R780 overheating - conflicting advice for remedy?!

Hi all

Hoping some very kind person can give me some bone fide advice on the best way to diagnose and treat the problem with my laptop.

It's a Samsung R780, 32bit Windows 7, nVidia GT330M Graphics card, 4GB RAM, Intel i5 (first generation) processor.

Have downloaded CoreTemp and it is telling me the TJ Max has had reads of 105 degrees; Core#0 and Core#1 are reaching temps of around 84-85 if I am gaming. (which I know is going to make it work harder but it NEVER used to overheat to this degree before). I have used FRAPS to check the frame rates when gaming and these are below the recommended limit (averaging 80 FPS)

The laptop is extremely hot to touch all along the left side of the laptop. I believe this is the area over the HDD and the graphics card. I have invested in a cooling tray but this has had a nominal effect and the next step for me is to check for dust on the fans. And here is where I get stuck.

Having contacted Samsung direct, they said that I would need to take the back off the laptop to do this - according to them, for my particular model, they strongly advise against using an air compressor, and directly removing the dust from the component rather than just blowing it around is advised.

Having also spoken to a local Samsung-approved service centre, the guy there said a couple of things:
1) he believes that temp is within comfortable range (have been advised elsewhere max temp I should aim for is 70 degrees)
2) he doesn;t think I will need to take it apart to clean dust away and an air compressor should do it (not obvious which are intake and exhaust vents, so could risk blowing dusk further in to the machine?)
3) that the fact the laptop itself is hot to touch is a good thing as it means the fans are effectively drawing the heat away from the graphics card, and that if it was cool to the touch I should be more worried (surely that's just, well, bonkers?)

SO!

Lots of conflicting information to what my instincts tell me - has anyone here any practical experience with this model or even had this problem, and ultimately the right way to go about tackling this.

FYI, very nervous about attempting to take it apart myself.....

 

Have you tried hovering the air vents. I did that sometimes on mine. If that does not work then you may have to open it up and take the dust away yourself. Is there a manual for your machine that you could use. My brother also applied thermal paste after cleaning the old one off.

 

did check your heat sink isn't full of dust? sometimes it amasses a thing of lent on the inside that looks like a dryer sheet from a washer and dryer.

 

This is the thing - the actual vents are quite narrow and even with a bright light I can't quite see well enough in to check for dust build up. I think this is why Samsung have said you need to actually get IN to the laptop to do this. I will try later in natural light to see if I can see anything else.

Yikes, truly scared of taking it apart because I know I'll never put it back together right again!

 

Just open all the plastic covers you can, battery and spray air through all holes, the dust will be coming out from everywhere (very messy) and your laptop will run much cooler after that. My GF also has R780 and it helped for her laptop to run much quiter and cooler.

 

Thanks Domo_x9. I'll just see how far I get and if it feels like I'm moving anything I shouldn't, I'll just stop.

Appreciate the reply! Dziękuję

 

85C isn't too hot, in my opinion. I wouldn't worry until it hits 90C+. But, it's never a bad idea to clean out the fan and heatsink.

 

Yeah your CPU temps aren't too high. Download something that can check GPU temps (like HWinfo) and report back. Maybe your GPU is overheating.

 

This is after gaming for about an hour and a half, with about 10 mins idle afterwards whilst I had a ciggie and a cuppa before checking in here.

The bottom left of the latop is really, really hot. On tipping upside down there is a panel that tells me nice and clearly "memory". Will see what I can take off tomorrow and clear as much dust away as I can find.

Any reason why the memory would suddenly be becoming so hot?

 

Install GPU-Z and check the GPU temperature.

 

OK, so I have DL'd that...

 

OK, so I have DL'd that - no idea what this is telling me, hoping you may be able to interpret!!

View attachment 80433