Massive heating issues on Sager NP5760

Howdy

I was curious if anyone else has been experiencing any horrendous heating issues with the NP5760. I got mine in July 2006 with the 512 GeForce 7900 (which I think is the source of the problem). It has always ran really hot but lately it's gotten seriously (painfully) hot, enough so that it's effecting performance. I'm getting lots of artifacts on my screen, HUGE fps drop in WOW (from 45-60 frames down to 10-15) and general system problems (a few lockups here and there).

I've taken to removing the bottom cover and slightly elevate the laptop to allow more cooling but it hasn't helped. I haven't overclocked the gpu and am using drivers from laptopvideo2go.com (can't remember which one off the top of the head, but a recent one).

The onset seems to be acute (was always hot but never THIS bad). I'm concerned of permanent damage being done and have been contemplating selling this thing off ASAP and buying something less heat intensive.

So, has anyone else experienced problems such as this? Barring that does anyone else have any suggestions? I have no spare parts lying around so I can't swap cards and see if that helps.

For reference, I emailed powernotebooks.com (where I purchased it) for assistance, but thought I'd ask here since I know there is a good community here.

Any help/suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

every month or two, you should routinely open up the panels to get to the fans, vents, and heatsinks to thoroughly clean them out with Q-tips and compress air (cans or compressor would be fine).

Your overheating is typical if you do not clean out your notebook routinely or do not use a good notebook cooler (like the Zalman ZM-NC1000).

I would strongly recommend to clean out the notebook as soon as possible... as well as start to monitor your GPU and CPU temps to watch out for indicators of overheating due to dust clogs.... which is so common that its sad.

And another thing is that re-applying thermal grease (Arctic Silver) for the GPU and CPU might give you some better temps as well.

 

Gophn

Thanks for the reply. My fans are clean, I'll check underneath the heatsink to see if there is an buildup there. I'll also check out the temps. Didn't know there was a program for that, so thanks.

The main sources of heat are the harddrive and gpu. I guess my main question was whether this kind of behavior is unusual, but I guess that can't be said until I know what state my heatsink is in (dust).

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a try and update the post.

 

For your reference, you can take a look at this product.
I believe Thermaltake is importing these and they should be on the US market within 2 months.
They are available in 12", 15.4" (14") and 17".
Retail Price: $50




This memory foam case can do the following.
1. It is made with the finest viso-elastic memory foam.
Not only does it provide excellent protection against physical damage, it also comes in five vivid colors, plus the gentle softness of the material.
2. It uses HeatShift technology, which will spread heat to other area of the cooling pad.

This is another product currently imported by Thermaltake by the same manufacturer.
Thermaltake iXoft - Retail: $30

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/product/Cooler/NBcooling/r15on01/r15on01.asp

Conclusion:
1. Users who will want to use the carrying case, are the ones who are always on the go, needs protection from scratch and shock. The bag can also serves as inner bag that can be stored inside of the actual carrying case such as Targus' carring case. And for users who need to dissipate heat while using the notebook on the laps.
2. Users who will want to use just the pad, are the ones who usually use the notebook at home without carrying around all the time. Of course you still can carry your notebook around with this pad if you prefer this way.

Advantage:
1. Light and Portable
2. Uses no electricity
3. No serviceable components
4. Will last pretty much forever if properly used

 

oh, another thing to do with these awesome Clevo gaming notebooks is:

use the Fan Toggle (Fn+F2) to switch all fans to max speed to prevent overheats.

but definitely use a flashlight to look through the vents of the system, I am confident that they are clogged.... looking at just the fans do not help much.

and yes, you have to take about 30-40min of your time to manually use Q-tips on the end of the fans towards the vents to clean out the dust... with the assistance of compressed air.

also check out the cooling guide

 

You were spot on Gophn, heat sink was about 3/4 of the way clogged (!!!!)

Total ignorance on my part. Coming from my desktop background, I can see the whole cooling unit pretty easily, but with my first laptop, I just flip it over, take off the cover and clear the fan/intake if it needs it.

Been running steadly at 54ish while gaming, seems to have hit the nail on the head.

Thanks!

 

glad to help you.

now you learned something.

"gaming notebooks need to have check-ups"

 

That's a good one Gophn.

 

lol.. glad its working now...

 

Wait hold on..I hope I can get some help too. I also have a Sager np5760. I love it but its probably the biggest investment I've ever made so I get really worried when I think something is wrong. A while back I started getting horrible line artifacts in newer games and then had someone tell me it's probably because my GPU was broken, now I think its just overheating. I did see a little bit of dust collected on the outside of the vents next to the exhaust and the fan, and blew that out.

Still having artifacts..so i'm guessing like Thacker I should "go inside" now huh? Thing is..I know almost nothing about computer hardware and have only been inside my laptop case once..to inspect the CMOS battery. What areas should I be looking at for dust buildups? where are they located? what do they look like? for instance...to check the heat sink (i'm assuming its obscured from view and can't be seen by merely opening the bottom) will I have to really dig into the laptop internals and remove different layers? I don't want to mess anything up...

I really hope its not as hard as it sounds and i can do it..and that it fixes my problems. I really don't want my vid. card to be broken =-(

I do remember last year my room was unusually dusty so I'm hoping thats the simple problem

 

Nevermind I figured it out on my own. Couldn't have been any easier! I love my laptop.

So I was able to remove a few huge dustballs from the heatsink and around the fan, hopefully that will fix the problem