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19065
July 5th, 2009 22:00
XPS M1710 running hot
I have an XPS M1710 that I have had for 2 and a half years now. I do still have a service contract active. My problem is that the laptop runs pretty hot. the GPU runs at 70C at idle (geforce 7900 GO GS). Most games I run, if I run them at full graphical capability, they cause my system to quickly overheat. Even scaled down, my cpu ran up to 90C degrees, and the gpu up to 80C. The fans kick in okay, but sometimes even watching movies on it (you tube or WMP) causes the system to lock up and shut down. On more than one occasion the system has shut off due to the heat. The room isn't that hot (23C)
I set it on a coffee table, or if on the floor I prop one end up to allow clearance underneath, and when on my lap the fans are not blocked.
I am running Windows 7 (Release candidate 1), but have experienced the heat issues on Vista before, especially when playing world of warcraft, guild wars, Black and whote 2, and Star wars empire at war.
My Bios version is currently A04. I have installed l8k to monitor the temps and have it set up to spin up the fans at appropriate levels, and I still get it to overheat.
I've seen some people suggest opening up the case and putting in some new thermal compound. http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16041 I would consider myself an advanced computer user, but my specialty lies in software, not hardware. The thought of taking pieces off the board and putting in new thermal paste is a little intimidating for me. Any suggstions anyone can offer are much appreciated.
Thanks
Fox2000
16 Posts
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July 6th, 2009 03:00
The overheating could also be caused by dust on the cooling fans and/or the heat sinks of the processor and video card. There is no work around or bitting around the bush, you will have to open your laptop. The nice thing about this is that Dell provides online help for this. Go to the online manuals for your system on support.dell.com and download the Service Manual for your laptop:
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
Go to your local local electronics store (Fry's Electronics, Altec or something similar), buy an antistatic wrist band, antistatic mat and a set of 20 to 30 piece tool kit for electronic appliances. Also purchase a can of compress air for electronic devices and read the instructions on how to use it. Clear your dining room table so you have plenty space to work. Get a 6 pack of Beer and you are set.
If after cleaning all the dust, your overheating problem persist, then consider the thermal compond option.
If you consider all this too intimidating, you could always go to the local computer repair shop and they will do it for you (hopefully) for a small fee.
Hope this helps!!!! :emotion-2:
PS. If your system is under warranty, have Dell replace the Fans, get the thermal compound and compress air can before the service guy come to your house and ask him to kindly (offer a beer, dinner, or something) to apply the thermal paste and clean the dust on the system for you. They maybe kind enough do it for you without charging extra! :emotion-5:
BrokenBokken
2 Posts
0
July 6th, 2009 09:00
Thanks for your help. I pulled the laptop apart and there actually wasn't any dust that I could see in the fans - at least not enough to cause a problem. I used a can of compressed air anyway, just to make sure and got everything back togetehre again - no left over screws!
The GPU is still running a little hot. (mid 70's C). The CPU is still idling around the low to mid 50's
I can't feel any air flow on the right side of the laptop, even when l8k says that fan is running at high speed. If I hold my ear up to it, it is maknig a buzzing noise.
Fox2000
16 Posts
0
July 7th, 2009 05:00
You should be able to feel at least little air coming out when the fan is in high RPMs. I suggest to run the Dell Diagnostics test from the Resource CD that came with your laptop. There is an specific test for the Fans there that you can run. The Fans on this laptop only have 3 settings for the speed, off, High and Low. the test will check if the fans are Ok.
Hope this helps! :emotion-2: