Laptop overheating when gaming.

[GTP]

I have a client with a Dell G5 5500 Gaming laptop that is experiencing lag while playing DOOM Eternal (and some others).
The game runs perfectly with video options turned down but during intense fight scenes it lags badly.
The vents are all clear, its sitting on a hard surface.
The fans increase speed to a roar when it starts to lag.
I need some ideas on how to cool the GPU.
The centre of the bottom of the laptop gets hot enough to be uncomfortable to touch.

TIA

 

[Larry Sabo]

Sounds like a poorly functioning heat pipe or dried thermal paste, or both. How hot is the exhust air stream?

 

[Markverhyden]

This is why laptops are such a poor choice for any serious computationally intensive tasks, like gaming. As @Larry Sabo mentioned it could be a heat pipe, if it has one. problem. Pop off the bottom to check. If it does have a sink and pipe run it hard for some 10 minutes. Check the pipe and heat sink. If the pipe is dry the far end by the fan will be cool to the touch.

 

[Diggs]

Not much you can do other than check the thermal compound as @Larry Sabo said and then put it on a cooling pad forced air cooler. You did check that the cooling fins in the radiator are clean and not blocked with pet hair?

 

[Larry Sabo]

I would also ensure it has the latest BIOS, and try it with AC adapter only. There was one report of a bad battery causing the problem, which baffles me. Also, turn off turbo mode in the BIOS.

 

[Diggs]

turn off turbo mode in the BIOS.

Aww! Dood! How's he going to be an epic leet gamer???

 

[Larry Sabo]

Aww! Dood! How's he going to be an epic leet gamer???

LOL At least he'd be a cool gamer.

 

[GTP]

Sounds like a poorly functioning heat pipe or dried thermal paste, or both. How hot is the exhust air stream?

Thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated.
I did forget to mention this laptop is only 3 months old. It was actually manufactured on 18 Dec 2020 and hasnt been used for gaming till relatively recently due to university and study committments.
I'm not sure it would be a thermal medium issue?
The exhaust air stream is very hot after intensive play such as a hoard fight in DOOM Eternal, but is still very warm during normal play.
The laptop vents are clear, there are no pets, (so no pet hairs), it sits on a desk, and it has clear access all around it.
It has the latest BIOS, although there are no BIOS updates available yet being new, (it also has that microphone problem from my other post) so I updated it (BIOS) only a few days ago.

I'm not sure about those "cooling pads" as many of them try to pull air out in opposition the the internal fans trying to suck air in.

Removing the battery and running on AC makes no difference.
Turning off Turbo Mode makes the games (DOOM Eternal, GTA5, Apex Legends etc) unplayable.

Just for clarity its a "girl" gamer lol

 

[Markverhyden]

Thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated.
I did forget to mention this laptop is only 3 months old. It was actually manufactured on 18 Dec 2020 and hasnt been used for gaming till relatively recently due to university and study committments.
I'm not sure it would be a thermal medium issue?

Brand new things have problems. Back when I was at CompUSA we'd see a handful of new laptops, as in just months old, with empty heat pipes. That's why I mentioned checking the part near the fan. If the contents have leaked out it'll not dissipate the heat which causes it to concentrate in one area.

 

[GTP]

Thanks Mark I am going to check this if I can.
I think the client is talking about returning it to the store though.
Not sure how that will go but I'll wait and see.

 

[Markverhyden]

Thanks Mark I am going to check this if I can.
I think the client is talking about returning it to the store though.
Not sure how that will go but I'll wait and see.

To be honest that's the best thing to do. But after 3 months even an exchange would be tough here in the US.

 

[GTP]

To be honest that's the best thing to do. But after 3 months even an exchange would be tough here in the US.

I think the store will tell her to return it to Dell tbh, but we have some fairly stringent consumer protection laws here that may force them into doing something.
I just need to make sure its reset before returning.

 

[fincoder]

Your customer's best option is to try and get a remedy from the store or manufacturer.

Otherwise undervolting the CPU might be a solution:
Solved: Inspiron G5 15 5500, hitting 100c easily - Dell Community

 

[Do It All Computers]

The first thing I would do is to redo the thermal compound, myself. The stuff from the factory tends to suck. The newer laptops are nothing to tear apart. I use Noctua NT-H2 and find it works great. Used to use Arctic Silver, but found Noctua worked better and was non conductive.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I've had this problem before, and when I pulled the laptop apart I found the CPU/GPU cooler still had the aluminum tape used to protect the thermal contact surface still in there. Peel that off, and reseat the system with good thermal compound and boom... brand new laptop.

It shouldn't venting air hot enough to burn you... warm sure not "hot" means problem. BIOS updates are on the list too, because sometimes they get the fan profiles wrong at launch.