Sager NP9752 Cooling Problems

I got my Sager NP 9752 laptop about 2 months ago, same laptop nicknamed "Batman" they praise constantly over in the lounge section, and right off the bat noticed some pretty hot temps on my 4790k in the upper 80s. The temperatures over the past couple months have seemed to deteriorate and deteriorate. A couple days ago I played Battlefield 3 for the first time on this laptop, then a couple minutes in game and poof, my laptop shuts down. I usually run chrome, iTunes, and steam in the background even when running heavy games like BF3. I thought it was just a minor hiccup at first but I tried checking my temps anyway while playing the game and I found my CPU's temps now reach up to 100c max while playing heavy games like BF3. I used CPUID HWMonitor for most of my monitoring on my precious desktop processor. Now in games like Dirty Bomb I get a shutdown from my overheating CPU and I can't let my overheating issue damage my CPU any further.

On the brightside my 980m doesn't have any cooling issues whatsoever... so that's good. And the games run flawlessly, no throttling or anything they can't already handle. My GPU hardly goes above 70c during heavy gaming. I read in the NP9752 lounge the OP's temps were under 60c for BF3 compared to my 100c... He also states:

"How hot does this unit get under load?
I would be surprised if my 4790K at 4 Ghz / 980M at Stock combo would exceed the low to mid 70s at ALL"

What the **** am I doing wrong? Is it bad luck? Did I miss the memo? I have my laptop propped up on a stand which is made of metal and is only covering the bottom front edges of my laptop, my laptop's exhaust fans aren't being covered by anything at all, I'm not overclocking or anything like that and I got a generic fan that we use around the house when it gets hot in the summer pointed straight at it with about 18 inches distance between my laptop and the fan.

I guess I should also mention I ordered my laptop with IC Diamond thermal compound from XoticPC. I also have never opened up the Sager to re-paste thermal compound like a few others have. Even if I wanted to, I would have to order the tools to do so as I've never disassembled or assembled a computer ever before. The only other thing I guess it could be is dust build-up but I've only had this guy for 2 months. Or does dust build up faster in laptops than that?

This is the only problem I have ever had with this laptop, everything else about it is perfect. I have never had nearly as much personal experience with gaming laptops let alone gaming computers in general as probably many of you have. Should I buy all the tools I need to open up my laptop and clean exhaust pipes and re-paste thermal compound? Or should I try to underclock my CPU? Or is there something I'm missing entirely?

Please guys this is the best computer I've ever had and any insightful advice I thank ten-fold.


Specs:
GTX 980m
i7-4790k
16 gb Ram

Edit: I also did try running big games like Dirty Bomb with nothing running in the background with pitiful results... only about 2c-4c difference.

 

I'd say the TIM was placed on poorly at the factory. I doubt it's dust, unless you live in a clothing factory. With this machine the CPU temps shouldn't be getting that high to the point of shut-down while gaming, nor even when tasked on synthetic benchmarks. Some, like @J.Dre, have had bad applications of TIM from factory, until he re-pasted himself. Let's hear from others but a repaste is likely the solution. You'd just need the appropriate/basic screw-driver, the thermal compound and some thermal compound emulsifier of some sort to remove the old stuff (I know IC Diamond can leave diamond-made, cosmetic scratches if hastily removed). Really not so hard to repaste, especially on this machine.

 

Thanks for the reply man. I've never done this before though, do you know what the basic screwdrivers I need are or any I need for this machine in particular? Also can these materials like IC Diamond and the screwdrivers be acquired at common computer retail stores like Best Buy? Also is one of those static bands necessary? I see people open up their laptops just on their beds or on their desks and grab something metallic to decrease the risk of damaging the hardware through the static. Pardon my noob talk.

 

No, since you're not going to handle contacts of cpu/memory or gpu. Besides, even if you would replace these, there's no need to touch the gold-plated pins anyway, can lift by the (plastic) pcb sides. Dismantled countless laptops and never bothered with grounding, too much hassle.

Don't forget to remove battery, of course, that's one thing that sometimes slips by in haste .

 

Sorry to hear about the temps. Since they have gotten higher over time it could need a cleaning even though its just been two months. Open up the bottom and give it a look and see if you notice any dust etc on the fins. Try the easy stuff like that before going further like replacing the TIM. You should be able to find the right screwdriver at any electronics or hardware store. Let us know how that goes.

 

What household object should I connect the other end of the wristband to when working on my laptop? I think I'll take pictures of my internals while taking it apart if that's safe to do.

Edit: I found a small power strip in my garage, I should just connect it to the center prong, correct?

 

Taking pictures is fine. Connect the end of the wrist band to anything metal, the powerstrip prong is fine.

 

Just in case I'm not reading it right and actual proof:

Hearthstone Temp /w Chrome, iTunes, Steam running in the background.


Dirty Bomb /w same stuff Played a couple of games. Wonder how close it was to shutting my compy down. There was no slowdown at all or any throttling.


I guess I should check under the hood.. I'll probably post images tomorrow of my internals because I'm going to go get my anti-static wrist strap later and hear it from some of you guys.

How many hours of this torture to my CPU would it take to permanently damage it? I just got FF XIV again for heavensward.. sadness.

 

Oh, at 100°C it is throttling, you can be sure of that (run ThrottleStop -> Limit Reasons if you want to verify). Good thing it's throttling too; hard shutdown is a bit over 100°C (105/107°C?), so it'll throttle to prevent that from happening (not always fast enough). No worries regarding damage though; thermal throttle and shutdown exists to safeguard cpu.

 

If you read some of the later comments in the thread (check out this page: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...lounge-welcome-to-the-batcave.767105/page-521), you'll find that a number of folks question this particular comment. It is suspicious, given that mobile CPUs often run in the high 80's under heavy load, so it's unusual that a desktop SKU would run so much cooler.

That being said, hitting 100C while gaming is probably indicative of a problem, but the gap isn't as wide as you've been led to believe. It's worth following the suggestions presented in the thread, I just wouldn't expect low 70's temperatures.

 

So under ideal conditions I should realistically be getting temps of upper 80s and lower 90s in the heavy games I'm running? And this is considered okay for my laptop in particular? ... I'm playing these games for hours and hours on end, especially for games like FFXIV. I mean isn't this doing some sort damage to it? Also say the Re-paste gives me those realistic temperature expectations, wouldn't it be wise to downclock my CPU to 4 GHz or something in order to increase it's life expectancy?

 

Btw, does opening up the backpanel, cleaning heatsink/fans, or re-pasting thermal compound void the warranty?

 

Listen to this man. HE SPEAKS THE TRUTH!

I am the living evidence. Forever more in deep regret.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Also make sure to keep yourself grounded during work

 

I am literally going out to buy a wristband now before my replacement notebook arrives. After my experience this past week I'm determined not to leave anything to chance!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

It's a good investment, they last ages and can save hundreds of pounds of equipment.

 

Upper 80's/lower 90's seems to be most common and probably reasonable without much tweaking (tweaking potentially pushing it lower). CPUs are designed to throttle themselves to prevent damage, but I'd nervous about gaming for hours if it was constantly hitting 100C or shutting down. In terms of long term damage, nobody seems to know for sure. Some swear by it, some say it's a fallacy given that you are operating within spec. The larger truth is that many people (myself included) only keep a computer for 2 years, so if there is permanent damage, I think we'd be less likely to see it.

Consider what your ambient temperature is too. If it's summertime where you are and you have no AC, your ambient temperature might not be doing you any favors.

 

Opened it up, everything went pretty smoothly. I used a screwdriver with a magnetic tip to help unscrew the tightly screwed in screws, is this okay? (That's a lot of screws, lol) The magnet was pretty weak, basically it could only pick up the small screws that were right on it. Would it be okay to use this screwdriver on the heatsink screws?

Those fans were pretty damn clean, though. If you can't tell in the picture the only dust I found on the fans was the dust that came from outside the laptop from the back panel, that's why the dust was in lines. Sorry for the **** quality, took the photo with my phone. I guess I'm going to have to re-paste my TIM.

I guess I should also mention before I re-paste that the temperature in my house is 81 degrees Fahrenheit, this couldn't be the root of the issue could it? Also running games like FFXIV and League of Legends actually doesn't overheat my laptop, only got temps in high 80s. I suppose those games don't require that much beef to play.

 

Not that you need any more supporting evidence, but... The factory paste job on my N9752 was half-assed. Quite literally. The CPU had NO paste on it at all. There's a few posts with pictures of it and a brief discussion in the owner's lounge thread (I think that's where it is).

-CA

 

GPU temp seem normal but dat cpu temp... I would try re-pasting first. Also try Fn+1 to run fans at max speed and see if fans are effectively cooling the cpu.

 

I tried putting fans on full with Dirty Bomb and initially got better results; lower 90s to mid 90s. After about an hour though toward the end of my play session, temps went back up to 99c. I should be re-pasting when my IC Diamond arrives.

On a side note, I tried install Intel XTU and it won't let me install it, says "verify that you have sufficient privileges to install system services." Ran as admin, allowed full control for the program and everything. Do I need to unlock my 4790k or something for underclocking?

 

Damn, that's hot for the inside of a house. While probably not the main culprit, it definitely is contributing to high temps.

Typical indoor temps (room temperature) is usually between 20-24 Celsius (so 68-75 F). That's usually what reviewers and testers operate in.

Theoretically, since the cooling system is drawing in ambient air, your temps should never be able to be below ambient air temperature once your CPU goes above 81F. In other words, currently the best temperature you should see in any heavy CPU load is 81F.

Dropping your ambient temp to 70F (which you really should, not sure how you can stand 81F indoors) will likely drop your CPU temps.

 

I agree with the above that while likely not the primary cause, that is a fairly high ambient temperature. There may be nothing you can do about it (no AC), but if there is, it will help a little bit. In that other thread that I linked, the person reporting much lower temperatures had an ambient temperature of 19C (vs. your 27C).

It's impressive that you're able to sleep at night at 81F!

Given that full fans seems to have helped a bit, it seems that all signs point towards the bigger issue being a repaste job.

 

You can also try propping up the rear of the computer to try to get better air flow. Soda bottle caps are about the right size, put one on each side.

 

Yea my AC is jacked up. I set it to 74 but won't go any lower than 80. I'll be getting my IC Diamond by friday or before. For now I'm just trying to install Intel XTU to downclock a bit to get better temps for the time being. No matter what I do I keep getting the "Verify you have sufficient privileges" message every time I try to install it.

 

Did you right click the installer and select run as admin?

 

Yes I did.

Btw, an update on my heating issue, after a 4-5 hour play session on FFXIV my CPU temps reached up to 98c... compared to the first hour of playing only in upper 80s. Does this also lead to the TIM potentially being poorly pasted at factory?

 

Temperatures slowly creeping up can be a sign of poor airflow - hot air getting trapped and never expelled. Hutsady's advice of raising the back is excellent and worth trying. Heat rises, so if you raise the back a bit, the heat has a better opportunity to escape. I'd also make sure you have no obvious obstructions where you use the laptop.

 

Propped it up like people recommended, still reaching high as balls temps up to 99c in an hour of Dirty Bomb. Even though this laptop's bottom side is practically being only lifted by air with the fans pointing upward. Though, once again, temps initially were better than before.

 

Quite frustrating! Hopefully your IC diamond arrives soon, that's where all signs point to.

 

If it's still bad it may be the heatsink that needs replacing.

 

Should I take pictures of the inside of the heatsink and the last paste-job on it when I re-paste?

 

Tough to really know how well the last paste job was once you remove the heatsink. Only things you'll be able to see if is there was obviously way too much or way not enough. That middle ground, where you want to be, will be hard to tell.

 

The pattern leaves clues if the fit was bad, I mean the heatpipes may go bad though and that's not something you can visually detect. See how you get on before going down that rabbit hole.

 

Did a re-paste, didn't change anything. Computer still shuts down from overheating while maxing settings on heavy games. Can anybody help me get Intel XTU to install? I took a buncha pics if anybody wants to see em. Is there any other solution I can do?

 

You should not need XTU to get the computer working at stock clocks. I suggest you contact your reseller.

 

I think I figured out the problem, turns out it's too hot in my room, practically the temperature of outside. Moving it to another room I get atleast a 8-10c difference. Can somebody please help me with Intel XTU?

Btw, temps in good ambient temp are low 80s, that is while playing dirty bomb.

 

That's quite a difference, a bit more than I expected, but I guess one cannot discount the value of cool air. Perhaps the re-paste helped a tiny bit there as well.

I'm not sure about the XTU issue, but you mentioned above you took some screenshots. It's worth posting them since it may make the issue easier to spot.

 

Should I ask on a different section about XTU? I think it would really help me out if I could cool it just by a little more as like a fail-safe or something.

 

Try the owner's lounges for both the 15" and 17". Also try a different download if you have only tried one XTU file that won't install. Maybe you got a corrupted file.

 

The owner's lounge is where I would suggest as well. The threads tend to be really long, but I did notice quite a few posts on undervolting and such in the thread for your model. There might be a better place, but I only frequent certain forums, so I'm not sure.

A corrupted file is a very good possibility. Typically under intense heat I've noticed I'm more likely to see corruption.

 

Sorry about this bump but, after about 50 tries, I finally installed Intel XTU... just out of nowhere it successfully installed. I used the one from sager's website (I already downloaded it from their website and it didn't work). I have no idea what I did to make it work but the only thing I can guess I did this time was I restarted from a previous failed install from Intel's version (This "rolls back" the software) then after I rebooted I downloaded and install Sager's version again... I could've swore I did this before when I was trying to install it weeks back but.. just freak occurrence just happened. What the ****?

 

Too often I've googled a problem, found a thread about it and the actual solution was never posted. Thanks for not putting some poor sap through that when they find your thread, CloudShepherd.

I'm curious to hear how the undervolting goes (and its effect on temperature) if that's the road you go down.

 

I'm kind of more concerned the impact it will have on my performance at this point, as I've almost pretty much solved most of my heating issues. Haven't had a shut down from reaching thermal threshold ever since I found out it was my ambient temperature that was causing it to overheat. The reason I was so determined to make it work is because if .2 ghz of speed doesn't effect my performance in gaming, at least a noticeable change, and my temperature drops to a much safer temp and helps keep my 2 thousand dollar computer up and running for longer than it would otherwise, I'm gonna at least need the option to actually be able to do that. That's why it was pissing me off, everything else about this computer was perfect; I couldn't just accept there was something wrong with it and then just do nothing. Also, I don't think I plan on undervolting, just under clocking.

Though I'm getting off topic, my temps during playing Final Fantasy XIV with everything maximum settings would cause my computer to straight up overheat and shut down with the ambient temperature staying the way it was in my room. Now my temps with the fans on maximum and household fans blowing away the hot air coming out of the exhaust vents are in the low 80s most of the time while playing and it sometimes spikes to upper 80s and low 90s but never breaching that 95+ danger threshold, because that's when it tended to shut down. What I don't understand is these random temperature spikes that mislead me completely when using programs like HWMonitor. When using HW Monitor it tells me my maximum temperatures are something like it being in the upper 80s. When in reality this is only from these random heat spikes I've been talking about, after monitoring with a program called MSI Afterburner, that shows a graph instead of just min/max/etc that HWMonitor shows, I see my temperatures are mostly staying at the lower 80s instead of assuming it always is at the upper 80s like HWMonitor tells me.

As for methods to install Intel XTU, I pretty much tried every solution I could find, most commonly people tell you to run it as admin, which straight up doesn't change anything but it doesn't hurt to try. Then I tried running it in compatibility mode with almost every version of windows, that didn't change jack either. I changed permissions, rolled back .Net Framework to 3.5, tried yelling at it, tried calling it a piece of ****. Nothing was working. The most progress I had gotten, up to before I finally managed to install it, was that I noticed the version straight from Intel's website was the one asking me to reboot to "roll back" this program I had not installed. While the one from Sager's website straight up gave me the "You don't have the proper privileges, *****" message that pissed me off more and more each time I saw it. So what exactly happened when I successfully installed was, as I mentioned before, tried to install Intel's version that didn't work, asked me to restart "roll back" something and I did. At this point I felt all my efforts being in complete vein. Even though I thought I was wasting my time trying anymore, I downloaded the one from Sager's website for the 4th time thinking maybe they updated it or something or it was corrupt files I downloaded previously. I ran the installer... just by itself, no running as admin, no giving full control through permissions, nothing and it just worked. I'm kinda mad because I have absolutely no idea why it worked all of the sudden or why it didn't work when I tried countless times before. I know I said this before, just wanted to clarify everything and get it all out.

And thanks to everybody who helped me.

 

HWinfo is a little more difficult to read a and use yes, glad you got it working