Alienware M17x R2 Overheating Issues

Applying thermal paste can be tricky. Too much will create clogs and too little will not suffice. Here's a video guide that shows some methods on how to apply thermal paste.

What card(s) do you have currently installed? 

Okay, I actually followed a very similar tutorial when applying the thermal paste. I did give it the same amount as described as necessary.

Graphics cards: 2 ATI HD Radeon 1900M series. That's what's confirmed in device manager.

- EDIT -

Graphics cards: 2 ATI HD Radeon 6900M series. That's what's confirmed in device manager.

This may be completely off-track however; my son recently upgraded his desktop's graphics card to a second-hand GTX 570 and purchased an Advance 650w power supply for it. He experienced the same thing as you. Horrendous overheating leading to a shutdown after 10 minutes of playing BF3 (no problem with normal use though).

He took the machine to our local repairer who changed the thermal paste. That made no change. The repairer gave him a less powerful graphic card to test and the problem disappeared so the repairer concluded the GTX 570 was faulty.

We contacted the supplier who said it worked perfectly before he sold it to us and asked what power supply was being used. As soon as we mentioned the name Advance he replied that these are well known to provide significantly less power than claimed and gave us a link to a review on these power units. The review concluded that the 650w unit actually only pushed out 250w! My son tried the card with his old 550w unit and the machine ran perfectly.

Obviously you are not using an Advance power unit and your machine is a laptop but I wonder whether the power supply that came with your M17x R2 is sufficient for the upgraded cards?

Thanks for the input. However, these cards were made to be swappable between systems. Granted the new cards could produce more heat simply because of the higher clocks. 

I actually found 1 way to correct this problem: I had to buy a commercial miniature fan and place the laptop DIRECTLY on top. Having a cooling pad simply doesnt do the trick. 

So, Im guessing its purely a cooling issue, now all I have to do is somehow keep the laptop on top of the fan without it falling over. Maybe build a desk, cut a hole in the center, place the fan.on a shelf below the hole and have the laptop on top... Badically, this is my new desktop :/

I will try and take some pictures so everyone can see just how ridiculous this looks haha

I think that may depend on what kind of cooling pad you have. My wife uses a Logitech unit which is fine for her Inspiron but wouldn't do the trick for my M17x R2. I decided to pay more than double the cost of hers to get a Zalman Cooler Master 3500 Plus. Its massive central fan is very quiet and reduces the graphic card temp by 10 to 12°c which is enough for me to play Skyrim with the Radeon's high speed fan rarely kicking-in.

The only thing I don't like about cooling pads is the extra height you have to put up with ...but hey, you get used to it after a while. ;)

Yeah, I I've had a few cooling pads, this commercial fan does the trick very well actually! Just have to deal with the height as you had mentioned. I'm going to have it propped up with a USB cord and mouse. Thank Alienated for my new desktop! Let me know when you guys start producing capable laptops, or ways of reducing the heat such as water coolers that could run underneath the laptop *GASP* What a concept for overheating! Lmao plus it would be quite the marketing 1 upper.

So, been about 1-2 weeks, and I thought I had the issue all resolved! I disabled Crossfire and it lowered the temps! I could actually play more than 10 minutes without the thing overheating! But, not more than 10 minutes

I am now using a plastic crate FULL of holes to rest the laptop on with a commercial fan blowing underneath. There seems little to no hope for this issue!

Hey Dell, how about you guys use your money-making brains and figure out a way to get liquid cooling into your products? I'm sure everyone would want a piece of that tech!!! Or, is it just better having consumers have your techs fix issues for hundreds of dollars?

At this point, I'd even rather have an eMachines. At least their products don't over heat every 10 minutes.

YOU STILL HAVEN'T GIVEN A VIABLE ANSWER TO THIS ISSUE!

well i do beleive the M17X never had an option for dual 6 series cards.. only the M18X which is bigger and has a different coolign system, so i also beleive the last ati cards for a M17X R2 was the 5870's in Xfire, and i remeber this cause the R3 came out and only 1 card, made the sale of my new R2 with dual card easy LOL

anyway 5870's had a vbios update to adress temp, my myself never had temp issues, albiet i cleaned the system out every 3-4 weeks(reverse air blow with a  compressor holding fans still)  temps usually averaged around 80C across the board, ambient temp was roughly 17C with roughly 60% humidity.

Emachines = low end Acer LOL  pretty much same componenets as dell anyway(Foxxconn)  but have fun playing borderlands on a Emachines laptop..LOL

let alone i hope you got the M18X 330 watt PSU for the 69** series cards you got since they draw way to much power for the stock 192/230/240 watt psu cant remeber exact for the M17X,  and that is well documented with a simple search,  it also states the M17X cant handle  cooling dual 69** this was the reason for it going single card and the M18X coming out to handle the cooling :)

"The high power consumption of the chip limits its use only in large laptops with good cooling solutions (e.g. Alienware M18x or Clevo X7200).

Quote from review forum"

prototype: liquid cooling for M18X.. as a base  http://www.asetek.com/laptop.html