I installed an aftermarket cooler (Cooler Master Vortex) in my XPS 8500, and the same can be done (with the cooler of your choice) with an XPS 8300.

From what I have read, CPU coolers are often not compatible with dell XPS mother boards.  Either due to number of wires (mine has 4) or non-standard mounting brackets.

It seems like there is something wrong if I can easily overheat the CPU.  Surely Dell didn't design these systems with an overheating flaw.

Thanks for your suggestion.  But I'd like to hear someone having solved this problem with the same computer just to be safe.  Otherwise the odds are I would end up buying the wrong CPU cooler.

Cheers,

Tim

open your case and just clean out all the dust inside the cpu and heatsink the fans everywhere some people buy the cans of compress air (but with my experience for really clog up pc you will need 2 cans at least) for my daughter and oncle and brother pc (Theres would get so hot the pc would shutdown) all i did was use my shop vac and put it on blown mode not vacuum (dont go to close ) and there computer where clean and work now perfectly at normal tempeture no more problems....

Already blown out with a garage air compressor.  Thanks for reminding me stevearc... I have updated my original post.

sorry i taunt it would help

I haven't tried taunting it yet Steve.  :-)

Actually, I should have mentioned I had blown it out.  That is the most common cause of overheating.

I cannot for the life of me figure out what is going wrong.  It is odd that Dell would use a different heat sink/fan than everyone else since it would likely increase costs.  So I can't just plug another one in.  In any case, the MB is obviously not doing anything with the information it has on the CPU heat.  That or there is some circuitry in the fan that is preventing it from responding.

Anyone else have an idea?

It is odd that Dell would use a different heat sink/fan than everyone else since it would likely increase costs.

They don't: it's a standard Intel four-wire fan. The main difference is that the heatsink fastens to the motherboard with screws rather than plastic push-pins. I used ordinary screws to attach the Vortex, but some coolers would need spring-dampened screws like those sold by Sidewinder Computer.

Maybe the thermal paste needs to be reapplied?

I was thinking of trying that but dubious of it working.  If the fans don't spin up when the CPU is overheating then it would point to a MB or software problem.

Since the fan can be manually spun up using third party software it doesn't appear to be related to the fan.

And since the third party software is measuring the temperature well, it doesn't appear to be related to that either.  It has to be the interpretation of and taking action on the overheating.

I think I will give reapplying the thermal compound a shot.

On a side note... the wife has been frustrated with the Dell's stability.  Would love a way to make her happy.  Thanks to everyone for contributing.  :emotion-1:

maybe ive heard on other forums that it could cause overheating but never reapplied it myself so couldnt tell you how