Need help with Sager 2090 heat and stability problems

Hi everyone,

Ive had my 2090 since around last august 07 and have been getting increasingly worse heat problems. I have a feeling its either a defective notebook or gpu/gpu drivers. When running any application that requires graphical processing from Call of Duty 4 to Warcraft III to simple flash games, regardless of whether or not I have my notebook on the antec notebook cooler I have, the machine shuts off within 30 minutes of use due to heat. This problem persists regardless of physical location or graphics driver, but just for the info my system specs are

t7500 2.2ghz processor
512mb 8600 GT
Vista 64 Bit Home Premium
3gb ram


I'm running the 169.12 drivers from laptopvideo2go and have recently been noticing my gpu is constantly at the factory clock settings whether or not i'm using the gpu. its temperature is always above 70C as well. Is this a powermizer issue possibly?

One issue i've ran into just now that I cant seem to correct is that in trying to lower my gpu temperature I manually underclocked the gpu using ntune (to see if this would help temp, which it didnt), but now the application will not let me set the gpu back to default settings, or any other custom under or overclocking settings. if anyone could help or suggest things for these problems i would GREATLY appreciate it.

 

when was the last time you cleaned the fans on your ILF90? it might be dust that's been building up since Aug '07..

 

correct.

You are supposed to clean out your gaming notebooks every 2-3 months with compressed air and Q-tips.

Open up the panels to get to the fans and use a flashlight to shine through the vents... if you see nothing, then its all clogged with dust.

 

@OP

I'm having the same problem with my NP2090 that I purchased in October. Although it isn't as consistent as once per half hour, it does occur with any sort of graphical processing.

I was just starting to get nervous myself until I called the guys at XoticPC and was given the same advice. Now if only they could tell me where I put my multitool so I can open the thing up. =D

I'll let you know how the whole operation goes once I find it.

Also, since it is related, is there any particular guide for the NP2090 concerning cleaning and regular maintenance? I figured I'd throw that out there.

 

Okay, well I'm back from opening it up. (The NP2090 FAQ is a great place to start for a disassembly guide by the way.)

I took a look at the internal fan near the heatsink. (Un)fortunately, I didn't seem to find as much dust build up as I expected. I swabbed out what I could, but since its a Sunday in Germany nothing is open and I can't get a bottle of compressed air.

Pre-cleaning, the internal GPU temp was idling at 75 degrees Celsius soon after startup. Looking at the temperature now, it has risen from 64 degrees on start up but has slowly climbed the 69 degrees five minutes and thirty seconds later. (And perhaps still climbing as I write this.) So perhaps dust (in my case) isn't the only possible answer.

Any possible solutions or problems? It seems like I get half an hour to two hours playing World of Warcraft on the lowest settings before it shuts down. I would like to avoid sending in my laptop as I'm studying abroad so shipping it back to the States would be largely impractical.

For those interested:

Sager NP2090
Windows Vista x64
4GB Ram
NVidia 8600m GT (512mb DDR2)
159.10 (Stock) Drivers
1 GB Robinson Intel Flash Memory

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

its not the fan that you will find the most dust, its the venting....

get a flashlight and shine it at the fan, then look through the vent's exit... you will see the dust... unless if its so clogged that you wont even be able to see the light.

 

@Gophn

Thanks for the help. I grabbed a bottle of canned air today and cleaned out the venting. (Its directly behind the fan on the NP2090, you can't miss it.) While I was at Saturn I also picked up a cheap aluminum fan-powered notebook cooler. Between the two, the GPU is now idling at 64-65 degrees and the Core2Duo is idling at about 36 degrees.

Thanks again.

 

I'll try this solution as soon as I get home for spring break in a couple days, as I don't have access to the tools needed to open my laptop up here at school. Thanks for the help, guys. I'll let you know how this works out.