E6400 overheating throttling

Yeah, tried that out already, slight decrease in temp but just like 2-3°, probably going to ask the dell tech tomorow if he can apply some more?!
Is there any sense in removing the thermalPAD on the GPU and replacing it with PASTE?

 

First of all, vacuum does a poor job of cleaning heatsink and fans, also create static attracting more dust. I suggest compressed air can's.. you know the one that burst high pressure air to your electronics to make them clean.

Second of all, what you experience is 100% normal. It affects all Desktop, and laptop alike. The only cure is water cooling (or dump your computer in demineralised oil).

High quality thermal paste will increase it's longevity before it cracks and allows air to penetrate and provide inadequate cooling of the CPU, also it's designed that when it dries up, it doesn't crack (it will crack when you remove the heatsink. But in any case, every time you do this, you should put new thermal paste (remove the old one first).

Dust is part of life, you'll always have some.. there is no cure in the real world. Every now and then, I recommend to clean the vent, keeping dust away from the fan motor which means keeping the fan quiet, and provide great cooling as dust keeps the heat trapped.

 

If you played any video previously, including YouTube, or had any Flash-based (and in a few years I have to include HTML5 based) content previously, these are very CPU intensive, and is normal that the temps are high. Note that the heatsink is shared between processors, so if one is hot, it will warm up the others.

Also make sure that your computer power management is set to Balance, while plug-in. This means that the system overall (Windows doesn't manage the GPU - The GPU uses it's own independent system), will down-clock when you don't need the power, resulting reduction of heat, all by not sacrificing any performance (as the system will go faster as you need power). If you run XP, then you don't have that luxury... well you KINDA do, but that is the CPU that manages that, and can't go as low as with Vista/Win7.

Another thing, moving folders around and all, makes the GPU go faster (as it require more power to draw), hence the increase GPU temperature a bit.
If the temperature you mentioned is in a comfortable room temperature (ie: if a hot day you have the AC on), and your system is idle for quiet some time, and still that warm. Run NvGPUPro (nos setup, free, donation supported), and see if your have the Nvidia PowerMizer technology enabled completely. Also make sure you have the latest Nvidia video card drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-258.96-whql-driver.html (Vista/Wiin7 64-bit)).

Of course when you do the above, have your computer turn off after to allows the system to cool off for a while, then turn it on and wait 5min. This will provide better temperature of any changement.

 

Thanks again for all your information.
I will try out your balanced power tip.
my room temperature sometimes is not really comfortable, so that might be one of the causes.
I tried your little tool, and my driver wasn't supported 258,96, as well as that Avira told me the program contained a trojan...
So i cannot check on that, maybe try tomorow.
let the notebook cool down and give it a fresh start.

 

Avira is providing a false positive.
I don't know the problem with this anti-virus, where as soon as you package an executable with another file (I even tried to package notepad.exe with form a fresh Windows 7 install with a text file, and the same thing happens), the same anti-virus flags the file as a trojan or worm or virus. The funny thing is that some definitions it flags it, other don't.

I use UPX to package my program into 1 executable: UPX: the Ultimate Packer for eXecutables - Homepage (It's free)

The better news is that, here you can see which anti-virus ACTUALLY search for virus/trojan/worms, and those who flags anything at random because it might be one (I would worried.. remember when McCafee flag Windows own files, and broke millions of people Windows this way?), or has a DLL file name that some virus used, and all that crap. I recommend to use better a better one.

My recommendations are:
- Microsoft Security Essential (also available in 64-bit for faster scanning) - Reviews are saying it's superb. Also, Anti-malware testing group AV-Comparatives.org top rated this anti-virus program and said it's the fastest one.
- AVG free edition.
- Norton Anti-Virus (and the 360 version)
- Avast
- Kaspersky

If you don't believe me: Run the file with VirusTotal - Free Online Virus and Malware Scan (just upload the file, and it will scan with a multitude of anti-virus).
Notice how most of them don't detect anything, and the 4 put 41 that does, can't even detect the same thing. And to top things over, TrendMicro solution detect something, while the SAME VERSION of the definition using TrendMicro-HouseCall doesn't detect anything at all.

_________________

PM me (as for some reason I can't PM you), and I'll send you Nv GPU Pro Beta which supports the latest Nvidia drivers.

 

May it be that the PM-Option is disabled in this forum?
Cannot send you anything either, but I changed my email to visible for members of the forum, hope that'll work.
Thanks

 

for the people that experienced repeated repairs, were you offered the new e6410 or a complete refund towards another system?

why does the e4300 not have this problem?

 

Good question: The thermal rules may be written differently because the E4300 does not have options for (i) 35W CPUs or (ii) nVidia GPUs. I still have the gut feeling that Dell may be erring on the side of caution in the matter of nVidia GPUs and thermal cycling.

John

 

I haven't been offered a new system, and I don't think dell will do that at all to a "normal" user.

Has any of the E6400 owners an idea where the "skin" sensor is placed? the termal table for it really looks strange 4600rpm with just 46° on it, so fan is running constantly with gpu at 55 and cpu at 45.

nonetheless had no throttling anymore since new mb and heatsink (still my gpu goes up to a constant 94° while under load).

 

I applied cold air to the area between cpu - north bridge, closer to dvd bay to find sensor skin position. Have no exact position, it also can be located on main pcb under keybord.