Alienware M14x Overheating? Extremely Hot

Hi guys ive been having less issues recently but this important one popped up yesterday. My m14x is getting extremely hot after only an hour or 2 of gaming. sometimes just recording with my hdpvr. i already have a cooling fan under it but it doesnt seem to do anything now. the palm area on the right side under the arrow keys is hot and the back where you plug the charger is EXTREMELY HOT. i dont know why this is happening. i shut it off the whole night last night and it was fine until i played league of legends or anny other program except for google chrome.
Used MSI Afterburner
Core Clock:590
Shader Clock:1180
Memory Clock:900
Shader clock Min temp 101 Max 405
Core Clock Min temp 51 Max 203

 

I think it is the first and oldest problem that M14x has, and there is nothing you can permanently fixed it, however I can suggest you to turn the Turbo Boost off which the setting can be found in the the BIOS, turn the Turbo Boost off will not affect your game performance and will help reduce the heat.

In fact it will help you reduce the heat about 5C - 10C and more if you have either re-paste the thermal paste or having external cooler.

Here is some thread about the M14x's heat issue:

m14x, and Extreme Temperatures!?
M14x Temp Debate (i7 2600QM ONLY)
Another m14x, heat/gaming thread

This is happen to All M14x, because the air ventilation design is so bad for M14x, and if you OC your GPU, sometime it would give you a BSOD and after restart, Windows will not be able to detect the GT555M as it is been fried or something, that for me it can be fixed by reinstall the NVIDIA Driver and downclock the overclock setting to below 800/1600, any higher, on most game will just crash, a very good example to that is Battlefield 3. On BF3, if I use 850/1700, the game would crash at launch, but if I use 800/1600, it would run fine, and the reason I can OC pass 750/1500 is I use a custom VBIOS.

 

what does it exactly effect though? turning off turbo boost

 

Alrighty i just turned off intel turbo boost. but mind telling me what exactly turning off turbo boost does

 

Turbo Boost is like an automatic overclock of the CPU.

But it really doesn't affect performance of anything and just raises your temps really. So shutting it off is recommended.

 

Allow me to clear up a few things.. I divided your post into parts as seen in the separate paragraphs above.

Paragraph 1: Completely wrong. The m14x does not have a heating problem. The i7's just run hot in most systems. Ways to fix this include propping the system, making sure to be clear of dust, regulate ambient temperatures, re-pasting, and if you really must (i never needed to) turn off turbo.

Paragraph 2: Congrats you have successful parrot'd what someone else said.

Paragraph 3: COMPLETELY WRONG. The ventilation for the m14x is superb, other than the fact that the CPU and GPU are on the same heatpipe. If you are getting a BSOD from your clocking, you aren't taking the care to OC in increments to assure stability, and monitoring temperatures during the process. No, it is not "fried" you just pushed it too far; keep it up and it will fry though. All the more reason why it is not a good idea to suggest people to use a Vbios that they do not know how to use properly and safely for their components.

@TS, you dun goofed. You said "Shader clock min temp 101 max temp 405, core clock min temp 50 max temp 203"

You read MSI afterburner completely wrong. THOSE values are the clock values. Therefore what really happened is you were gaming on battery, and the standard core clocks on battery (min 50 max 203) and standard shader clocks (50.5*2= 101, 202.something*2 = 405) were displayed. -smh-

Anyone who has experience with the m14x will tell you the same thing, that those numbers are the values on battery when the gpu is being downclocked because of lack of power.

So in conclusion: Do not talk about things you do not understand, do not suggest things you don't understand. Lastly, make sure you are reading a graph right..

 

bossed it ^^^^^^

 

Allow me to clear up a few things.. I divided your post into parts as seen in the separate paragraphs above.

Paragraph 1: Completely wrong. The m14x does not have a heating problem. The i7's just run hot in most systems. Ways to fix this include propping the system, making sure to be clear of dust, regulate ambient temperatures, re-pasting, and if you really must (i never needed to) turn off turbo.

Well, that just explain (Be more specify) to what I said, I knew the the i7 run hot on most system, but I rarely see any that reach 99C point, follow the link to the last time I reach 99C if you dont believe me CPU Near Overheated, If you never try to turn the Turbo Boost off, why dont you give it a try? And see what happen, because this is not only me and it is also not my original idea to turn it off (Again see below, Knowledge is power). I always open up the case and clean out the dust regularly to ensure that it is healthy, but what can I do if the heat just keep pumping out like there is not fan or something.

Paragraph 2: Congrats you have successful parrot'd what someone else said.

Knowledge is power, but if you dont spread it, what the point of it? If I didnt suggest this, someone else will do it, and I assume that you will say the same thing to that particular person again. The original person who suggest both the custom VBIOS and turn the Turbo Boost off is tyler27, sorry if I didnt or forgot to reference

Paragraph 3: COMPLETELY WRONG. The ventilation for the m14x is superb, other than the fact that the CPU and GPU are on the same heatpipe. If you are getting a BSOD from your clocking, you aren't taking the care to OC in increments to assure stability, and monitoring temperatures during the process. No, it is not "fried" you just pushed it too far; keep it up and it will fry though. All the more reason why it is not a good idea to suggest people to use a Vbios that they do not know how to use properly and safely for their components.

This is not just me follow this link to see other who has that same problem too Ref: OCing GPU then BSOD then 555M went missing, I'm saying because of my experience, and I just say to let them know that these thing Might happen IF they aint careful, and I do monitor closely to the temp, and what can I do when it just sudden jump from the safety point straight to the overheated point, since I have no control of it at all. The word "fried" is just an idea of what might happen, I did not mean that it would fried after overheated. You have no sense of humour at all, arent you?

As for the OC GT555M, I have tried several clockspeed, starting from 600/1200 > 700/1400 > 750/1500 > 800/1600 > 850/1700 and the 800/1600 is the safest OC clockspeed that wouldnt crash most games or give me any BSOD, though there's a guy who claim to reach 830/1660 and most game still stable, but 800/1600 is fine for me, One thing I didnt mention is to Try At Your Own Risk

And finally, did you own a M14x? Because sure if you do, you'll come across these problem, because it is nearly every owner of the M14x are having these problem. Next time I will try to be more specify, because there are some people who didnt like to read a long text, not all people are the same. Sorry if I made the text look long.

 

You must not own an M14x. I've owned a ton of laptops over the years, and only a small handful have gotten as hot as my m14x. Having a single heatsink/fan for an i7 and a dedicated cpu is its biggest problem. It's hard cramming everything into a small form factor, hence the poor cooling solution.
A system that doesn't have heating problems doesn't need propped up or turbo mode turned off. Don't get me wrong, I love my m14x, but I realize it has limitations and fair share of problems.

 

yea i dont know how to read msi afterburner im not even a computer guy. thats why im asking notebook reviews -.-

 

Yeah, its given for the m14x to be extremely hot. The fan/gpu combo really isnt efficient in cooling, but its a small computer design, cant really fit another fan and heatsink in. The i7 in itself is a very hot running cpu, but other computers I've heard handles the heat a lot better. The heat shouldn't damage the computer, it shouldn't overheat (aka power off due to heat)

 

Rostock - Purchase or Order high quality thermal paste like shin etsu or IC Diamond 24 (suggest the diamond myself). Contact dell and complain that your notebook is running hot and you are requesting a technician repaste it. When tech arrives give the paste you purchased and he/she should know its much higher quality than what dell provides. Issue will be resolved. I can run Turbo CPU (default bios settings) and OC Gpu and not break 90c. With HWInfo running I can keep it below that. The m14x is a bit temper-mental but get it fine-tuned and it works very well.

good luck

 

I can get a tech to arrrive in new york? and ill try to do that

 

Techs are contracted all over the place. Im sure many techs exist in the NY area.

 

I would try not to mess with dell techs too much, they seem to contract people with no knowledge of dell computers sometimes, a lot of horror stories about them. They probably won't put your computer back together correctly. I'm not saying that all dell techs are bad, but it's still a possibility. Maybe if you're computer was defective yeah, but for a thermal repaste idk.

 

Well, for me I dont really care because if anything wrong happen, i'll be able to get a new one, and plus because of I used to work in the help desk and PC support area, I know these stuff, the company I work for has one of this policy where it would affect your job should you damage the customer's component when you try to fix it, and that company has a contract with Sony computer, HP and Acer, so I dont think it would be any different to those Dell side.

 

I think anybody having NEVER repasted before in his life (incl. me until 2 months ago) can do it following the guide from this forum EASY. There is NO WAY someone would be so clumsy not to be finished within 2 hours. I think keeping screws tidy and marked is the main point of sure success.

And NO WAY I would let anyone repaste for me.

 

i would rather repaste my laptop myself , even if it takes me 4 hours or more instead of having some dumb noob from dell tech support who just crammed what part goes where and works like a brain dead person takin apart my notebook. Last time i had a tech over , while he was takin it apart, he was thinking twice before touching any part and trying to see how to remove it.
I dont mind these idiots because if they goof up, they will replace it or hell, its under warranty. But lets be honest, we all purchased this machine to enjoy not to call dell support and stay on hold for eternity.

 

I just want to say that it is well documented that the m14x is too much machine by half read anandtech review.Dell knows all about the heat issues they're all over the web,social media etc.I personally spoke with 3 dell engineers .There is a heat design flaw.Believe it or not that's your choice,but it's 100% true.I bet ya m14xr2 has a different design on the heat pipe fan design.It took years for Dell to admit failure on xps 17 series,look up throttle stop.

 

I chose to "lock" my CPU @ 1.4 Ghz when I game

I know it's dumb, but the i7 is way too powerful for the GPU.

And @ 1.4 Ghz CPU hardly reaches beyond 70 degrees and I suffer no drop in fps.

 

I've heard many people complaining about the heat with the m14x, i own one my self and play all modern games @high/ultra and temp never got higher then 85.
I think it depends on what bios version you have if you have A04or05 you will have high temps when playing games.

 

The highest I got was with BF3 and 1 of my four cores reaches 91, then as soon as I raised the laptop up with two books the temp was a steady 82, no cooling device or re-pasting, she is loud by mine runs surprisingly cool, also my GPU always stays in the mid 70's during intense gaming.

 

It's not only depend on which BIOS version, it also depend on which game you play, not all modern game is a CPU/GPU demanding game, I can run Skyrim at native res on ultra with no problem at all and the temp never reach 85, however for games like BF3 and Crysis 2, those are the demanding game, the highest temp I ever seen while play those game are between 89C - 93C. So those who said M14x never had any heat issue, either they have never own a M14x or their laptop is just exceptionally different from majority of other users.

 

Well that post is completely useless. Here we all are on a page that gets visited only by people who are concerned that their M14x is overheating -- and someone writes "The m14x does not have a heating problem" and "The ventilation for the m14x is superb". Next time just don't write anything, just spend the time patting yourself on your back somewhere.