Toshiba U405D-2874 overheats when using external monitor

Hi, I have Toshiba Satellite U405D with Turion RM-72 and ATI Radeon 3100 Graphics. My LCD went dead so I decided to use an external monitor(1024x768 touchscreen) to use it for the meantime. However, I noticed that it gets hot like up to 92 degrees celsius by just watching HD movies. Is this normal temperature for a laptop plugged in to an external monitor?? I never got my temps before when the LCD was still working..so I'm not sure if it really gets this hot with a working LCD. Need your expert opinions on this, so i'll know if its still worth it to have the LCD replaced or maybe there's a more serious problem with my laptop for heating up. Wanted to have another year before i buy a new one since finances are tight lately.

To add, all vents are clean and not clogged in any way. Thanks in advance!

 

92 C under load is still getting in the high range. Chances are if it's the GPU reading then you need to clean the fan, and it may need a repaste.

 

Thanks for the speedy response. 92c are actually the cores. Speedfan doesnt give a gpu reading on my laptop. I just applied fresh thermal paste and put a copper shim in-between the gpu and heatsink a week ago befopre my LCD broke. Was expecting my temps would go down. So im suspecting the use of an external coulb be the culprit for my high temps. Is that possible?

 

I wouldn't worry much about SpeedFan.

You might want to refer to a thermal compound application guide to ensure you applied enough compound and reapplied the heat sink correctly (too little or too much force when reinstalling it can hurt heat dissipation).

External ouput does put a little more load but even at 1080i/p should not really put it at 90 C. Now if you were running 2-3 monitors under heavy load then I could understand.

 

The guide was a good read..thanks! Okay..Will try to reapply thermal compound again. Just a quick question before I do it. With regards to my gpu, should I remove the copper shim and put a thermal pad instead? Just want to make sure which is best, because its no joke to take this notebook apart..haha

 

Copper shims are better than thermal pads by a long shot as long as you get the correct thickness... well you're more have to worry about getting one that's too thick over one that's too thin.

 

Just an update, Re-applied thermal paste and put a 1.5mm coppershim in-between the heatsink and video chip. Temps went down by 10-12 degrees. I get max of 81 C while watching HD movies now. Still hot but a lot better than 92 C. Thanks for those who responded.

 

81 C is safe at least. You're less prone to flagrant chip creep at those temps, as opposed to 90+ C. Glad that helped!