NP 9170 with an AMD 7970m severe overheating

I own an NP 9170 (3 yrs old) with the AMD 7970m. I have had some heating issues for quite some time but they were manageable. But off late it has become very severe. I simply cannot use my GPU to its full 850/1200 clock freq at all. I have tried cleaning the vents, tried re pasting everything. I even have the case open right now but still it under clocks to 450/1200 as temps soar above 100C.

Any suggestions are welcome. I am in India so sending it to the re seller and getting it checked is out of the question. I could have some tech guy have a look at it but before that I just thought I could meddle some more to may be see if the problem could be sorted out. The temps slowly climb from 65-70C to above 100C. So I still have a feeling it is a cooling system related issue. I just need some help to figure out what can be done. Any new inputs are also very welcome.

 

Typically cleaning the fans, vents, then repasting will do it. Making sure you are not blocking the vents is next, but since you have it open that would solve that.

Can you tell if the heat sink is making proper contact with the GPU? When you take that off after a repaste does it look like it is spreading properly with not to little and not too much TIM. Do the heat transfer pipes look damaged?

 

You are right. I do have the suspicion it has something to do with the heat sink or my pasting methods. I could probably put up some screen shots in here so that it would make things easier to guess if there is an actual problem with the heat sink, vents or the paste. I shall click some pics and upload them.

Here. I have posted all the pics. The link for all the images is below.
http://postimg.org/gallery/1lmya6erw/

I found that the pasting was bad and also that the fans are not perfectly aligned with the vents. Now my gaming performance has certainly increased after I re pasted and pushed the vent a bit down using a rubber strip by using the laptop back cover. The back cover is not on and I have not yet seen any under clocking yet. I have downloaded latest 3D Mark and will try a bench marking. Hopefully it will run without overheating.

Any suggestions based on the pics would be welcome. I still am sure my GPU is running hot because on GTA IV with max graphics temps did reach 95C at times but mostly hovered at 92-93C. GTA IV definitely is not a good example as its utilization hugely varies and is never constant. Let me check with the bench marking tool.

Have now added the benchmark details too. Temps did soar up to 97C. But I think the benchmark ended before it could soar higher.
http://www.3dmark.com/sd/3025794

Shall next try Fur-Mark to see if it actually reaches higher temps like 100C where it throttles.

Furmark results updated.


The actual Furmark results did not show GPU temperature. Temps rose up to 100C and would have gone higher if I had maintained the GPU at 99%. Seems like heat slowly builds up inside and is not able to be flushed out. Heat is being trapped somewhere.

 

Would be nice if you could throw is your suggestions now that i have posted the pics. Thank You.

 

Have a look at this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...d-by-clevo-solutions-here.676272/#post8694123

 

Its tough to tell how that paste job is after the heatsinks have been removed but it does look like they could be better. It doenst look like the whole die is being properly covered. I'd try it a couple more times using more, but nto too much, about a pea size is good.

 

What paste are you using? Can you get some IC Diamond or Gelid GC Extreme? My 7970M was much hotter then the 970M however it never went above 76C with stock dell paste + OC...

 

Agreed, brand of thermal compound does make a difference.

 

Get the best thermal compound you can - 6w\mk++ thermal conductivity recommended, verify your themal paste application method,
And don't forget to undervolt!
If neither of these steps help, there is a chance of GPU getting close to failure - uncontrollable temperature rise is one of the main symptoms, if you are sure it is not due to the dried out thermal interface or poor heatsink contact.

 

I have now tried the aluminium foil mods and still no difference. I sealed the gaps between the fans and the fins. Yet not much difference. Furmark temps soar above 100C. I re-pasted again and actually have become tired of re-pasting. Have used a pea sized drop that should spread evenly. The thermal compound I use currently is Deepcool Z5 Thermal Paste (Thermal Conductivity >1.46 W/m-K; Thermal Impedance <0.159 Degree C-in2/W). Would the brand of thermal paste cause such a huge difference?

 

With a proper application the you should not go over 100C regardless of the brand you are using.

How are your temps with standard benchmark programs like 3DMark. You mentioned 97C previously, have they gotten better? That will be more realistic of game play vs Furmark which is a burn in program made to max out temps.

If you feel everything has been done properly and you're still getting high temps it could be the card going bad.

 

That paste is too crap... Get something like Gelid GC Extreme or IC Diamond, Zalman STG-2... Those have like 3-4 the conductivity...

 

Hello

Paste brand and proper paste is very important, but i would advise you check that vent cleanup again. I copy here one of my old posts about a similar issue, check this out you might be surprised...
SELF QUOTE:
I cannot emphasize enough on this: Cleaning the Heatsink vents is the MAIN maintenance for temps you should do. I know it because i did not believe it before. Even 5% lint and dust can cause 10 to 20 C increase in temps. Why? Well to me its fairly obvious, the vents tend to concentrate the air flow in the first part were the air can go out, so that 5 % accounts for probably 90% of the actual air flow. This vents are not laminar flow (which would be great btw....), so one must maintain them clean as often as once a month depending on the use and ambient dust you have. I do it every other month, and my working CPU temps are usually between 35 and 45 C (gaming the range is 50 to 62 C), GPU in games varies between 63 to 83 C (the latter only in certain games like witcher 2 that seems to really demand my gpu, on dota2 or similar games its usually around 65C).
So go buy that bottle of compressed air and take the 5 to 10 mins you need to do a proper cleanup.
My rig is almost 2 years old, and i have never repasted the factory IC diamond 7
FYI i have NOT applied any of the fixes and improvements in my rig, mainly because i dont think i really need them.

 

What about more realistic loads like games?

 

I wish I could. I only found this paste here in India and bought it online. Will try looking for other paste brands. What should I exactly look for in the brand? I mean from a technical aspect?

I too have heard a lot of owners having absolutely no complaints with their cooling. But it seems like that is not the case for all of them. I believe it has something to do with the heatsink alignment and the entire assembly maybe. Some people have had the GPU go up to 90-95C.

I hope this helps. I face an issue every time the card utilization reaches maximum. Anything above 90% and my temps rise. Its actually strange that even if I underclock I still have this issue. Maybe it has something to do with the card not able to manage maximum utilisation. Not sure.

 

Hey curs3,
Highly recommend icd7 thermal paste.

Also what's your ambient air temperature of the roomyou are gaming in?

If repasting is not seeing a drop in temperature perhaps your radiator is faulty or fans not spinning up at higher rate.

My 7970m idles at 30-36C and load 72-74C.

Good luck.

 

How do you check your idle temps by the way? I only see them when I use games and they rise rapidly. My ambient room temperature is 30C. Its quite hot in here in Mumbai and it can get higher. But that being said still with the amount of cooling these gaming laptops boast of I should not be seeing these temps. May be I got on eof the bad cards or the bad assembly I guess. But need to figure out where the exact problem is so I can be safe when I make my next purchase.

 

Look for pastes on ebay... That's your only hope.. If you look on ebay UK for Gelid GC Extreme, quite a few ship it and you can get it through ebay's global express shipping program..

 

I use IC diamond for my own builds It's thick (good for low pressure heatsinks) and tends to last under high loads.

 

How good is Artic Silver 5?
http://www.amazon.in/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-3-5G/dp/B000OGX5AM/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1432160420&sr=1-1&keywords=artic silver

IC diamond costs like 1800-2000 Rs in here. Just worried if I might end up spending so much money only for it to make no difference.
http://www.amazon.in/Innovation-Cooling-Diamond-Thermal-Compound/dp/B0042IEVD8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1432160530&sr=1-1&keywords=IC diamond

 

Arctic silver is a very old paste now, it has been surpassed now.

However if you already throttle heavily in normal games there may be an issue with the heatsink and no thermal paste will fix that.

 

I would spend the extra and get IC Diamond. It usually drops a few C off the temps, plus never has to be redone if done correctly the first time. Follow their suggestion here http://www.innovationcooling.com/application.html

 

What kind of issues do you mean by that? You meant the heat sink face that comes in contact with the processor or the pipes or the fins? Any ways I can check them? What should I be exactly looking for?

Okay will try getting that paste just to see if that would make any difference. Still I don't see that temps dropping to 75C as people claim in here are the max temps. So there should be some other issue that is actually forcing the card to heat up so much. If let us say the card was faulty is there any way for us to confirm that? Or is there a way to confirm if the card is working fine and the heat is just not being effectively circulated out? As long it is not a card issue I stand a chance to get this fixed. If it turns out to be a card issue might as well run this for as long as it does and get a new pc in the near future.

 

Curs, use hwinfo64 to monitor your sensors.
Also what happens if you hit fn + f1 does your fan go to maximum?
I think your fans may not be spooling up to maximum on gpu. Check with hwinfo64 for idle and gaming temps and isolate where the fault lies. I do think though you should upgrade the paste to eliminate that firstly.
Edit - looking at your pics your fans are clogged up with fluff. Please dismantle carefully and remove the fluff.
.
Good luck.

 

If a heatpipe fails it can cause high temperatures, if you remove it and submerse the contact plate into hot water (removing pads and drying thoroughly of course) the heatpipes should all get hot by an equal amount and rapidly.

 

Or I can try checking of the heat pipes are heating up when the pc is running? I shall see if I can try what you just said. I have to check for the individual pipes to see if they get hot in hot water after immersion right?

When I hit Fn+1 nothing happens. My fans increase in rpm when the temps hit 90-95C but they do not do that manually when I press any keys. They do it automatically. I think I have tried that app and got no reading on the fans. Will try again.

 

A failing heatpipe can heat up in the computer over time but still not be operating properly, it's that quick reaction you are checking.

 

Okay now I get it. Shall try and check the same.

 

If you start it up quickly and load it then that might work as well.