NP9262 Heat/Stability Issues

First, realize this: I'm located at a small combat outpost in Iraq. There is absolutely no air conditioning. The ambient temperature where I sleep/game/live is 85-95F.

The problem i'm having seems to be general instability. Random blue screens and sometimes OS wont load after POST. This only happens after temperatures are relatively hot, so that is possibly a cause.The weather started to get really hot right after I installed the 3 x Seagate HDDs, so the new hardware might also be to blame. I'm pretty new at all this stuff so i'm not sure if I installed the HDDs wrong or if it's just the temperature thats giving me these problems. My OS is located on one of the HDDs that get the hottest so that could be an issue.

I can't snap a picture of my HWmonitor so i'll list my average temperatures at Idle, watching a DVD, and gaming (fallout 3)

IDLE: CPU 60-63C
GPU 51-53C
HDD 1-2 (under the touchpad) 59-60C
HDD 3 (under the battery) 43-45C

DVD: CPU 62-65C
GPU 51-53C
HDD 1-2 (under the touchpad)61-63C
HDD 3 (under the battery) 43-45C

GAME:CPU 67-71C
GPU 57-60C
HDD 1-2 (under the touchpad)64-66C
HDD 3 (under the battery) 43-45C

Intel says the max core temp for the CPU is 71.4C, but thats not close to the "danger zone" listed by Gophn in his cooling guide. The HDDs on the other hand worry me. The way the D901C is set up leads me to believe that the CPU temps is what is heating up the HDDs (1-2). Also, the way they are stacked on top of eachother probobly doesn't help either. Is there a way I can seperate them somehow (some kind of thermal sheeting or something)?

When I installed the new HDDs all I did was pop them in and run with it. No settings changes, no nothing (like I said i'm new, no i'm not sure if there was something else that needed to be done.) Are there any tests i can run for stability, or any compatability issues that i could be running into?

Thanks for any advice or help everyone!

 

Assuming that you've religiously kept the system clean and litter-free inside by following Gophn's Clevo Guide on cleaning, and don't have any other issues with the heatsinks not making proper contact (which problems you don't seem to have given your CPU temp readings), you'd be best off removing one of the two hard drives in the 2-drive stack. I know it's a PITA, and a letdown to not really be able to use the full capacity of this machine, but I have heard of other users having heat problems with the 3-drive setup, particularly with the faster 7200rpm drives.

Basically, the air circulation around the drives with the full 3-drive configuration is marginal - just enough to stay within the drives' specs for ordinary usage conditions - which means that when you get outside of the "typical" conditions the machine was rated for, you're going to start getting heat problems in the drives. Since your normal operating conditions include temps that are 85-95 deg. F, you're outside the "typical" range in the design specs, and will therefore have heat problems with the stacked drives. Once the drive with the System partition starts to get overheated, it's going to start causing the sort of problems you're seeing.

Probably the best thing to do would be to pull all three drives, hook them up one by one to another computer using an external enclosure, and then run Seagate's diagnostic utility (free from their website) on the drives to see which one is the farthest outside of spec - take that one and send it back (either refund or RMA for warranty claim, if possible), and arrange the other two in the system so that they get the most airflow possible.

Finally, consider getting an external notebook cooler that will draw extra air through the system, providing better cooling.

 

the only way to cooldown the two hard disks under the touchpad is with external cooling my temps without cooling is 50-60deg. with 35-40deg. even if you remove one the hards this will not help with temps atleast did help me buy external cooling but your GPU and CPU temps are very high did you use max fans when play games Fn+1 and yes if you dont want hot notebook you have to keep it clean

 

The only temps that look high considering your environment are HDD 1 and 2. People forget the impact of ambient room temperatures on CPU, GPU, and HDD temps. It would be interesting to know what your temps would be in a not so hot environment-say 73F room temperature. I think that you may find that your temps would be 8-10C cooler under those circumstances except maybe your HDD temps.

 

Of course I keep my shizzle as clean as possible. I'm VERY particular about proper airflow. I take everything apart and clean about twice a month (it is Iraq after all) I really don't want to take one of the HDDs out, so i think i'll save that for my very last choice. I've read the notebook coolers guide and i have a Zalman NC2000 on the way, i'm just wondering if there isn't something else i could do.

I'm thinking that it's not only the fact that the 2 HDDs are stacked on top of eachother, but that they share the same air with the CPU. I'm thinking that if I can get the CPU temp lower, the HDDs will follow in suite. Would it help alot to order a thermal compound and apply to the CPU and GPU? If that brings down their temps dramatically it may in turn lower those of the HDD as well. All the guides say Arctic Silver 5, but i don't know if something new has been released since then. Are there any new types better than AS5?

Couldn't say how much lower all my temps would be in a airconditioned environment becuase last time i was in that environment i didn't monitor temps (no need) That, of course, is the most daunting variable to my cooling problem and, believe me, i'm working to get AC everday. It was 108F outside today and it's only the beginning of June, so i have to act quick if I want to satiate my gamming thirst in the summer months!

 

If you've never reseated the heatsinks, and if you didn't have your reseller apply arctic silver (or some other special-order thermal compound), then it couldn't hurt to take the heatsinks apart and apply some proper thermal compound. The factory-original heatsinks just use the standard thermal pad between the heatsink and cpu/gpu, and sometimes the application from the factory is not as optimal as it could be. At the very least it's worth a shot, however, I doubt if that alone will bring your hdd temps back down within spec.

 

Hey, i know that in our CHU's we don't have anywhere to set our notebooks on so we're forced to use something bad like our bed or a toughbox. If you're doing the same, these things can restrict airflow and cause things to overheat. If you can't always set it on a perfect flat surface, I suggest the Master Cooler Infinite. That's what I use, it's the only cooler that takes in air from the back, not the bottom, dropped all my temps by a few degrees.

If you just picked up the extra HDD's I'd suggest returning one of them (I know, it sucks to do in Iraq) and maybe picking up a SSD for the 2nd slot in the 2 hard drive stack. They run cooler, and I've heard they fix the issue with HDD heat problems in the d901c.

 

SSD is a good choice, I have also heard good things about them running alot cooler than a disk drive. I built myself a pretty sturdy table so i'm good in that department. It's just so damn hot up here. I ordered a Zalman and some arctic silver 5, i'll probobly just pop out one of those seagates and throw it in an enclosure i have lying around here somewhere. Thanks for the tips

 

haha, or... if you don't need the extra space I'd be willing to take it off your hands (I'd be willing to pay obviously). My last notebook only had 160gbs of space, so I figured I'd be set with a 320gb, but I'm already down to 150gb of free space, and I've only had it a month.

 

You could get a cake office job and/or request a portable MILSPEC HVAC swamp cooler to blow directly on you. Should filter the air though, as I know very well how much dust circulates there. Another reason to do frequent cleaning, as in daily ;-(

 

Nice, i'll send the HDD down on the next LOGPAC, lol, jk Iwilllookaround at some SDDs for a few days, and i gotta figure out a way to get down to Caldwell. You should switch with Hannah for a few days, haha. The Seagate 7200.4 is still the best 2.5" HDD right now. I bought them a couple of months ago for $125/each. PM me if you wanna figure it out.

Is there such thing as a cooling pad or some kind of thermal resistance pad you could place inbetween those two stacked HDDs in the D901C? Maybe I don't know what i'm talking about, but that sounds like it could work. Any thoughts?