Tips for keeping CF-19 Mk6 cool?

Hello,

Just a quick question. I have a CF-19 outfitted with i5 core, 2 x 8 GB1600Mhz 1.35V RAM and 480GB SSD + OEM GPS.

I've been working outside in the sun lately and I am noticing that the toughbook gets mighty hot to touch and the CPU slows down significantly.

Do you have any recommendations for keeping the toughbook cool?

 

This advice will help

 

I'm not sure if you linked the right thread... but did consider watercooling it... externally.

 

It's a very good idea. Just as good as to using a laptop only at night.

 

The CF-19 is only passively cooled. So no fan to cool it off. The heat is transfered from the CPU to a heat sink and then the heat sink is hooked to the body that works as a heat sink as well. Make sure you pop up some shade and keep the bottom with a air gap.

The early toughbook's were black and had some heat problems in the sun all day, that is why they went to a more reflective silver color to reflect some of the heat back and not absorb it. There are some that came factory and other's that have been resprayed. Not sure what color your's is. Also keeping it plugged in while in the sun will build more heat as well.

Last thing you could do is a internal mod to go with a better thermal pad on the CPU, but I usually only do that if it has deteriorated.

 

My CF-19 is factory standard "silver" with black backcover, ports and "grill" around the monitor. I don't think the thermal pad would help really because the toughbook itself get mighty hot and burns my laps if I put them on my laps.

I did disassemble the CF-19 and considered replacing the thermal adhesive (I think I remember it being adhesive instead of paste) but I decided not to because the heat transfer from the CPU to the casing was certainly not an issue. I may have a look at it again.

 

The CF-19 Mk1 and 2 units I have stripped down that far had the thermal pad. I have not had a Mk3 up down to the motherboard yet.

Was it running that hot before you disassembled it the first time? May not of got a good set between the CPU and the heat sink.

 

I don't remember exactly, but I think I opened it up and disassembled because of heating problem 3 years ago. Basically I realized that there is not really much I can do. I mean I could try a higher quality thermal pad but all of the heat transfer components seemed as operational as they can, the case itself heats up as a result.

 

I wonder if setting it on a copper or aluminum plate would dissipate heat better. Or maybe even an aluminum fixture or appliance with water inside to absorb the heat. Or an aluminum T shape with pointed bottom to drive in soil and transfer heat.

 

This is the only thing I don't like about the 19MK6...HEAT on the bottom. I sat outside one night for 2 hours with it sitting on my legs. Well I had a very light burn mark across my legs.

 

I wonder, do Mk 7 and/or Mk 8 run cooler?

 

35W TDP CPU, small form-factor. Of course it will be hot under load.
If you want it to run cool - your CPU has to be idle. Or try to use windows power options and/or Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to lower TDP




Anyway, the main method is to keep CPU idle. Check it in your Task manager, disable all CPU hungry background apps.

 

Undervolting/powering, I am seriously considering it as an option because I don't know what I would gain by fast CPU that hits high temperature and throttles down as a result.

I guess the results would vary from machine/environment/usage and etc.

 

This laptop was not made for performance. 35W CPU is too powerful for this chassis + sun. Deal with it.

 

I couldn't find the Config TDP level under default W10 power options and I couldn't find an Intel Extreme Tuning Utility compatible for i5-3320m.

 

Ok, disable Turbo (change 100% to 99% here) and keep CPU idle

 

Disabling intel turbo boost makes huge difference. Turbo boost adds lots of heat for minor boost in performance. I always have turbo boost disabled on my laptops when running on battery.

You can even further limit maximum cpu clock with "maximum processor state" under power options. You'll have to experiment a little bit yourself since every model have different thresholds.

For CF-C1mk2 table looks something like this:

- cpu clock - max.state - cpu power draw
- 797Mhz - 38% - - (idle clock)
- 996Mhz - 46% - 7.4W
- 1594Mhz - 70% - 11W
- 1993Mhz - 98% - 15W - (<=98% turbo boost is disabled)
- 2491Mhz - 99% - 21W - (turbo boost)

As for CF19, even mk2 with only 10w tdp ulv cpu will throttle under full load, 35w cpu is impossible to cool passively in such small chassis even at modest loads.

 

I actually changed the thermal pads from CPU<->heatsink, PCH <->heatsink and heatsink <-> chassis with some high quality thermal pads and all of the problems went away. Even with CPU allowed to run at 100% with hyperthread enabled, DC PSU attached and while the toughbook is on my bed playing some demanding games for i5-3320m ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...n-cf-19-mk-6-57-degrees-celsius.833483/page-4).

The conclusion is that there was a poor heat transport from CPU->chassis and heated up the SSD resulting in SSD overheating and causing the system to not work.

New and high-specs thermal pads solved the problem. I guess the OEM pads were just old and outdated.