NP8760 GPU hitting 205 F

I hope someone can coach me a bit about gpu temperatures and what is too hot.

This sager NP8760 has:
Radeon HD 5800 Series (1024 MB) graphics card

Using speedfan 4.45, it shows the gpu running as high as 205 f.

To me that sounds really high but I don't know doodoo about gpu heat ranges.

Googling around I see a few people complaining at heats a bit under that but no real comment about what is overly hot was apparent.

I have started noticing a strange shutdown problem happening lately so wondered if maybe a fan has gone out or whatever, and it is the gpu shutting the machine down.

I did notice the cores did not seem overly hot, or disks. But just now installed fanspeed, which shows gpu, and I wasn't able to see gpu heat on before.

 

95C is too high, and if the system shuts down, yeah we got a problem here. Check your vents for obstructions and maybe get some compressed air to clean the fans and heat sinks.

 

is there any way you can set it to C Centigrade instead of F Fahrenheit as it would be easier to read for all of us.
as mentioned have you cleaned your fans and vents out lately as this plays a big part of high temps.

this is an old post but gives a rough idea:

 

Mine needed a repaste when I got it. If cleaning the vents doesn't do it, that's the next step.

 

Time to open her up. Remove the gpu fan and heatsink and clean them thoroughly with canned air and a soft brush. I find the brush that usually comes with a electric shaver particularly effective to brush any remaining dust out of the fins.

Then clean the old paste off the heatsink and cpu and apply fresh stuff. I recommend ICD 7 24. Quite expensive but excellent! Reattach heatsink and fan and off you go.

Also you can download ATI tray tools and use it to undervolt your card. I have heard the HD5870 needs just 1.1V to run stock clocks. Give it that voltage and test using a stress test program like furmark. It never fails to reduce temps further.

 

Yes; here is centigrade: 205f = 96.1c

Thanks for that post... it was just the info that I was missing.

That figures out to 194f - 203f
That is a little below what I'm seeing as highest... so far.

That equates to: 212f - 221f
Very close to the highest I've seen.. And, if the shutdowns were induced by the gpu temp.. it must have gone even higher than 205... Yikes.

Thanks for the detailed walk thru.
I wonder if it is at all likely that the fan has just gave up the ghost.
Or would that register right off the charts and burn something up?

Is there some simple test to see if fan is running? Something that does not require disassembley would be nice but not essential.

 

You could open her up, then turn her on and play a game or run stress test program like furmark and watch the fan as the temps ramp up. It could be that the fan is running but due to dust no air is coming out.

I did this operation on an old asus laptop yesterday and before undervolt and clean out the temp were reaching nearly 90C. Now MAX is 35C with usual temp around 30C!

 

HWMonitor or HWiNFO64 should be able to tell you the RPMs of your fan (if the computer is reporting that information)

 

When I opened it up.. it doesn't really look dirty. There is visible dust accumulated where the GPU fan exits but not much really. And the inside, to my inexperienced eye looks pretty immaculate.

Of course I blew off what is there and brushed it down, but honestly I really doubt it will make a difference... it just looked too clean.

That said, right before opening it up, I watched as the gpu temperature when clear to 213, and then it shutdown.

I haven't reassemble and fired it back up yet... wondering now if something more drastic is wrong. 213F or 100.56C is really getting hot.

 

Definitely a cooling issue. Sounds like it needs to be re pasted.

 

This may sound obvious, but also check and make sure that the GPU fan is actually working as well. It's possible that it may have died and needs replaced.

 

Several folks have mentioned that... now that I have it open I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Lots of copper and 2 major fans. They appear to be very similar if not duplicates.

How to tell gpu fan from cpu fan?

And then where to find some directions about disassembly and repaste proceedure?

 

If you are looking for an exact step by step guide for this model I don't know if there is one. I know there is some generic Sager / Clevo guides - http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/591952-any-guides-how-put-thermal-np8150-np8170.html (look at page 43 of the service manual for a tutorial, or click here for an image - http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/213/55196893.png/)

I've also covered this for other model laptops (my old acer laptop) but not for this model. I'm a late arrival to this Sager community... my Sager laptop is still in the mail and won't be here till Saturday / Monday of next week. So an exact hands-on step by step guide won't be available for you from me. There is lots of great community help and guides though.

Let me know if you need more help or suggestions.

=)

--ssx--

 

I don't see anything in the interface indicating fan speed. Is it normal for a NP8760 to not be reporting that information?

Or maybe I don't know what to look for. I do see a section in the interface devoted to the gpu, that has many fields of information. None appear to relate to fan speed.

Also, I currently have the back off with it running and can see both fans are spinning.

One of the fans seems to be spinning harder... I can feel more air current with my hand held above it. How can I tell which is the gpu fan?

It appears to be running quite a lot cooler like this so far, but its only been running 10 minutes or so.

So far I'm seeing 175 F or 79.4 C

I always run thru a kvm switch and usually set it up so that the laptop screen is dead and the graphics are displayed on separate monitor.
In the past it appeared to work the gpu harder... (judging by temperature) to display both the actual laptop screen and the separate monitor. So I'm using that as a way to work the gpu a bit harder for this test.

Anyone know if that is actually the case, that displaying two screens, one a 25 in and the normal 17" attached screen works the gpu harder?

 

The image doesn't really look like what I see. The actual fan does of course but what is puzzling me is how to tell which is the gpu?

 

The gpu should have a heatsink covering the entire graphics card. The cpu should be a smaller heatsink. Try playing a game. The fan that puts out the most heat should be the GPU. Unless they both need to be repasted.

 

my apologies, I thought you said NP8150.

Regardless, it should look "similar" and the process is the same.

Check here - http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/cac3459611.jpg That is your GPU heatsink and fan.

Also here is a modified image for you showing the layout of your laptop - ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

Let me know if you need more help with a diagram / etc.

Again, if you replace the compound on the laptop be sure you do it in the proper order / steps as mentioned above. You may also want to contact your reseller if you have questions on this, or need help in doing so.

 

Yeah, sometimes this can be normal. The computer may not report fan speeds, so no need to worry since you see the fans running anyway.

This is definitely likely, a computer's GPU will spike in temps when another monitor is hooked up. However, it shouldn't be as hot as you had mentioned. To help in the process of the repaste, here is a link for the disassembly guide thanks to user theriko: W8xxCU_ESM.zip

 

One does have a smaller heat sink. Still I'd sooner have someone else besides me look so I've included a URL to an image of it:
View image

Also, I'm now wondering what the facts that follow might mean:
I've had it running now for over an hour with the cover off the back of the laptop, and running two displays (the builtin and a 25in lcd) while just doing normal tasks, and the highest temp I've seen is 178F or 81.11C incidentally the cores appear to be running about 10 degrees cooler too.

So wondering if this means that pasting isn't the problem. Like maybe I need to invent some way for that cover not to restrict the fans quite so much.

Not at all sure what that could be... but it appears just from this simple test of running two screens (the built in one and a 25 inch lcd) while doing normal tasks, that the bare hardware is working about like it should.

 

The other thing to test / run is GPUZ. It will tell you if your system is using more than an idle amount of graphics hardware while extending the displays.

GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility

The red "ticker" bars on the right side of the app tell you the load on your memory / cpu / etc.

 

Your are a true technician.. thank you sir, this information and your edits of an actual image of the exact machine have gone well beyond the call of duty and have nailed things down so tight that even I can have no further doubt.

Your comments have been very helpful .. thank you

============================================
A few further comments to both of you (and anyone else with something to add):

I've had the machine running in an upside down taco position, with the bottom cover off.. sort of natural if you want to watch the action.

In that position the highest temp I saw was around 81 c or 178 f.

I put the cover back.. (no screws, just stuck in position), after an hour or so the highest temp I've see is 84 c or 183 f. I suspect those are pretty normal temperatures. I'll have to put it back right side up with screws in to know for sure, but perhaps what I took for only a little blockage by dust was actually more important.. it may be that its now ok to go.

That would be good...

 

It seems a nifty tool. I'm not sure what I'm seeing though.
The red tickers you mention crawl across from right to left in a few minutes, maybe 2-3 but the temperatures and percentages etc in the next column to the right do not appear to change at all, or not much. Even checking the `highest' on the dropdowns don't show any appreciable change.

So is the tool itself supposed to be creating a load? The GPU load in middle column stays at zero. Temperatures have remained constant... what is supposed to be happening?

 

Egad, that sounds a bit dramatic, something like 200 % change. Those temps sound a bit unrealistic .. don't they?

 

Furmark is really cool looking when its stressing with burn in.
Man that thing really takes the temperature up quick. Here the GPU hit 225f in just seconds. That's a whopping 107 c. There are warnings on the software and I can see you could really do some damage with furmark.

But, I noticed the gpu fan didn't spin up. Or at least I could not hear it changing in response to the heat.

Also one of the other tools showed the speed at a steady 82%.

Seems like I should see some fairly quick increase in fan speed .. ?

 

Harry thanks for the replies, lets see if I can't clarify a bit for you. =)

GPUZ (and it's cousin CPUZ) are small peices of software that tell you the in's and out's of your computer hardware. CPUZ tells you about your cpu / motherboard and memory (in real time). While GPUZ tells you about your graphics card, the memory installed, etc.

What is nice about GPUZ is that it can help you monitor and track your GPU clock speed (your clock speed is how fast your graphics processors runs when load or demand is placed upon it). When you turn your laptop on the graphics "load" is likely to be very minimal, and what happens is your card down clocks or "reduces the clock speed" so it consumes less power, produces less heat, and might allow you to get more battery life (that's the idea anyway).

Let me give you an example. My laptop has an ATI x1600 graphics card built into the motherboard. This card is not upgradable / removable and has two default clock speeds... (one for at rest, and one for when gaming or using something with 3d)

GPUZ (as well as other applications like MSI afterburner) will tell you what speeds your computers GPU is running at, as well as temps. What I as looking for was to see if your computer was running at full speed with the GPU due to your setup (second monitor / something running in the background / etc.)

As others have mentioned, if you are using a KVM, or extending your monitor over to a second display it can kick in the full usage of your GPU (and cause it to run warmer).

If you haven't replaced the thermal compound on your GPU heatsink it may be time to apply a new layer of heatsink compound (IC Diamond / Arctic Silver 5 / etc.).

This will allow for better thermal conductivity between your graphics card processor, and the copper heatsink that sits on top of it (better conductivity means more heat is absorbs and transferred out of your system... this is a good thing)

Again, I will stress that if you have never replaced thermal compound before it can be a bit of a learning curve the first time you attempt it. I'm sure a reputable local computer shop (not best buy) would be able to help you out in applying a new set of compound.

I should also point out that your GPU fan SHOULD spin up when it is in use. If it doesn't, it can mean you have a hardware issue / bad thermal sensor / etc.

=)