E6400 overheating throttling

In my case, as long as I dont do anything that taxes the Intel GPU, the E6400 works perfectly. It's fast and responsive. Once I try to play a game ( old games ) or even enable the screensave (bubbles), this is the moment I get frustrated

Sadly, there's no way to modify the thermal tables. We are at Dell's mercy here. My workaround is to use RMClock and enable throttling at 100%. This way, you have a usable system in case your chipset reaches 55 C.

 

I just find it so strange I dont have these issues (yet). I was playing C&C generals for an hour and a half yesterday with no issues..

 

It's not a question of 'yet'. Intel was dumb to put the 4500HD IN the northbridge. If it was outside, like previous Intel GPUs or have the northbridge handel more heat, then the problem would not exists. It all comes down to, will Dell find a solution (under-volt, maybe) or risk higher temp and eat the bullet in the high chances of failures (meaning burned chip sets which needs replacement or cause users to have system stability issues)

It's kinda ironic that people choose Intel GPU for less heat, but end up having a heating problem. It's definitely not cool. From what I recall, when I ordered my laptop very little info existed of the GMA 4500HD for mobile. So, the chip was undeniably new and probably miss tested.

 

I think what most people here are complaining about the Intel graphics version is not the actual heat of the notebook but the relatively low temperature threshold. When the chipset hits 55 C, the systems starts to become unusable.

The laptop itself is quite cool under normal use. You just can't stress the GPU at a reasonable level.

 

I have an Nvidia card and cant reproduce your problem. Is this problem confirmed to be just on the Intel version?

I do have some occational "event ID 7" but they say its only for a couple a seconds. I have ACPI temps often over 55C and max is over 80C but still no big slowdowns. (I have had some minor slowdowns with a now replaced motherboard when gaming but i thought it was because my GPU temp got over 100c) So it is interesting to clearify if the "CPU throttling when the ACPI sensor hits 55C" is just for the intel version.!? And when is the Nvidia version throttling the CPU?

 

You can refer to the chat I already posted with Dell support. They already said the Intel integrated graphics was the problem. That's one reason when I just ordered mine, I made sure to get the NVidia card to avoid this problem. The fact that GoldenEye is not having any problems with his/hers seems to further confirm that it's an Intel integrated graphics issue.

Of course, I haven't gotten my machine yet but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that since I got the NVidia card I will be safe.

 

Have you actually reproduced this behavior with the NVidia card? It was my understanding from your posts in the Dell forum and here that you were using the Intel Integrated Graphics, which makes me a bit curious as to how you were actually able to test this with NVidia (also, Goldeneye and Acidspy have NVidia and neither seem to be able to reproduce the problem).

Also, as noted above, Dell has already said Intel will have problems if you try to do anything graphics intensive (refer to the chat I already posted). So again, I'd like to know if you were able to test and reproduce the problem with NVidia.

 

I'm in the exact same boat as Acidspy

 

I have a NVIDIA Quadro NVS160M and do suffer from the problem. I'm not a gamer but on my end the problem arises from CPU stress rather then GPU problems.

I must say though that once I cleaned out the dust that was blocking the cooling mechnism from the inside the problem appears to arise less frequent. I had to take out the vent. There was a lot of dust, even though my pc is relatively new - I never did this on my earlier Dell models I must admit. I believe it's a general heating thing affecting the E6x00 series caused by the design. That would explain the relatively noisy vent compared to the other models I have.

 

Yes, that is what I wanted to say. That they pick Intel to avoid any overheating problem, and they have it on the northbridge where the GPU is included, which throttles their system.

Nvidia users doesn't seam to be affected. Although, some few users had a overheating problem but was quickly fix with a heatsink or/and motherboard replacement.

Because your GPU was at 100C the GPU slowsdowns, and also the heat is spread on the CPU and northbridge as the heatsink is the same. But in your case it looks like the GPU. In my case when I overclock my GPU I already had this, but it's only a few seconds when playing at some rare occasion or when the game becomes extra demanding at some point... in any case I overclocked my GPU and not normal operation.