Dell Inspiron One 2320 Nvidia GeForce GT 525m Overheating?

Hi Rafterman414,

I suggest that you run a stress test on the video card. To run the test, click on ‘All Programs’ select ‘Dell Support Center’ and then click on ‘Launch PC checkup’.  In the ‘Dell Support Center 3.0’ window, click on ‘PC checkup’ button and then on ‘Run Custom Scan’.   In this window all the system devices will be listed, from the list click on ‘Video Card’ under ‘Video Devices’ and run a stress test on the video card.  Please reply to the post with the status of the test.

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Thanks and Regards,
Sujatha K
#iworkfordell

Hi Sujatha,

I do not have an option to conduct just a stress test on the GeForce 525m. I can only do a system wide stress test which seems to not test the GeForce 525m, only the Intel HD Graphics and the CPU, HDD, RAM etc... The only test that I can see for the GeForce GT 525m is the PCI Express Status Test which passes successfully. I am running Dell Support Center 3.2.6032.55.

I ran the stress test. Temperatures got to 89 Degrees Celsius. The stress test that came with the Dell Support Center did not seem very stressful however, it looked more like a cheap benchmark from 2001.

Rafterman414,

Now the system is in a mode where it switches between graphic cards depending the application you are working on. I suggest that you change the settings such that, the system uses only NVidia graphic card.  Follow the steps given below to set the same:

Please right click the mouse on the ‘Desktop’ and you will see a window l pop up.  Left click and select ‘NVidia control panel’.  

 Step 1 - Click on the line that says Manage 3D Setting, like shown in the picture below.

When you click on Manage 3D Settings, the right side of the control panel will look similar to what is shown above.

Click on the Global Settings tab if it is not already selected.

Step 2 -  Under "Preferred graphics processor", change this to read "High Performance NVIDIA Processor" like shown below.  Then Apply your settings. This will set ALL of your programs to use the NVIDIA GPU all the time.

NOTE:  This procedure will consume more battery power since all programs will now use the NVidia GPU. 

I would also like to know, how are you measuring the temperature of the system. Please private message the service tag of the system. 

Thanks and Regards,                                             
Sujatha K
#iworkfordell

I use open Hardware Monitor as well to check temperatures.

Did all that. For monitoring temperatures I mostly use HWMonitor and speedfan. What I am really trying to find out for starters is what is the thermal limit of this GPU? Could it be possible that whoever assembled the system did not apply enough thermal paste or somehow apply it incorrectly resulting in very little heat transfer onto the heatsink?

Thanks for the tip UCG! 22 degrees is a significant amount of cooling. I will be checking out these mods. Are you able to do any overclocking with the 2500K due to the better cooling or does the stock bios prevent that? Thanks again!