Just repasted - temps don't seem better!

Hey there, fantastic people. I just repasted my m14x r1 with Tuniq TX-4 paste, and after a serious Far Cry 3 session, my CPUID still reported a max heat of 96C on two of my CPU cores. I don't know how long they were this hot, but I don't like it. (this is with the back propped up and Turbo off, btw)

My max heat before was around there; 95C or so. Should I repaste one more time, or just shrug and say, "to hell with it, as long as it doesn't shut down from heat it's probably fine".

Am I supposed to wait a couple days? What benchmarks should I run to test the CPU heat levels? Are there any? WHY ISN'T IT COOLER DAMMIT

 

I think that it may have been a problem with the pasting. Can you retry? Which one did you use?.

 

Seems like it. I used Tuniq TX-4, a highly rated one.

After screwing in the heatsink most of the way, I unscrewed it to check the paste was spread well. It was, so I put the heatsink back down and fully screwed it in. Think that might have messed up the even distribution of paste?

Should the temps be instantly better? Or should I expect a couple days for it to 'cure' or whatever?

 

I repasted mine a couple months ago with the same paste and I saw roughly 5c drop off each core immediately.

Make sure you clean the copper real good with something like q-tips and alcohol, and apply the paste thoroughly. There is enough room on the side of the chip for small amounts of excess paste to seep to. Also, tighten the screws in order when connecting the heatsink back to motherboard. Repaste the GPU as well once you have the heatsink off. This will help keep the overall temperature of your heatsink down as well.


You can read about it here http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/686354-my-m14x-r2-repaste-details.html

 

Oof. I just repasted. Again. And finished a 1.5 hour session of Far Cry 3 and my cores reached a max of 97, 97, 93, and 92 degrees C.

Looking at CoreTemp's graph plugin, they were regularly between 90 and 95C.

I think I'll get an ice pack and put it under my PC for heavy duty gaming.

 

please don't clean the heatsink with q-tips, might leave some cotton. use something like a coffee filter as those doesn't leave anything behind.

also make sure the fan grills are cleaned properly from dust balls.

and don't pull the heatsink after you've screwed with the processor, this will create air bubbles between the processor and heatsink. best to repaste again.

 

Yep. I did repaste again, and it didn't help. At all.

Maybe I'll get some of the best paste money can buy, or maybe I'll get an ice pack.

 

Just curious, what's your ambient temps?
You could try an ic diamond or prolimatech pk1

Sent from my EndeavorU using Tapatalk 2

 

I re-pasted with Tuniq TX-2 and you should be around 40C min 85C max

Check my re-paste temps using Tuniq TX-2
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/692282-m14x-r1-repaste-tuniq-tx-2-a.html#post8889358

 

yeah, there has to be a problem with either the fan, paste, heatsink, or maaaybe some low-level thermal control issue? but you should see 10c drops in core temps on an r1...

 

Room temperature is about 73 Fahrenheit, or 21 Celsius.

Thanks for the confirmation that things should be different, guys. Is anybody else overheating with FC3?

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I've repasted and same thing, no difference at all and same issue. Idling 50-55 and max 90s, going to sell this laptop.

 

Who can tell us how to repaste our M14x R1 / R2 properly ?

 

I suggest repasting with different methods first, say if you used the dot method and still no change then try spreading with a credit card or line method.

Thing is there's really too many variables to consider and there's no perfect pasting method specially with different kinds of pastes available.



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My guess the heatsinks are not 'flush" with CPU or GPU or the Cooling fan is not pushing out air properly or the fan heatsink grill is clogged

I re-pasted my Alienwares and never have I seen it go above 85C

 

No. This is happening to whole bunch of us. I reapplied thermal paste a couple of times and it still runs in the 90s. It is very frustrating when you put a lot of money into a gaming machine that overheats like this does.

 

I have M14x R2 as you can see in my sig, and Last night while playing Battlefield 3 Online, CPU tempt reached 104C . yes. 104 Celcius! . i could not believe my eyes. So i closed the game, let CPU cool off and then started again, with very few background processes, Turbo OFF, no GPU overclock. This time CPU max was 99 C. GPU was 80 C. I received R2 as a replacement for R1 which was facing the same overheating issue. I have dusted the heatsink+Fan,propped it up nearly 4 inches off the surface and whatnot. It really makes me sad that such expensive piece of tech fails to deliver what it promises.

Plus, whats up with the fan? even at 60 C, its whirring like crazy at 3500+ RPM. Dell, give us out 15 inch AW back. I would prefer a pound more instead of 20+ C temp spike while gaming which eventually makes my game stutter. So not cool.

 

I do not know how you guys suffer such high temperatures in your systems. I'm very picky about this issue with the m14x (r1 or r2). If I had that kind of temperature in my system I would have gone crazy!!! My computer while using for normal browsing never goes above 50-55 degrees Celsius and while gaming somewhere close to 75 but immediately cools down. As of the GPU is running pretty cool at load (at about 65) and ofcourse it turns off while not using any kind of demanding 3d software. Definitely your cooper pipe heatsink is not seated properly on top of your cpu / gpu. Those temperatures should never been shown in this system, even though it has 1 fan. There is a lot of cooper and a powerful fan that should not allow it to go that high!

 

I agree juliant. 99c - 104 c is totally unacceptable. Its just that i am still tweaking my system to see if i can somehow bring the temp down . If all fails, i guess heatsink replacement is the only option left. I really don't want to go through the painful stage of tearing apart the whole notebook again and again. I had 3 heatsink change in my last laptop and it would still rush to 98c - 100 c everytime on battlefield 3 or deus ex. What surprising is that even at 104c, laptop didnt shutdown to prevent thermal damage to CPU . I only realised of the temp after i closed the game and saw hwinfo in background. This is so wrong. What if your machine is out of warranty and your laptop doesn't have safeguards in place to prevent damage from overheating?

 

With that temps, the chasis from your laptop is really hot right ? my temps are lower but the chasis on the back of the lap and in the right of the power button is really warm.I charge a new cooler, when i receive im going to test again the temps.

 

My only advice is that you should do something about it now before something goes wrong and you will pay a lot more later to have it fixed or sell it on ebay as parts... I would really double check to see if all the screws are fixed properly and before that, I would remove the heatsink and place it on a flat surface (a glass top) to see if it is absolutely straight> If that will be the case, order a new heatsink (if you are unable or you do not know how to fix that one). Do not ignore it!

And yes, it is very strange to notice that your system did not shut down. Another thing, it's better you renew your warranty for atleast another year. It's very easy for something to go wrong with your system and being unable to have it replaced or wait for the part from ebay for about a month and not knowing if actually you will be able to fix it or not... Majority of people have knowledge about computers, I believe at this point, warranty is a must...

 

You're system should shut down at 100C. Do you have a modified bios?

OP, if you're system still isn't running any cooler after all these re-pastes and it was done correctly, then you just have a hot CPU. Hotter than the average. I have this issue with my R1 as well, it gets at 76C normally but sometimes will reach 82-83C which for me is very high.

Temperature (and performance) was the main reason I got a m15x and gave the m14x to my gf. Way better temps and much more performance.

I've tried the dot method and line method (intel recommended). I'm going to try re-pasting one last time, this time using MX-4 (I've been using IC Diamond but only was good for a few weeks) .

If your current paste isn't helping and you tried another, it's not worth trying another.

You can try a laptop cooler, that should decrease temps by at least 5C.

 

It surprises me why my system did not shut down. I am on Bios A09 not modded.
here is the screen shot of the temps...

 

Yikes that's too HOT !!!!! 104C 225F That is not good

 

yup. considering most of you guys have this machine running at a range of 60c- 75c , mine is like holy crap of overheating X( .
Going to call dell tomorrow to have heatsink replaced. Hope i never have the 100+ temp again !