Problem with Dell Inspiron E1705

Hey Everyone,

Ok so first of all I have had my Dell Inspiron E1705 for about 3 years now and haven't had any problems. Recently I upgraded it from the 512mb of ram that was standard to 3gb of ram as well as upgrading the 100gb 5400rpm hdd to a SATA 60gb solid state hd. I have also installed Windows 7 on it and bought a 750gb external hd and a Zalman NC2000 17in cooling system. You would think that with all this the computer would be a beast, well unfortunately thats not the case. I am afraid I might have a problem with my graphics card, it seems that both my graphics card and my cpu are overheating far more then they should be. Yesterday for the first time ever my computer shut off do to the computer getting so hot. Now I know its not the fans because i can feel them when they turn on and they do work. I have no idea what to do and I could really use some help. Thanks everyone!

 

1. You may have a build up of dust/gunk in the vents. Get some air and blow it out. You can still feel the air, but the 'hairy dust' build-up can really reduce the actual air volume.

2. Thermal pad on CPU is probably way past its useful life. Not sure how complicated an E1705 is to get to the CPU, but may want to clean and reapply thermal paste like AS5.

 

When you tunr the computer on, and let it idle, how long does it take to overheat? Does it overheat when you are using an intense application/game?
GPU would be the most likely culprit, which one do you have?
RAM and SSD will not cause that type of heat, so it has to be the GPU, or the CPU.
Recommend you follow Ferrtwulf's suggestions and see if the CPU is the issue, if not, you know it's the GPU.

 

By the way you can check your computer's temperatures using HWMonitor, and on some Dell laptops you can use a program called i8kfangui (use google it will be one of the first listed) to control the fans.

 

Hey everyone,
Thanks for all the suggestions last night I fully took apart my laptop and cleaned out all the dust and it helped a little but it still shut down from over heat so im not sure what to do. after my computer starts up it takes about a half hour on idle with no use to over heat. if i quickly start a game however it will overheat in maybe 10min. my cooling system is on full power. I believe my graphics card is a ati mobility radeo x1700 256mb but im not entirely sure. my cpu is a intel T2300 at 1.66ghz.

 

You may want to download Riva Tuner and monitor the graphics temperatures
Here is a guide:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81852

If your graphics temperatures are hitting upwards of 90C that is not good.
The E1705/XPS1710 are coded to shut off when the graphics hits 105C

You should also try undervolting your processor, that could help dissipate some of the heat
Read the Undervolting Guide
CPU Rightmark works well on this system.

You may want to leave the fans on full all of the time.
In the I8KFANGUI options tell it it as two fans and monitor the temps

K-TRON

 

my gpu is getting up to 100C and I downloaded that I8KFANGUI and my cpu temp is at 98C

 

today my computer shut off again I am turning my fans on full but they still arent cooling the computer correctly. What should I do?

 

With the fans at full, there is no way your processor is running at 98C with clean vents.

You should take your laptop base apart, and physically take the dirt out with q-tips and rubbing alcohol.
There are two fans in your system, one on the left corner and one in the right corner. You have to take all of the screws out on the bottom of your system and you need to remove the keyboard in order to get the system apart.

While apart take the fans and heatsinks out.
Clean them out until there is no dirt in the fins, and the blades on the fans are clean.

You should also reapply the thermal paste on your processor with Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Cooling MX-2 or Tuniq TX-2. Get whatever is cheaper.

With the fans on full, your cpu temps should not hit more than 65C, and your gpu shouldnt hit more than 83C.

My friend has a XPS1710, which has the same heatsinks. His has a T7600G and when its overcloked to 3.33GHz it peaks at 65C with the fans at full

K-TRON

 

thats why i think there is something seriously wrong with my computer because I did take apart my computer fully and I took off the heat sinks and used a Q-tip to get all the dirt and dust out. i checked the temp with the fans on full after playing a game my cpu is at 80C and my graphics card is at 93C

 

I dont think any physical problem can cause temperatures to rise that much which the fans at full.

Is your cpu running at 100% usage during this game?
It seems like something is wrong.

When you installed the heatsink, did you make sure all 4 screws on the cpu cooler were tight?
Same with the (I think 3) screws which hold the graphics card in.

K-TRON

 

so does anyone have any other suggestions since I have kept my fans turned on full and it barely made a dent in the temp drop even with clean heat sinks

 

Are you making sure to use thermal paste on the processor?
You need to put paste between the cpu and the heatsink

Other than that, I have no idea what to say

K-TRON

 

i did not remove the heat sinks all i did was take out the fans and clean the dust off of the blades as well as off of the heat sink with a Q-tip. during a game i think my cpu is running at around 50% not 100. then again it is a older 1.66ghz cpu. depending on if my computer needs to be repaired and how much money it will cost I have a computer in mind that I think would be a great gaming computer and outperform most desktop counterparts. please tell me what you guys think of it thanks! ok heres the link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152112