E6420 Overheating, Questions About Repair

I noticed that the sound I am concerned with goes away completely when I disable speedstep. However, after I disable speedstep, my temps increase like crazy.

 

It is related to SpeedStep, but disabling it isn't a good solution because, as you found out, temperatures increase significantly (and battery life drops significantly).

 

I guess that answers that. I wonder if there is a way to make speedstep not make this noise?

 

I've heard that it has to do with inductors on the motherboard, which was why I asked if you have gotten the motherboard replaced yet. If you haven't, that would be the next (and probably last) thing to do.

 

Thank you, I'll do some research and see where I'll want to go with this. If this sound is not normal (I don't suspect it is) and I can't figure out how to fix it, I may demand a new replacement from Dell given how many service calls this thing has had. It's ridiculous that I've had this thing for about a year and have yet to have a normal period of operation with it.

 

Hello again. I got the replacement laptop and I am considering replacing the thermal compound with arctic silver. I may just leave it alone. But If I take the heatsink off, I'll have to get a new thermal pad for the Nvidia GPU, won't I?

 

You can remove the heatsink without having to replace the thermal pad. You'll be better off with Arctic Silver for the CPU.

 

Thanks, I'll give this a shot tonight.

 

I applied arctic silver, and that part worked out but... ...I'm such a klutz! I accidentally put a little gouge in what I think is the GPU core (the silver area). What are the repercussions of this? I am typing from this laptop right now and don't notice any problems. The temperatures are DEFINITELY lower. It's idling ten degrees lower right now. But I'm worried about the GPU core and what that may mean...

 

As long as the GPU is working fine, it shouldn't make a big difference. It might reduce the contact area with the thermal pad, but that's about it.