P150HM high temps on 6990m

Hey guys,

So, I bought my P150HM from Malibal several months ago (I want to say it was February), and have noticed that the max GPU temps have been steadily increasing.

Yes, I am in NY, so I know that the seasonal changes in ambient temperature have a lot to do with it, however, my apt is not really that hot right now and the max CPU temps have stayed rather constant throughout this time period.

The other night, my GPU temps reached 98 C !!! I almost cried when I logged out of The Secret World to see that number. Anything over 90 is bad, and 100 is thermal shutdown and would probably fry something. I fear I may be past the RMA, but honestly I have no idea (need to check just in case the GPU is already F-ed). No, I do not overclock, although I may now attempt to underclock seeing as how others on NBR have experienced success with this on the 6990m.

When I purchased the PC from Malibal, I included extra money for them to apply IC Diamond, however, I believe my first step in solving this heat issue should be to go grab some PK-1 from Best Buy tonight and reapply new thermal paste. I REALLY hope that this takes care of the issue. Do you think that it will? I mean, I wouldn't expect a thermal repaste to lower GPU temps by 8 C....which is really what I need here.

I will keep this thread updated with my progress tonight, but, in the meantime, what else could be causing this crazy heat issue? Is this a sign of a deeper problem? Should I just assume this GPU is a lemon and RMA, if still possible?

Thanks guys, I would appreciate any thoughts on this.

P150HM - Clevo NP8150
Core i7 2670QM, 6mb L3, @2.0-3.1 GHz
Amd 6990m 2gig GDDR5 - using Catalyst 12.6 beta drivers
8 gigs, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3
500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300
Win 7 SP 1
1920x1080

 

Actually, thermal shutdown should be at 110C.

I don't see any mention of the last time you blew the dust out of your heatsinks and fans. When was the last time you have done this? And, did you make sure to remove just the fans and check to make sure all of the dust was thoroughly removed?

Repasting would help out, another trick I have seen is to place bottlecaps or a small stack of coins under the back feet of the laptop to elevate it. This alone should drop you a couple of degrees.

I have heard others state that the 6990M did tend to run a little warmer than the other graphics cards offered in those laptops, but I can not personally confirm that.

 

Hi,
My old 6990M also reached those temps, I used ATT to force the voltage to 0,96v + 715/900 clocks and it lowered my temps by 10ºC. But even if you don't undervolt it will work just fine at those temps (as strange as it sounds)!

Thinking on this reminds me how great my new HD7970M is While playing I never get to 90ºC, even in a very hot environment.

Best Regards to all

 

I have had the Sager in my sig for nearly a year and a half. Although I do not have the 6990m, my temps are still right about what they were when I bought it. I will second Heihachi, and unless you have done it very recently, you should try taking off the bottom covers and blowing out the interior. I do this every few months, more so in summer. Then check the temps. Also, use the FN + 1 while gaming to keep the fans running full, and then also try the back lift (using bottle caps or whatever) if temps are still getting high.

After all that, if the temps don't get to where they were (and could you let us know what they were?) then you may need to repaste. I am not a big fan of paying for highend paste from the manufacturer or reseller, since I believe in the Monday - Friday rule. An employee on Monday may be suffering from the weekend party, the Friday afternoon employee is looking forward to the weekend party, neither is focused on MY product. No matter how great the paste, it is how it is applied that matters. I go stock (like a few others do on here) and repaste once I get it myself. A bad paste job with the best paste is.... still a bad paste job. Just saying.

 

Can you please direct me to a "how to" on undervolting the 6990m? You used ATT software? Is that a different/easier process than what is discussed in the following thread?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/600465-6990m-undervolt-achieved-4.html

I thread that thread a while ago and didn't have the energy to tackle it but I am at the point now where I would like to undervolt.

My thermalpaste store was closed by the time I got off of work. So, I'll prob head over there sometime tomorrow morning.

And yes, I blew some dust out of my vents/fans and have not noticed a significant decrease in temperature.
And yes, I always prop up the backend with a book.

 

What were your temps when you got it?

 

ATI Tray Tools work in undervolting the 6990m.

When I had the P150HM, I undervolted my 6970m and it was indeed amazing..

Temps were significantly lower and a simple manual toggle hotkey between performance/power saving clocks worked great in battery life..

I'd say it's a must to unleash the 6970m / 6990m 's potential.

 

In February, my max temps were like 85-88, which I can handle.
Over the past few nights, it has hit 96-98 C, which is too hot.

I spent a long while trying to do the undervolt thing, but have not had any luck with the voltage setting sticking.
Please see my post in the undervolting thread, here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/600465-6990m-undervolt-achieved-5.html#post8719718

I would repaste my post in this thread, but I have a feeling that spam is against NBR rules...

I appreciate all of your help so far, and hopefully we can figure this out soon before I fry my GPU!


EDIT: I figured it out! I just had to uncheck a box on CCC that said "enable overdrive"
I'm now stable at 1V and 85C max I will prob try to undervolt a bit more, but 85 is definitely workable.

 

I am happy you were able to figure out what was going on. Good job.

 

I figured I'd piggy back onto this thread since it is still fresh.

I purchased p150hm last September with AMD 6990m. I don't do any gaming whatsoever so in retrospect this card was overkill, but it was recommended to me over a cpu upgrade. Anyways, I have some old Steam games from way back when and with the Summer sale I purchased a couple cheap games today (Dear Ester and Limbo).

I decided to monitor my gpu performance and temps. Suprisingly the temps reached 93 degrees Celsius while playing Team Fortress 2 and 88 degrees Celsius while playing Dear Esther. Being a casual gamer at best I don't keep up with the gaming standards, do these numbers seem right? 93 seems super hot to me for a game like Team Fortress 2.

Also, what fps should I be expecting for these games? I got 60fps for Dear Ester and between 150-230fps for Team Fortress.

Thanks for any feedback

 

Have you tried any of the above suggestions for your laptop? Removing the bottom panel and blow the dust out with compressed air mainly by blow the air into the back side where the air exhausts out.
Have you tried lifting the back end of your laptop? You can use a book, bottle caps, coins, etc. to just lift the back up with the feet propped on something.
The temps on TF2 may seem a little high for that game, but if it levels out and doesn't go beyond that I don't think it would be much to worry about.

 

Thanks for your reply

Yeah I've done the usual tricks with cleaning and whatnot. I also prop the back up with two paperback books on the back corners.

Interestingly enough, i hover between 82-84 degrees Celsius playing the Batman Arkham games, but still low 90s on tf2. Weird.

On another note I experimented with overclocking and got to 800mhz core and 1000mhz memory on the 6990m while maintaining 85 degrees Celsius. Pretty reasonable but I'm not sure if I want to push it any higher than that.

Before last week I didn't touch a pc game on this laptop lol. Better get it in before school starts back up

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

Cleaning off the old thermal paste and re-applying would be my first recommendation.

I have a P150HM/6990M (albeit not used now I have my P150EM/680M) purchased about 1 year ago and max temps had always been 84-86 with ICD7. Over the last couple of months those temps started increasing to 86, 88, 90 and even got to 96 playing diablo a couple of weeks back. I opened it up, gave the fan and vents a decent clean, re-applied the ICD7 and now temps are back to 84-86.

The big thing that shocked me was that I have ICD7 on both CPU and GPU and when removing the heatsinks the GPU paste had gone all hard and crusty whereas the CPU was still paste-like. I assume this is due to the GPU paste being exposed to significantly higher temps. Shows that ICD7 does indeed need to be applied yearly (as I read somewhere) to keep it working at its best.

On a side note, didn't notice any scratches or anything from the ICD7 that others have reported and are afraid of. ICD7 is still the best in my opinion.

 

I have undervolted my 6990M to 1.0V , cleaned the dust in the vents and sanded the holes in the bottom cover to increase the airflow and my temps dropped over 10C, before I was playing Tera Online hitting 95C and now doesn't go over 79C.