Overheat problems 7738G

I have my 7738G(specs in sig) for 8 months now and did not have a problem til a week ago when I had my first reboot while playing Borderlands. I figured it must be the game or something since that problem did not repeat itself for a few days. I had to work all week long and I didn't get the chance to play B-lands and soon forgot about the problem. Today I bought Lineage II Gracia Epilogue and I ran it at nat res with max settings with HDR rendering and all the flashy/fancy depth of field filters and effects turned on and guess what. My notebook keeps rebooting every 15 mins of gameplay even though I average at about 40~45 fps. Same thing happens with Borderlands, Call of Duty 4 and GRiD. Now this is really weird since my GPU temp idles at @ 47-50 degrees but whenever I start playing something it jumps to 78-80 degrees (must be the max amount til it reboots). My 4 core CPU idles at 49~54 and tops 78~81 when gaming. I want to ask you guys if you know any good method that could lower the temp, also could the high temp rates result from dust inside the machine(even though it isn't a year old), would a cooling pad make any difference? Any support would be surely welcomed

 

up
Please help me out

 

These temperatures are not bad at all- neither for GPU not the CPU- that's assuming these are accurate. Try GPU-Z for GPU monitoring and RealTemp for CPU for verification.

You can use gas duster (canned air) to clean the vents and elevate the back of the notebook a bit to improve airflow near the fan intake.
Nonetheless no notebook should reboot with temperatures like these-certainly not because of overheating.

 

Then....I don't get it

 

Test memory using memtest application and update all drivers including chipset drivers and audio and video ones.

 

Neither CPU or GPU are going to shut down below 90 or 100c.

Use memtest 86+ memory
Prime95 or 5 for processor
3D mark 06 for graphics stress

Let it get its breath between !!

If it does crash Dont forget the basics . . see if it doesn't crash with Wifi off
Check the windows event log for clues
Run a full disk test and check HDD smart status with e..g SIW

 

I have the same laptop and the same problem! :O And it also started for the first time when I tried Borderlands. Now it will overheat even when I play WoW on the lowest graphic settings. :<

I have no idea how to fix it. So yeah, some help would be great.

 

HDD is ok, cpu ok, dont know about gpu... DoanDavid what OS are u running?

 

Hi everyone... here I am in this valley of sorrow! Same notebook as G-XtremE (just the gt130m instead of him gt240m).
I bought it on november 2009 and it all started few months after.. maybe on march.. it's the same with WoW or Assassin's Creed 2 or CoD4/6.
I'm thinking it could be something related with dust in the cooler system because on november I used it 12 hours in a day for pure gaming and all goes well!

Anyway I can't upgrade my video driver! Downloading gt130m drivers from NVIDIA, they doesn't found any compatible hardware! In the acer website, there's nothing new

I'll try those tests posted and I'll let you know which will come out.

Daniele

(bad english.... I know, really bad english hahaha)

 

Of course it could be the Borderlands game has mucked up DirectX or GPU settings or something.

Volunteer wanted to do a factory reset and see another game still runs ok

 

I also have the problem with the shutting down. My 7738G is now about 9 months and starts shutting down during heavy games (but it didn't do that before!) today it even shut down 3 times (it WAS almost 30°C outside so that could've helped too). Now, i have the GT130M version running Windows 7 and because i'm curious, i installed an "expantion" to the Nvidia control panel which allows me to set clock speeds and write rules about temps etc. I've wrote a rule which pops up at a GPU temp of 85°C that says "GPU temp is high" i noticed today that it popped up right before the shut down. this means that 85°C is the max temp for the GPU but WHY does it reach this now and not before? Tomorrow i'm going to open it up and check out if there's dust inside. TBH i HOPE there is, that would solve my problem. If it's not, i hope there will be a fix for it somewhere...

EDIT: I read this happens with borderslands, to be clear: I don't have the game!

 

85c is not the shutdown temp of the GPU, This is most usually over 100c.

Have a more careful look at all the temps using SIW or HWinfo.

Dusting is always a good thing too though (according to my mother)

 

hmmm... well this is what happens exactly:
I'm just minding my own bussiness in Runes of Magic (MMORPG) suddenly the game freezes and my msg pops up: " GPU temp is high" (this message is generated by the Nvidia control panel itself but i wrote the rule, also wrote one for CPU at 90°C but that doesn't pop up) and after the freeze and the message it waits a sec or two and then shuts down faster then i've ever seen (normal shutdown is about 30 sec, this one is 2-3 secs). Now i've updated my drivers yesterday and today i've tried to suck the dust out with a vacuum cleaner and now my "light load temps" are around 40°C. i still need to test it in-game though. I'll let averyone know if it worked...

 

Hopefully that sorted it. At those temperatures it is more likely that the RAM is overheating due to proximity to the hot GPU and dust stopping it cooling.

Your vacuum out may do the trick. If your laptop has Acers cunning 'lets make the bits that need maintenance the most difficult to reach' feature then alternately blowing air duster into the fan outlet and letting it be expelled can help. Then find a useful hole in the lower case area (ram flap etc) and see if you can dislodge any dust on the board /video ram by blowing into the space. It wont get as clean as a proper clean . . but it will get a lot better.

As someone once said to me "once you sneeze you know you are winning"

 

I'll take it to my laptop service and they'll provide a full cleanup for 18 euros but before I do that, I must ask you: Is it normal to build up such a thick layer of dust inside in less than 8 months? (I've only had it since the end of september). If you ask me, my 2nd bet for the problem is its size. It's incredibly narrow for its package. Isn't this a clear sign of GPU failure also?

 

Well, it all depends on the environment. 8 months on a desk, not really. 8 months on your lap /sofas/bedding totally normal.

Regarding GPU failure : The general approach of chip manufacturters is to shut down the chip (GPU/CPU whatever) at 90-100c. Many BIOSES implement throttling or fan speedups as that approaches to try to avoid shutdown. SO Actually it is pretty rare for the CPU/GPU chip to 'fail' internally. What does happen is that daily heat cycling from 20c to 90c during gaming crystalises and micro-breaks the many tiny solder connections on the bottom of GPU's. One package design a few years back seemed particularly prone to this. Repair is possible, even DIY repair with an electric paint stripper in skilled hands. Generally if you can keep max temperatures to 70 or 80c max it wont happen for years and years

 

For those experiencing similar problems (overheat-> immediate shutdown), i did take my 7738 to the service, they've performed a clean-up, it was REALLY dusty and now it idles at 40 degrees(no OS reinstall). Bad company 2, 67 degrees, high details, hbao off, 4x AA, 1280x720. Really happy again with my machine, I've spoken to one of the people back at my notebook provider and he said that for future similar problems, a cleanup won't be necessary. He said that I just have to use my vacuum cleaner back home, put the end of the hose to the heat grill in the back of the notebook, start the vacuum and keep the hose there for a couple of minutes and it will automatically absorb any lair of dust that blocks the air flow.

Best of luck to all of you

 

All right, G-ExtremE, I've just send my 7738g to the acer service, hoping it all goes well like goes to you (bad english? )
I'll let you all know everything when it'll came back.
Cross fingers!

EDIT: uhm... I've use real time, just like you... but your 7 is not on high performances, doesn't it? What about when it is and 4 cores are at 2ghz?

 

Here I am! All goes well! Acer has changed my video card, cleaned funs and now, in high performance, the GPU temp playing NFS Most Wanted (max details clearly) is 75°C

 

I have also been having trouble with my 7738g overheating recently, reaching temperatures of 100°C+. I am pretty sure my fan is very dusty and would like to clean it, but I'm not sure which screws I need to unscrew to reach it, could anyone help me with that? Thanks.

 

Update, 4 moths later After the clean-up the notebook is still cool, MAFIA 2 didn't cause any problems, the game runs perfectly well and my gpu doesn't exceed the 68 degrees mark. In idle mode it still stands with the original 37-38 degrees status.

@scraphead, you don't need to unscrew anything, just use your vacuum cleaner. Place the end of the hose with a smaller cleaning head to the grill behind your laptop and keep it there for 2 or 3 minutes and that should work fine. Good luck!

 

Hello there.
I have the same problem with the laptop and it also started with Borderlands.
So if I just clean it up a bit with the vacuum the problem will be fixed?

 

Worked for me. Nice and simple. Sorry for the late response. Did you try it? Did it work?