dv7 6189 sl cooling and performance issues

Good day everybody, this is my first post and I'm not a native speaker (italian :O) so forgive me in advance for any misspelling, misposting.. miseverything!!

So back on topic. Some months ago I bought a dv7 6189 sl: i5-2480M (2,4Ghz), 8 giga DDR3, GPU (here comes the issue -.-) is a HD 6770m with 2 gigabyte DDR5 ram.

Some weeks ago I installed Skyrim, and got serious performance issues from the very start. Twweking the hell out of the game .ini files changed NOTHING. Basing on different web sources, I thought the problem was given by the old GPU drivers provided by Hp. After weeks of desperation and vane search I found Leshcat's CCC modded drivers. They seemed to work just fine, but the more I searched on the topic (I am a beginner!) the more i got worried by different issues. The 12.3 CCC, for example, rises the GPU temperaturea lot, and I found myself with a 55 degrees GPU on IDLE :O
After messing up with different drivers I cleaned all with driver sweeper and am back to the beginning, with my "vanilla" drivers, my performance issues and what I believe is an ABNORMAL temperature: around 46 degrees idle, and the GPU swiftly rises to around 80 degrees after a few minutes of intense use. I bought a cheap, double fan cooling mat by trust (at least it keeps my laptop lifted from the table surface) but those are the temperatures.

SO... Can anybody tell me if the temperatures I've described are average? I hardly think so. And in case they are not, what should I do? Deassemble the laptop and change the refrigerating paste (just thinking of it scares the hell out of me)? Install a particular version of Catalyst? I've read that the 12.2 is the best one for the moment in terms of stability, but still rises temperature of GPU a bit...

Also, I think I've noticed that HP CoolSense affects performance and doesn't do a good job in cooling when needed -.- Any solution?

Finally, should anybody share a way of making skyrim run decently with my GPU (I know the 6770m is nothing outstanding, but not being able to get past 30 fps AT ALL!!)... drivers version, graphic setting and so on...

I know the post is so long and I asked so much, but this is the only decent-sized hp laptop users community I could spot. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I don't really know where to bang my head in desperation (perhaps a wall!! ).

PS Forgot to mention I've already fixed the switchable graphic issue by updating bios and passing to fixed mode (thanks hp -.-)

PPS Sorry again for my crappy English!

 

Did you have these temps before? HP is known for it's bad cooling thus you need to make sure you clean the fan once in a while. It's probably dust/small hairs that makes the fan less effective. You can also replace the stock cooling paste by something better like MX4 or AS5 or IC diamond. There are lots of guides online that shows how to replace the paste.

Hope that will improve your temperature!

 

Thatnks for your answer, Bo0bz. To say the truth, I never bothered to test temperatures BEFORE switching to different drivers. But even after coming back to the original ones, the temperature seems to keep approx. the same.
I'll try and replace the cooling paste...

 

What is your ambient temperature btw? Try open the bottom panel and use better cooling pad like CM U3.

If you have some time, download OpenHardwareMonitor and Furmark. Run both simultaneously and monitor your GPU Core and Mem clock + CPU frequency in OHM. Does it throttling?