Series 3 overheating and short battery life?

Hello,

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a Samsung NP370R5E-S01IL. This particular version isn't available in the US but it's a series 3 with an Intel i5 3230M, 8gb of RAM, 1TB hard drive, 15.6" screen.

I've noticed in the last few days the hand rest on the left side of the touchpad is warm, so I downloaded Speedfan and HWMonitor. Both of them show that the computer runs around 65°C on an easy load. I'm sitting in an A/Ced room, around 24°C and right now the back of the computer is a bit tilted so there's even air circulation from below (I put a book under the back of the computer).
Right now I only have a couple of PDFs, and a few pages open in Firefox. I don't think I hear a fan, or maybe it's just quiet, and I don't feel air actively being blown out the rear end (assuming that's where the venting holes are). The computer always feels "heavy", even scrolling through tabs in Firefox takes a few seconds, and after rebooting, opening Firefox or Chrome can take about 30 seconds.
I don't have a lot of programs on startup. Other than the Samsung ones/drivers I have the Norton antivirus that came with the computer.

The battery is disappointing as well, lasts about 3 hours on pretty low brightness and no heavy programs. Could this be related to the heat in some way? or maybe it's just normal..

Thank you in advance,

Ben

P.S: The processors run at around 65°C, the HD at around 40° which seems more reasonable.

 

Please run Task Manager and look at the CPU utilization. It should be below 10% under light usage.

Are you using the Samsung optimized power plan or did you select Maximum Performance? The latter keeps the CPU running at full speed, even when it has no work to do and consequently keeps the CPU running hotter while delivering a negligible improvement in performance.

John

 

Hello John,

Thank you for your response. I run the Optimized or the Power Saver, and my CPU usage is around 40%! The ETD Control center (touchpad) is taking up 12%, maybe that's the problem. I'll try reinstalling it

 

Yes, something is broken and probably stuck in a loop. Please report back when you have identified and fixed the culprit(s).

John

 

Hello,

I uninstalled ETD and the computer was running at around 40-50°C and it was working smooth. I just reinstalled it through the Samsung tools and it worked OK for a bit but then the problem came back. Do you know if there's anything I can do to fix this? Without ETD the touchpad gestures don't work and I really like them.

Thanks,

Ben

 

If Samsung's SW Update program doesn't offer you a newer touchpad driver then use the Find Model facility to look for other versions of the Elantech driver (it's definitely used on the Series 7 and 9 and probably other models).

Also check for any BIOS update. I recommend using the stand-alone BIOS Update program (link in first post here) rather than letting SW Update do the BIOS update.

John

 

Hello,

I recently updated the BIOS, but the ETD problem still exists, I haven't tried installing the other versions yet. If the computer starts acting heavy and I see ETD is taking a lot of CPU I just close it and open it again.
It seems that UNITY player that I use for a 3d anatomy atlas (not as heavy as it sounds) slows everything down, I guess there's some clash I haven't figured out yet.
I think there's a new problem, these processes are taking up a lot of CPU:
Client Runtime Server Process is taking 10%
System around 9%
Service Host: Local Service (No Network) around 6%
Service Host: Loca Service (8) around 4%
I'm totaling at about 40% CPU use with chrome, word, a pdf and a mind mapping software (iMindMap) that's taking 0% CPU. Unity player isn't open so it's not the problem at the moment.

Could all this be related to the ETS? The other processes don't take less CPU when it's closed.
Sounds like there's an underline problem.
By the way, the computer is still hovering around the 60-65°C

Thanks in advance,

Ben

 

I'd start by minimising the unwanted content running in the web browser. I use Firefox with FlashBlock and Adblock Plus. i believe similar add-ons are available for Chrome. Another blocking device is a custom hosts file.

It is also possible that one of the other programs is causing your Elan driver to malfunction. It is possible that such an issue has been fixed by a newer driver.

John

 

Hello,

I don't think that I'm running too many things, after all, it's a pretty strong computer, 8gb, a good i5 and a good graphics card. I don't think a couple of flash pages should be too much for it.
What's bothering me most is the temperature, is it normal for the CPU and the hand rest to get so hot? I met a guy who has a series 3 with an i7, and he told me that the hand rest on his never heats up. Is there a way to check the fans? I've seen computers run slow because they were too hot, I wonder if that's the case.

Thanks,

Ben

 

I would suggest you get the HWiNFO program.

The Summary page shows the CPU speed so you can see if the speed is changing depending on the workload while the Sensors page shows information such as temperature and an estimate of the power consumption.

If you run wPrime (1024M) and watch the HWiNFO pages you can make a judgement about how well the cooling system is working.

John

 

Hello John, thank you for all the help
I tried running wPrime a while ago and the temperature didn't rise so I guess the cooling system is fine.
About a week ago the System process started taking 30-40% of the CPU which was rather annoying and made the computer heat up and become slow.
I uninstalled Norton, installed AVG (which found a Trojan), ran their registry repair and updated the BIOS. Now it seems that both ETS and system aren't taking a lot of CPU and the temperature is steady at around 50°C
I'm afraid I don't know which one of those did it, but it's nice to have a working computer.

Thank you for all the advice,

Ben

 

Thanks for the update.

You might also want to scan the computer with Spybot S&D and/or Malwarebytes. They sometimes find this that the AV programs miss.

John

 

just tried the "HOSTS" file and it killed the use of the back button. Thought things had changed since it has been a while since I tried one, but it seems it hasn't. back to viewing adds and just being careful.

 

That is unexpected behaviour. Which web browser? I've had no issues with a custom hosts file and Firefox and can't see how it would cause your problem. The hosts file is just a list.

John