Games vitually unplayable due to HD heat. (8662)

its just another Hard Drive.... but Solid State.

to install it, just read how to install an Hard Drive in the User's Manual.

 

I also just went out and bought a cooler for this laptop. But to be fair, the temperatures have really spiked in the last week or so and I have no air conditioning in this apartment so...
It is generally at about 50C but with this heat it was bout 57-60 depending on use. but with this cooler its temps are normal again

 

exactly why I had to get my Zalman's.... since my place has no AC as well, and its on top floor.... hot and humid at times.

 

does the ahci mode have any effect on temps?
where do i find the latest drivers?
i have the 320gb 7200 rpm drive.
i looked it up its Seagate Momentus® 7200.3
tom's says good things about it http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/notebook-hard-drive,2006-6.html

 

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101

 

My HDD was 50-55 few weeks ago after hours of playing, but last night when I played WoW for ~1 hour my temp went up to 67C I know it is hotter in my room than a few weeks ago, but not that much...
WD 7200RPM...

 

I wouldn't think WoW would cause the HD to heat up, most of the data isn't loaded off the HD its off the servers right?

 

Updated my Intel Matrix driver, HDD temp is back to 55-56 again

 

Hey I have the same problem. I got my laptop yesterday. When I first open the computer the HDD temp is about 45c. It slowly build up to 50+ when I do some things like moving files from my other computer harddrive to my laptop's harddrive. One point it reached 59C. It was really scary, I turned of the computer and leave it for a few min before turning it back on.

 

Try using a notebook cooler. I have the Zalman 2000 and it seems to help by reducing max temp by 5 - 10C degrees.

 

I'm a grad school who must replace a recently deceased Dell E1705 and I was considering the 8662 as a replacement option. After reading this thread (HDD heat issues; seemingly a pattern of unresponsive, passing-the-buck sales/manufacturer support) its off my list.

I truly hope someone steps up to assist you all in finding a sufficient remedy, because a notebook with excessive heat issues is, more likely sooner than later, bound to fail. Best of luck.

 

Hmm gophns modification as well as a cooler (zalman nc 2000) would make the HDD really cool.

I would reccomend both scorpio drives 5400 and 7200 i cant remember off the top of my head but there are reviews around and they both run 30-36 or so, im using a 5400rpm toshiba and that runs at 33C constantly, even when im sat outside in the 30C sunshine hehe.

As i say throughout the forum, as well as gophn, try make HDD usage minimum until you get it sorted or dont experience the error, you could also take a drill and just put some holes and maybe a grid in the laptops casing above hdd (DONT DRILL THE HDD) lol.

Best of luck.
Cata

 

Do you know the model number of the Toshiba you are using?

 

Geezzzz this is kinda scary. The 8662 was the very top of my list but I'm not so sure anymore. I gotta have this laptop last me awhile and heat issues are no laughing matter when it comes to longevity. Has anyone spoken with XoticPC to see if they will do something with this?

 

You can speak with them. The heat issue is only for some of earlier ones, and from what I know, it wasn't that many either.

IF you do have heat issues with it, there are number of ways to solve it.
Check here for cooling your computer.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=263039

 

Honestly, I got an 8662 which is perfect. I got an Hitachi drive and my apartment has absolutely no ac in it so it is hot in here (over 30C)... So I went to get me a cooler.
The highest temperature I get on my HD is 57C (right now) because I am backing my partition.
I admit that "some" of the drives are running a bit warmer than some other laptop models but believe you me, you wont regret getting this lappy if you want a 15"

 

My Seagate Momentus 500GB, 7200 RPM idles from 50-55C, usually lower but regardless of what I am doing whether it was gaming for hours or defragging, it never goes anywhere passed 60C.

This is not the ideal temperature since it is so close to the maximum recommended levels but it is still not a problem. However, my WD 500GB 5400 RPM that came with my NP8662 would reach temperatures of 67C.

I have no idea why the faster hard drive would turn out to be the cooler one.

 

I brought the zalman 2000 and used it for a week. When I turn it max, it is only a little more wind then when it is min. It don't feel much wind. It is ultra quiet which I like. I was wondering if it is possible for more wind blowing from the zalman.

 

You can follow Gophn`s little mod on youtube.

 

To whoever's not getting the Np8662 because of these heat issues, I slap you very hard on the face . I've seen tons and tons of laptops have heat issues on the cpu and gpu. This 15 inch beast only has in SOME (note that it is far from everybody) laptops hdd overheating. I mean I'm writing this from my gaming rig that can play any game out there at max (almost every game.. ) and gpu and cpu are both always cool while my hdd got ONE time to 56c (which isn't that bad..). Writing this right now in my room with windows open at around 25c my hdd is at 48c, and it only gets to about 53c when I do lots of downloads or game.

 

Is this the only Sager model that suffers from too much HD heat? I hope so.

 

My HD still runs warm to this day, but I have yet to have any real issues with it. To anyone deciding not to buy this laptop because of the HD trust me it shouldn't be a deal breaker. This is just one issue, and the rest of the system easily compensates for this flaw.

 

So nobody has had a problem with instantaneous heat buildup on the hard drive? I am considering purchasing an np8662. I have had a laptop previously with a smoking hot hard drive and it is not a very enjoyable experience. The problem was caused by insufficient heat dissipation from the notebook frame, causing the excess processor heat to conduct to the hard drive. The heat pipes for the cooler were supported by the frame of the laptop, connecting right to the wall around the hard drive.

Perhaps this is what is happening with the Sager, at least in a similar manner?
I'd rather not mod the case but if it is just a matter of preventing excess heat conducting to the hard drive I'm game. Has anyone tried insulating the hard drive with success? Also, has anyone measured temperatures of the laptops' frame in the immediate vicinity of the hard drive? Perhaps it is another area of the laptop with a bad cooling design, not just the hard drive?

 

May I ask what is this laptop you speak of?

The CPU and GPU heatpipes are nowhere near the HDD. Also, insulating the HDD will not yield any benefit.

 

I am using a Dell Latitude D400 that was given to me for free from an inventory cycle from my company. Obviously you can understand why I want to get a new one . The hard drive is located right by the heat pipes and the frame gets very warm where they touch as the 2 ghz pentium m gets up to 70C real easily with load.

I still wonder why the hard drives are getting so warm. the D400 gets absolutely no airflow to the hard drive, the only vent is a 2mmx5cm. So I thought the only real reason the drive could get so warm is from heat conduction. It can't be just from bad airflow, can it?

 

I would need to see a picture of the cooling system in order to get an idea. Generally how heatpipes work is that it transfers heat from a hot component, say the CPU, to the heatsink where the fan will cool it. Inside the heatpipe is a special liquid that has a low boiling point. The CPU gets hot and heats up the heatpipe. The liquid in the heatpipe evaporates into gas and moves up the heatpipe away from the heat. This is similar to how water vapor moves away from a pot of boiling water. The hot gas would reach the end of the heatpipe where the heatsink is and the cool air being blown by the fan will cool the gas where it will condense back to liquid and travel all the way back to the CPU. And from there the whole cycle repeats.

Essentially, heat is transfered by both the liquid and the copper making the cooling process very efficient. The copper heatpipes convects extremely little heat as the heat goes from the CPU to the heatsink, so I doubt that your hard drive is conducting heat from the heatpipes.

Specifically how hot does your hard drive get as reported from temperature sensors?

 

I'm aware of how heatpipes work, but I'm mainly concerned about the np8662 not my current laptop, as this thing is going into the garbage as soon as I get a new one. I find it very strange that a driver update caused people's temperatures to go down. Is everybody using the pre-installed OS or are they still having the same problem with a fresh install using a non-sager install disk? Perhaps it is a problem with the OS install in that sense.

I still feel that there has to be something more in order to get temps that high.
My current laptop can get up to 50C which is a lot in a 16C ambient environment, but it is still less than what I've heard the Np8662 getting. However even this laptop has a good idle temp for the HD. It is idling at 19C right now, which can't be said for the sager. If I am going to get this thing I am going to need to find a way to cool that HD down, as a solid state drive is far, far out of my budget range.

 

Just to update on the HDD heat issue... I believe someone wrote it was an older NP8660 issue that had been solved with the release of the NP8662. I confirm it has not been solved yet. I just got a brand new NP8662 from XoticPC and I have pretty high HDD temperatures. It idles around 48-50C and goes up to 60C during gaming/downloading. I would estimate my room temperature to 22-24C but I dont have an exact measurement.

The HDD is a 320Gb 7200rpm Seagate. I got an undervolted P9700 processor. CPU and GPU run pretty cool, even under gaming load. My HDD is always the warmest component in my laptop.

So aside from the notebook cooling pad or SSD solution are there any fixes yet for this issue? Some people suggested upgrading the Intel matrix drivers but those apparently wont work with Win 7 x64.

My plan is to use my Seagate for 1-2 years and wait for the SSDs to become more affordable and then use my Seagate as USB external storage.

 

I wish someone would try multiple hard drives in the laptop to see if it definitely can be helped with the storage driver. I want to see solid state, caviar blues, and stock sager parts... With accurate results and ambient temps posted. This thing has to be scientific or is generally useless to us.

Roymathieu, when you say undervolted, did you do it yourself, or is it your opinion and it came stock underclocked? Or are you talking about intel speedstep?

Can someone post temps with a solid state drive and see if they are better?

 

Welcome to NBR. Did you install the latest SATA driver?

 

Wow, this is a long thread and to be honest I didn't read much. I just wanted to say that I've had no troubles with my HDD temps and it runs much cooler than any laptop I've ever own. This computer rocks!

 

I did it myself using RMclock... i was able to use the 10.5x multiplier by editing the registry file and forcing a 11x multiplier to RMclock, a trick I found on another thread.

Thanks! And thanks for the quick reply. Well I tried 3 things...
1. Install the latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager but it doesnt work on windows 7.

2. Update my HDD drivers in windows device manager (already up to date)

3. Update my SATA drivers in windows device manager (already up to date)

Is there anything else I should try?

By the way, earlier I just transfered 15Gb of mp3 files from a USB device to my HDD, the temperature went up to 62C and I was trying to work/surf the web at the same time and everything was super slow. Something is definitely wrong.

 

I spent a bit more time trying to figure out why I wasnt able to install the Matrix Manager on my win7 machine but still no success. I'm getting the same error message ("This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software") that some XP users experienced before.

I tried to install the 7.0 version of Matrix storage manager and got the same error.

Then I realized that my bios was not set to Vista OS with the AHCI setting but it was on "Other" OS. I tried switching it to Vista - AHCI but I'm getting a BSOD at startup. I'm pretty sure that explains my high HD temps.

Any ideas?

 

Copying 15GB into Harddrive is A LOT of work. It's no surprise it went upto 62C. If the temperature during this highest workload was 62C, I think it's fine. It is in "danger zone" but not critical zone which is 65.

 

Still I like my hard drives to last as long as possible. Even with only one fan on them, my desktop hard drives absolutely never go above 45C. Doesn't matter if its a hot day, or there are bad drivers. Perhaps a solid state drive is in order for this laptop.

 

I don't think there is any justification for a hard drive to reach 62C/144F in a laptop or otherwise. I mean yes, the M860TU keeps pretty cool but, its neglect of the hard drive is really surprising. It should be the easiest component to keep cool.
I actually wouldn't mind so much except the chassis has gone through 3 revisions. Now it iterates me out of principle.

 

actually the chassis has never gone through any revisions.

the motherboard has to support quad-core CPUs.

 

I suppose I should have said barebone rather than chassis

 

i was accidentaly running win7 in IDE mode, after fixing it to run in ATA/AHCI mode my hdd temps dropped about 5C

check out this thread

 

Suddenly I don't think I want this model anymore

 

Me neither..

Current Dell Studio 1535 laptop HDD running at 37 degree idle according to HWMonitor..

 

Are you really comparing a laptop with integrated GPU to a laptop with a gt 260m. Seriously hard-drive temp is a small price to pay compared to the power and quality of this laptop. I did not regret 1 sec buying this laptop. Worst case scenario I'll buy a new hard-drive in 1 year to be safe it will cost me 100$ for twice the GB and will probably be cooler and faster. Seriously I don't think HD temp should influence your choice. Portability, power and cost should.

 

Well my CPU and GPU are running idle now at 50 degrees and 60 degrees respectively. They are located on the left hand side of the laptop, mainly burning my knees and left hand palm rest. Right now the system is on a desk and it is slightly heating my left hand.. On my knees.. the laptop runs higher and even idle burns my knees at temps of just roughly 55 degrres and 65 degrees again respectively (sometimes GPU reaches 70)..

If 65 degrees is too much for my knees to handle, and HDD temps on affected models generally seem to be around 55 - 65 degrees.. that puts me off Maybe I'm just picky, but I'm worried about risking it having to spend so much money on this laptop.

 

Since when were the CPU and GPU located on the left side of the M860TU? The only things that are on the left side are the optical drive and the battery.

If your CPU and GPU are idling at 50*C and 60*C, you need to do maintenance on the machine. I think you know what to do.

 

Why the hell are you putting a notebook on your knees?

 

I'm talking about my Dell Studio 1535, if you had read the post correctly. Saying that at those temps, my laptop is burning me. If the M860TU HDD can hit up to 60 degrees, thats about the same.. And I can only assume it will burn me equally as bad.

As for why is it on my knees? Simply put, because at those times I don't have access to a desk Never used your laptop at night in your bed on your knees? Or in a car? Or train with no desks? Lounge sofa? etc..

 

Ah yes, forgive me. I did not read post #141.

 

I think it is important. Because of the increased heat the hard drive is more likely to fail. I can easily see two HDD replacements throughout 4 years of this laptops' life because of it (Seriously @ 55C+ all the time you'll be extremely lucky to get 2 years out of an HDD, more likely to get 14 months). Depending on what kind of HDD you are ordering that can be a headache.

I was anticipating this move actually when I bought my laptop, I was planning to replace the HDD with a SSD when it broke. Prices still need to go down more so I am hoping it doesn't break down until December (14 months).

Its a design flaw guys and a potentially expensive one at that, they needed open air holes under that drive.

 

I agree but under normal load (internet/movie/msn/music...) my HD run at about 45 and CPU/GPU with never cleaned fan 40C which is slightly hot on the lap but still very reasonable in my opinion but remember it is kinda heavy and big so it's not very confortable. In 1 year I used it about 4 hour on my lap. Also HD temp is directly related to room temperature under 22C HD never go over 55C at 28C I've seen 68C with GTAIV. But like I said after about 14 month buy a HD that is reported to run cool in the M860TU (I don't know them by heart but I'm quite sure some run between 30 to 50)

While playing the palm rest become unconfortably (sweaty) hot but if you really need/want the power buy a USB keyboard and your problem is solved. Don't forget that in term of raw calculation power the 260m is something between 10 to 20 time more powerfull than the 4500 from the dell 1535

I think they made it on purpose because they wanted to have as much heat as possible coming from the CPU/GPU through the rad so they isolated the hard-drive from the rad and there is no hole/airflow because of static. Still I think they did not realise how much heat modern HD produce

 

What I don't get though, is why haven't they fixed it?