Average temp for notebook

Question

I have a Latitude D830, after upgrading the RAM to 4gb I have been testing and the case seems to get kind of hot. I set up my Fluke meter and put the temp probe on the bottom of the case to the rear of the memory door (CPU area I think). I ran Memtest 86+ test #5 for about 5hrs. The maximum temp was 46.2 degrees celsius on the meter.

A quick reboot and checking FanGUI showed a CPU max of 62 degrees celsius but within 2 minutes it had dropped to about 52 degrees. Does anyone think I should be concerned?

Thanks, Bryan

EDIT: After letting the systems idle for about 6hrs here is what I see with FanGUI.
To be fair though the D830 was in a dock and the C840 was sitting on the table

D830: Pretty constant both cores at 50 degrees celsius. Must be a sweet spot of sorts.
C840: Fluctuates between 50 degrees and 70 degrees celsius.

Message Edited by bp_22ca on 08-25-2007 05:48 PM

starzfan45 · Answer

My E1505 runs at about 36c to 38c. I got it up to 42c playing games once.

mauisunset · Answer

It depends...

Is the case getting hot by the CPU area or by the RAM? I assume that the system is hotter after you upgraded the RAM.

You might want to use something like SpeedFan : http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php to monitor the CPU temp graphically to see if the temperature actually changes under load or if for some reason the temp is just "that way" all the time.

Is the CPU fan working extra hard all the time? I recommend removing the keyboard and while holding the CPU fan from spinning, blast the fan and heat sink with canned air. NOTE: most laptop CPU fans will have a lot of fine dust in them, so take appropriate precautions. If you have not removed a Dell laptop keyboard, try to find the appropriate manual on-line. On some of the Dell laptops, the keyboard bezel cover that has the power, volume controls, and some of the indicator displays can be tricky to take off.

Take the laptop outside and do the blasting. Hold the CPU fan blade from spinning while doing this. Don't put your face near the CPU fan/heatsink when doing this and hold your breath! Dust mask might be good in extreme cases. Air blast from the inside out first (from the CPU fan side) and them blast air through the heat sink vents from the back, side, or bottom as appropriate, again, making sure to keep the CPU fan from spinning.

bp_22ca · Answer

Well as stated in my EDIT to my initial post it appears the norm CPU temp reading with the new ram is around 50 degrees. After running video on loop for 5hrs while ntermittently surfing the web the fan has only hit high speed once that I know of and the max temp was 69 degrees. The D830 w/4gb RAM is the laptop I'm concerned about the C840 has been running with 1128k RAM for over 2yrs that way.

bp_22ca · Answer

I just put back in the original 1gb RAM and tested it over about a 4hr span, the cpu load was higher, about 65% but it was only able to maintain 70 degrees celsius. It would appear to me that the older C series was able to maintain a lower temperature because as soon as the fans turn on in the C840 I have the temperature immediately drops 20 degrees usually, this laptop temp barely drops 1-2 degrees when the high fan kicks in, then again for some reason it only runs on high for 30 seconds or so then goes back to low.

mauisunset · Answer

there are utilities out there for some desktop motherboards for adjusting/forcing the chassis and CPU fans to run at higher speeds.  I don't know if SpeedFan or Notebook Hardware Control will work on Dell.

bp_22ca · Answer

I would say they are interrelated CPU utilization creating the heat.

After my initial post I did some investigation, I was using FanGui's temp report then which was not a true reflection of the "CPU temp" Anyways the heat source for me is the video card as suspected. I have the NVS140m. My cpu temps were at 38-40 degrees everyone else was quoting.

The new A08 BIOS seems to help the heat issue on my laptop, although I think the fan runs on super low all the time(quiet but it is running) now and even when it gets hot is a little too late going into high speed. i.e. when monitoring temp with FanGui the fan doesn't go to high speed till over 76 degrees now whereas before it would at 70. On the other side of things it only ever gets that hot when I encode video for burning a full dvd at maximum speed.

I don't know what you are using the laptop for that would require a 100 processes though, I max out at around 78 and that is with AutoCAD, several programming software instances open and two vmware sessions. It could be possible that you have a software conflict: I run Trend Micro as my antivirus/firewall and it doesn't like spybot's immunize feature at all, it will spike the cpu to 100% and just sit there.

Bob Makovei · Answer

Hello there!

I also have a D830 (T7500 2.2 Ghz, 2 GB RAM (original)), bought it 4 months ago, installed XP Pro in December.

I have two problems, maybe they are interrelated...
CPU jumps to 100% in more or less even periods. It is never one process that blows it up, but several processes (10-15) add up. I used to have about 100 processes running, now have about 80-85.
In the meantime I also have problems with heat. I have had an error message several times; something like this: "Heat... exceeded a non-critical threshold, contact your Dell Help Desk...". I usually switch the laptop on in the morning and switch it off in the evening... Probably I should have a few breaks during the day...

I know heat would come from high CPU-usage; could it be the other way around as well? Could the CPU jump because something is wrong with the fans? Doesn't really make sense...

I am really annoyed with these problems, as the laptop gets really slow, I mean SLOW, when CPU is at peak, and makes my work difficult...

Any ideas?

Kind regards, Bob

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Average temp for notebook

Was this post helpful?