P170EM maintenance guide?

I was looking for a simple noob friendly guide to get rid of the dust from my p170em.

My GPU(7970m) seems to be hitting temps over 100C when running games. I bought it back in june last year. It used to be nearly silent when new, now the fans seem to hit top speed regardless of the game I run. I suspect a little inside cleaning is in order. However, I want to keep it as safe as possible with minimum risk

I have some specific questions that I would like to ask.

I have seen people mention a can of compressed air. I do not think we have those around in my country. However, I do have other Air blowing equipment including a hair dryer, air pressure pump(300 psi)(used for filling up car tyres, and a heavy duty air blower(I use this on desktops all the time).

Now while the heavy duty blower seems to have no issues with desktops, I once used it on a laptop I had and I suspect it messed up with an internal fan. Maybe I used it from a close distance or something. Regardless, I have been cautious ever since about using that blower on any laptop.

Can anyone guide how I should go about cleaning the insides.

Should I just open it up and remove whatever dust I find easily removable with a soft cloth?

Or should I just run it through with an air blower. If yes, then which blower and from what distance. What level of air pressure is safe?

Any help will be appreciated.

 

hi
im at work at moment so cant post links but will do so when i get home. some handy video's as well. they are for the 15" EM but almost the same inside.

100c is not good at all. 90c is the threshold when cleaning is recommended and done every 3 months. what are your ambient room temperature and is it summer where you are as this can bump them up as well.
also which software do you use to monitor temps. lots in my sig below. take a look at hwinfo64 / gpuz / core temps.

if you have pets like a cat or dog this can make it even worse as hairs get in the smallest places.

compressed air is recommended and can easily be bought on the internet. no one has ever mentioned air pressure pumps before. this could be too powerful for confined spaces like laptops. also you might need to repaste the gpu/cpu with new thermal paste. ill post that video as well.

 

Thank you for replying =).

Its been well over 7 months so I suppose a cleaning is well overdue. We're nearing the end of winter here in Pakistan so I can't blame the ambient temps.

I use hwinfo64.

Compressed air is hard for me to order online as not many stores ship stuff to Pakistan. Even those that do will charge a lot of delivery. Is the air pressure of the can similar to what a can of deodorant/body spray? If I can get an idea I could maybe emulate the pressure. As a last resort I suppose I could visit around to see if I can find a can from some local store...but that's a last resort.

 

Also, do you reckon I could just open it and clean it with a soft cloth? Will that help or is the Air can a must?
Also, do I need to remove any component or can I get it clean by simply opening up the back cover?

 

I have a p170em. The backplate is very easy to remove, exposing the heat sinks and fans for the gpu and cpu.

You may be due for a thermal repasting on your GPU.

Dust may also be accumulating in the blades of the fans. I've found that a qtip wet with isopropyl alcohol is good for getting the dust out between the blades.

Another thing to check is your drivers for the 7970. I have an nvidia card, so i can't be too helpful there.

 

as promised, this is for the 15" EM

general service video


cpu / gpu


upgrading thermal paste http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...e-guide-upgrading-thermal-paste-your-own.html

 

Just a tip, when blowing air into a notebook vent you need to have a plastic prong stopping the fan from spinning, as a fan which you turn starts acting as a generator and feeding a voltage into the circuit, you can imagine that this is a bad idea.

 

From my understanding, there are 2 fans I should be worried about. If I hold these with a finger(or anything else), while blowing air from a distance of 3-4 feet, everything should be alright? Apart from the fans, is there anything else I should be worried about when blowing air?

 

If you put it through the fan vent 5 hey are fairly well sealed so that's about it.

 

So I should be blowing the air from reverse i.e. from where air normally blows out from?

 

Sorry i should have said in take. Never blow the dust back inside.

 

ah. alright.
so basically:
1) remove back cover.
2) hold the fans down and blow air from safe distance from the bottom(which is now the top since i have the laptop upside down) of the laptop.
3) pray nothing is messed up? =D

 

Make sure you hold the fan and not just the shroud of course

 

Thank you everyone for your advice. Here's how it went:

1) Brought the blower home from office.

2) looked for a suitable screw driver. Found one but the grip wasn't good. Waited until morning to fetch a good one from the closest store.

3) went down to business first thing in the morning.

ok now the real part =D.

4) opened up the back cover.

5) Held the 2 fans with my finger.

6) Told my brother to start the blower from a 10 feet distance...and then keep getting close(I didn't want to surprise the innards of my laptop =D). The blower wasn't blowing hard enough so I got it closer and closer...until it was only 1 foot away.

7) Used a brush to take out some of the dust remaining between the fan shroud and the heatsink/exhaust.

So that was that, a bit anti-climatic after all the research and caution I was taking(took a few mins only =D). From my understanding, the layer of dust between the fan shroud and the heatsink/exhaust was probably the biggest culprit. That has been reduced to around 10% of what it was. There is still a little dust on the fan blades, but I don't think it will effect performance.

I will now test performance all day and share my results. Initial results are positive. Prior to this cleaning, the fans would start running on maximum the moment I would run a game. I just played a few mins of PES without the fan doing that. Then my lights went out and I had to turn it off. However, what was interesting was that usually when running PES 2014 at max settings, whenever the lights would go out, i would notice a significant drop in frames. Today, it didn't seem as big a dip. Maybe it is just the placebo effect...or maybe the fact that the laptop was pretty cool because it was had the night off and I had just turned it on a few mins back.

Regardless, a whole day of usage will put all doubt to rest. I am optimistic =D.

Again, thanks for the help.

 

Sagers are really very nice and easy to service, even for first timers.

For dust on the fan blades, I use a q-tip and dip it into isopropyl alcohol (the higher the percentage, the better. More alcohol means less water and quicker evaporation). It takes a good bit of time and some patience, but you should be able to get all the dust off the fan blades should you so desire.

 

You are right, it wasn't tough at all. I had just read a lot about how some people accidentally managed to break something or the other while servicing so I was a bit extra apprehensive initially. However, it seemed pretty sturdy and I didn't have any trouble. Also, cleaning the fan blades is probably easy as well, but it seemed like extra work for little reward so I skipped it =D.

And at the end of the day, I think my temps have dropped from around 102* max to around 89* max. I think these temps are safe now right? Or should I work to improve these further?

 

89C is still pretty high for either the GPU or CPU.

 

hmm, its the GPU. You reckon the 7970m should have lower temps?
What temps should I be aiming for and what should be my next steps?

 

after a clean is 89c on full load or just idle.
if its on idle then i guess you have a problem as the 7970 wont even be in use but the HD4000 will.
89c is still a little toasty on full load but it depends which game you are testing it with. some are gpu power hungry and will churn out higher gpu temps than the rest.
me thinks the only thing left is a thermal repaste. if you then still get high temps it could be a bent exaust pipe, something not scewed down properly etc. etc.

my P150EM is the same. taken it back and its been repasted twice now. temps are perfect for about 2-3 weeks and then they start shooting up. its more my 4 cores that are affected rather than the 680 on mine.
during gaming it can peak at 98c but ive had all 4 cores on 99c before running intel extreme tuning which will max them out. then of course it will throttle down about 30% to protect itself.

 

89c on idle? That would be like a code red emergency!

its 89c on load with the GPU running at 99%. I would say after a few hours of gaming it doesn't matter which game is running(unless its too old or frame capped), max temps seem to get in this region. before the servicing, I would get to around 102c in similar situations(3-4 hours of BF4, DragonAge2, PES2014). Now after similar usage, it's at about 89c. My system isn't throttling, else I would notice the fps drop.

Also, I have seem some threads about repasting and people get similar temps (higher 80's/lower 90's) even after repasting. Makes me wonder if I should go with the whole deal at all. Also note that a lot of people use laptop coolers with fans on. I use the coolermaster lapair, but I do not use its fan. Maybe if I start using it I would see a drop in my temps? Also, I'm, looking into other means to elevate my laptop. People have reported a nice drop in temps due to this.

 

had to ask

what software are you using to monitor?
im sure ive asked this but what ever your using try a different monitor in my sig below.
ambient room temps can make a hell of a difference. is it melting, hot, warm, cool, kin freezing.

ive never used a cooler and as i said mine gets high but after a repaste its perfect for a few weeks after.
the 17" should be slightly cooler than my 15" so i have no idea what else to suggest.

 

1) Follow Mr DJ's advice and make sure you are using a decent monitor program. I use HWinfo personally.
2) Repaste can help. I've only had to do it on my cpu, but the process is the same for the cpu or gpu in the EM series.
3) Notebook coolers don't do that much, if anything at all. I have a u3, and while it does help increase airflow a bit, it's not enough to solve thermal issues.
4) Some people have said that their heat sinks and fans aren't lined up properly. Much discussion was had, pictures are included, and some solutions are presented http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/674825-improving-p170em-7970m-gpu-cooling-performance-foiled.html

 

im using hwinfo64. maybe not the latest version, but not ancient either.

after 3-4 hours of gaming, what max temps do you guys get?

ambient temps are on the cool side these days. around 10c-15c.

the thing about repasting is that I see a lot of people who have repasted end up with temps like mine. I want to be absolutely sure I need a repaste before I embark on doing so.

the 89c I am getting is not from light use. I think I just played a game of League of Legends (30-40mins) and while I didnt check the temps, the fans didn't kick into high gear from which I deduce that temps were normal.

I get to 89c when theres a somewhat demanding game that has been using the gpu to its limit for a few hours(2-4).

I would appreciate if you guys can share your temps after similar usage.

 

now you see, that sounds strange behavior to me as both my clevo's act differently. as soon as i start a game thats going to use the dgpu no matter what it is will ramp the fans upto full.
ive never played league of legends so not sure if thats such a demanding game.
games ive played over the years are mainly fps including all cod,all battlefield, all crysis, all medal of honours, all far cry,latest tomb raider,hitman and even going back to half life and portal they have all ramped the fans up.

i will try and have a few games tonight but i know mine get quite high at times playing crysis 3 and battlefield 3

edit

just played 30 mins of ghosts multiplayer
gpu
nvidia inspector 61c
gpu-z 70c

cpu
current hwifo64 64 / 62 / 71 / 65
max peak 84 / 95 / 96 / 90

core temps
current 66 / 64 / 72 / 61
max peak 88 / 96 / 96 / 89

 

ok. just a few questions. before you played the game for 30mins, was your pc off? was it warmed up(ie has been on for some hours but no games)? or had you been playing something on it a while ago?

when I start a game after a nights rest, the laptop is super cool. while I do feel warm air coming out of the gpu vent, the fan sound is not too high. it only kicks into top gear when temps get high which is usually when i've been playing for a while.

depending on your answer, I will play a heavy game for 30 mins and compare stats with you.

edit: yes lol is not a very heavy game. also I play it on 80fps capped so it doesnt tax the gpu too much.

edit2: when I first bought the laptop, the fans would stay fairly quiet for a while. so much so I would sometimes check the back to feel the air. after a few months though they would sound like hitting top gear the minute I would turn any dgpu game on. after the cleaning, it seems ive gone a little back to how they were originally for me. regardless, I would like to emulate your test and compare results. you have the 7970m right?

 

Whoa, DJ - 96C max temps on your cpu? That's pretty high.

 

im used to it. its only the peak and during gaming it stays on the lower temps all the way through.
it doesnt throttle during game so that shows its not hitting anywhere near 90+ or it would throttle down. only time i can get all 4 cores on 98/99 is while pushing it to the max with intel extreme tuning and then it will throttle down.

@o0phantom0o
computer had been on for hours and fan was either silent or on its lowest rpm.
as soon as steam loads the game it ramps up. within a few minutes of closing game the fans drop down again BUT sometimes they do get stuck on full which is a known issue thats been passed onto clevo but still with no permanent official fix (think this has happened to the HM/EM?SM series) all i have to do is open nvidia inspector for 1 second and the fans will stop and then i close the software again.

 

hmm. your max cpu temps do go high. I will check mine as well today. also, what are your gpu temps during heavy gaming. can you scroll down on the hwinfo window and share that too?

you have the 680m, which I think runs a little cooler than my 7970m. either way, I will get my system warmed up and play something for a couple o hours and then get the readings from hwinfo.

 

Worth doing a re paste at this point in the machines life anyway. 680m should run pretty cool at stock.

 

Away at moment and dont have laptop with me.
Mine has been repasted twice now by the experts and it lasts 3-4 weeks and then they go up again.

 

Which paste? Is the heatsink tight?

 

Think its mx4 used and the heat pipe is tight.

 

I still suspect the heatsink is moving slightly and moving the contact on the chip.