areaa, cleaned the fins off, and removed the old thermal paste.

The paste was all over the processor. Here's the Dell photo, but mine was thick around the two squares.



I took my time and cleaned them up the best I could, leaving a little around the edges, and in-between. Added a dab of Artic MX-4 to the processor pads, and what I assume is the video card under the square copper sink adjacent to the fan. (can someone verify that?) That too may have had more paste than necessary.



Put it all back together, with only two small screws left over. Turned it on and everything seemed to work fine but I had no sound or Bluetooth.

I needed to remove the keyboard again and re-seat the cable.

Now everything works great. I'm using my HDTV as an extended monitor, watching a video. It's been running 15 minutes with temps steady in the low 70's. Without the cleaning and new paste, I'm sure it would have gone into the 90's and shut down.

Thanks for all the help. Hopefully I won't have to worry about it for awhile. Next time I'll replace the extra screws.