XPS 17 L20X Temperature of over 90C while playing games

Thanks for the reply, I'll take a look at a cooling pad see if that gives any help, I already took the bullet and cleared out any dust in the GPU, will apply some arctic silver if nothing else comes up!

All laptops will overheat if there is no additional cooling pad used, the existing simply does not clear enough air with out a cooling pad. Make sure it is a large enough unit, I use a cooler master with 3 fans that can be moved all over the pad with quick releases on the fans. Most Dells suck air from the bottom and the sides and release out the back of the laptop. MAKE SURE that the air is blowing out the top of the pad and not sucking air fighting the laptop for air. After your laptop has been well cleaned out the dirt and dust from the inside of the case, Now make sure you blow compressed air in to the heat exit  of the laptop, thus cleaning out the cooling fins and back into the fans.  I do this about every month at least and pull the laptop apart at least every 6 month, also I am using a aftermarket fan control to assist. When the laptop is used for gaming or 3D in my use the fans are set to a manual 100% full speed and that will allow me to keep the GPU at a reasonably a lower temperature.

Good Luck and Cheers.

I looked for the best  dedicated graphics for my budget, i found dell 5110 with a GT525M this is the hot chip in my system but this is only in gaming. i do have a cooler master with the 3 usb fans that i found a waste of time tbh. take a look at my utube vid "DELL n5110 COOLER MODS" I tested both blow and suck and i found sucking the air out of the laptop gave the best results as im using 3 desktop case fans 80mm slim fan to fit in the quick releases holders. under normal pc stuff i find the 3 case fans  do all the cooling it's only under gaming the laptop fan kicks in and takes it fare share of the cool air passing by the fan intake vents. By blowing in to the laptop you are trying to dissipate the heat inside the laptop. By sucking the heat out of the laptop it's cooler in my view.

I fully agree with you about the fan direction, how ever the majority of Dell laptop's the air exit is in the rear of the laptop... Not really giving you much surface area to work with on suction. My cooler master fans were modified and the fan direction were reversed to cause an assistance to the incoming air... You my friend are a truly a wise man to be aware that what a factory gives you is just not enough to do the job ..

I took the step of opening up the laptop again and applied some arctic thermal paste, results are quite astonishing but not surprising seeing as the paste job that had been done on the laptop was appalling (looks like someone applied the paste with their nose!)

Max temps are now around 63C which is a lot healthier and certainly doesn't hurt my fingers as much!

try this free app for dell laptops http://www.softsift.com/200701/i8kfangui-30-dell-notebook-fan-control-utility.html  it allows you to control fan speeds and at what temps the fan will turn on and off.   i use it for my dell xps m1710

my temps stay around 111f degrees at idle and around 118f degrees when i am playing games.

the other thing i do is i put a box fan close to the laptop and it  will blow fresh air all around the laptop.

and try to keep your room temps as cool as you can when playing games.

Hello

It's my first reply in these forums. If you haven't changed your thermal paste it would be a good idea to change it because that's way too high for the GPU Temp. I just put new thermal paste on my GPU and CPU and this is after 1 year I bought the laptop and 1st time opening my laptop fully.

There was no dust inside on the heatsink fins that would cause heat so the only problem was the old thermal paste that Dell put caused the heat .I have the XPS 17 L702X

CPU:Intel I7 2670QM

GPU:GT 555M 3GB non 3D

RAM:8GB 1333Mhz

Temps before with full load

CPU:84C-86C

GPU:74C-76C

Temps after with full load

CPU:75C

GPU:68C-69C

Temps before no load

CPU:55C

GPU:49C

Temps after no load

CPU:45C

GPU:40C

@lakis

Reading this is prety reassuring! I have the same computer u have and the temperature are the same (i mean the before temperature).

Today i get scared i was plaing an old game (so nothing stressing) and the computer shouted down like someone unplugged the supply.

I restart it and few seconds after windos restart it shouted down again...

I let it get colder, then it worked fine, i tryed the sam game to see the temperaure and i reached more then 90°C.

I was really worried to have reuined somthing so i make all the harder test and everything is fine.

but the problem still remain...idel temperatue 55-60°C

working more then 90°C sometimes...

Can u please tell me wich termal paste did u use and ther's also a tutorial for open the computer correctly?

please let me know something i'm really worried about this...

I got myself a l502x heat sink, I reckoned something was up with pressure from screws It now max's at 75 under 100% and idles 40-45. It was idling 65-70 before with 100 max. I tried shims etc but the new heatsink fixed it.

Dear 

check fan rbm and head signing to be check ,,,  silicon pasted apply 

proble solved

LOL I seen this post when i was researching my issue of overheating CPU why have you answered just after me with a fix that does not resolve the issue.
The fan rpm has two settings and it kicks in when temps are high when temps are low it does not spin, i checked all the rpms.

Change the heatsink, it worked for me try the L502X one they can be got on ebay cheap.

Really interested in buying the L502X heatsink. How did you go about fixing around the GPU.? All i have is two holes around the GPU not 4 holes.? A photo of it would be great.