Laptop Overheating

C

Captain Spaulding

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Chichester, West Sussex, UK
Hi,

Laptop is a Dell Studio 1557, i7 8 core, customer brought it in and complained of sudden power offs.

I checked the temps with speccy and the CPU was running at 80 idle and 95-100 when under load and before shutting off. It ran for a while when first brought in from the cold then less and less each time as I guess it warmed up. The fan is expelling very hot air out the back.

I took it apart to check for dust etc but it was actually very clean inside no vents blocked, checked fan and it ran smooth with no noise. The thermal paste was in a pretty bad state, dry, so I changed it to Arctic cooling but no change after on temps.

I did try running Puppy Linux and did notice a temp warning message during boot before it shut down.

Looking on Google the Dell studio series seems to be plagued by overheating problems. Not sure what else I can do now, I expect some hardware has been damaged. Anything else I can try or is this now an expensive doorstop?

Cheers.
 
When my brother finished up with boot camp, he stupidly ordered one of these only because at the time, had the fastest mobile processor. It basically burned up within the first month because of heavy use, and little rest, something gamers seem to forget. He managed to get it replaced twice before Dell cut him off claiming a shortage, which could be true when I researched this model more when he couldnt get another replacement.

You could try tearing it apart and seeing if arctic silver makes a difference when applied to the processor. Dell and other OEMs use a cheap paste that has the consistency of bubble gum, and isnt as good as other alternatives. Could be a chance to also blow out stuck debris/dust that could be acting as an insulator. Hopefully heat damage has been mitigated because of the shutdowns.

In typing this, have you tried using a cooling pad?
 
DCGPX said:
What's the fan speed being reported as? Sure it's not running too slow

If you've replaced the paste did it at least show a few degrees less?
Click to expand...

Well I tired installing Speedfan but when I run it it gets to "Scanning ISA BUS at $0290..." and the whole laptop freezes, no mouse control nothing just a frozen screen.

I hear the fan ramp up as the laptop gets hotter or on opening programs etc.. but it sounds smooth and it's pumping lots of air out the back, it just gets very hot.

Despite applying new thermal paste twice now the temps are still the same apprx 80 when idle and up to 100 when doing something.
 
One more Q - Has it got integrated graphics?

I've a laptop that I got given that runs at 75c that I know has faulty GPU and you might have same problem. So far I tried everything and I know I need to get GPU sorted.

It'll idle all day, ask it to do something and it sulks!
 
DCGPX said:
One more Q - Has it got integrated graphics?

I've a laptop that I got given that runs at 75c that I know has faulty GPU and you might have same problem. So far I tried everything and I know I need to get GPU sorted.

It'll idle all day, ask it to do something and it sulks!
Click to expand...

This one will shut down even in the BIOS when it's hot.

Graphics Adapter: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 512 MB
 
Yes my favorite job, the "overheating laptop".

Some laptops are just poorly designed and some manufactures skimp on the thermal cooling units they install to to save money and space. They are totally inadequate for keeping there laptops from running hot, it is just that simple.

The sudden shutdowns are protecting the cpu from being fried but the downside is that other components like your hard drive and motherboard are being damaged every time this happens, so you might want to test them as well.

Sometimes a bios upgrade may help lower the temps or you could try and replace the existing thermal/cooling heatsink fan unit with another one to see if the whole unit is the problem.

Let us know how you get on!
 
People have had success using copper shims on the GPU, there is not enough contact with metal to dissipate the heat and it overheats the whole thing including the CPU. I have personally used them on other laptops with success.
 
Last edited:
How old is it? Was it not working when they got it? If so then something must have changed. Maybe the heatpipe is on the way out.
 
Following on from MobileTechie about the heatpipe, usually a good sign for urgent replacement is the color.

If you find that's it's not the expected shiny copper/silver color then it's likely that it's not helping the situation. Usually if they're rubbish they turn a dull grey dirty color, I've been told by a Dell support tech that this is usually the result of no internal liquid. Not sure how accurate that is but changing the pipe did fix my issue.
 
There is one thing against the bad heat pipe theory which is that he reports it's giving out lots of hot air from the fan. Usually when the pipe goes the air coming out is too cool. Often you can feel a bad pipe because the radiator end is significantly cooler than the CPU end, even with the unplugged.
 
MobileTechie said:
How old is it? Was it not working when they got it? If so then something must have changed. Maybe the heatpipe is on the way out.
Click to expand...

It's not an old laptop, only about a year and a half, the customer has had problems since day 1 with it being hot but only recently has it started shutting down.

I spoke to them and let them know whats happenning they are going to try contacting Dell and see if they get them to agree to repairing it so they will collect the laptop and pay for the diagnostic report.

Out of intrest do heatpipes just go? If Dell won't play ball and the customer does want me to take another look I guess I could replace the whole cooling system with something like:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Stud...ponents_Fans_Heatsinks_SR&hash=item1e621ac0db
 
Replace the whole unit...the heatpipe and fan. I've ran into this before and found that the fan was only doing 800rpm. At 800rpm it does look perfectly good and does get some of the heat out; but its not enough. After I changed it, it now does 1500rpm when its running a heavy load and does not shutdown. Good Luck :)
 
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