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    Laptop overheating

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by silvermana, Apr 12, 2011.

  1. silvermana

    silvermana Notebook Enthusiast

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    My mx15 is 6 month old configured with a ati 5850 i5 540. Nothing has been over clocked and while i play starcraft 2 or crysis 2 the system overheat and shut itself down. Then i have to wait a couple minute to restart it and if i try to play again it shut down. I am about to call alienware technical service and see what they can do. I never had any trouble until now. Is there anything i should be aware of before talking to a rep?

    Oh yeah my fan are working full speed when this occur.
     
    silvermana, Apr 12, 2011
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  2. Laxxi

    Laxxi Notebook Evangelist

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    Get GPUZ and find out how hot it's getting!

    Sorry, forgot to put a link.

    GPUZ
     
    Laxxi, Apr 12, 2011
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  3. Jdpurvis

    Jdpurvis Notebook Evangelist

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    In addition to finding out how hot it's getting, I'd get a can of compressed air (most places that carry computers will have them) and blow out the heat sink area for both fans. Dust accumulates in the heat sinks faster than you might think. Be sure to do this with the computer off, because you can damage the fans. If this doesn't help, you'll at least have some info to discuss with tech support - you could have a dead fan or a malfunctioning fan controller - or you might need new thermal compound (less likely). Keep us posted.

    Good luck,

    Joe

    Here's a link to HWINFO32 - it will provide you with information on CPU temps as well as GPU temps - and fan status:

    http://www.hwinfo.com/download32.html
     
    Jdpurvis, Apr 12, 2011
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  4. inap

    inap .........................

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    have you done any cleaning, like blowing out the vents and fans with compress air?
     
    inap, Apr 12, 2011
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  5. agusman

    agusman when the going gets weird

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    yep, first step would be to check temps, both in idle and when gaming.

    We can take it from there to try and solve your issue.
     
    agusman, Apr 12, 2011
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  6. silvermana

    silvermana Notebook Enthusiast

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    Ok i am getting those things and checking it out
    I also cleaned the fan with dust air poo.

    In crysis 2 game the running cpu temps is 65 C and max is 71C
    and the 5850 gupz temp is avg 70C max 85C
     
    silvermana, Apr 12, 2011
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  7. Jdpurvis

    Jdpurvis Notebook Evangelist

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    Those temps seem very reasonable. You shouldn't have to worry short of 90+. Is it still shutting down?

    Joe
     
    Jdpurvis, Apr 12, 2011
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  8. Laxxi

    Laxxi Notebook Evangelist

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    Yeah those temps sound sweet to me! I'm no expert though. I'm guessing that you checked the temps after cleaning? Would've been nice to have a before and after comparison, might make it easier for some of the masterminded users here to determine whether your problem is dust or something more sinister.
     
    Laxxi, Apr 13, 2011
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  9. kosti

    kosti Notebook Virtuoso

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    kosti, Apr 13, 2011
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  10. silvermana

    silvermana Notebook Enthusiast

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    It hasnt locked down since but my Wife played farmville on facebook and started to see artifact .... awesome!
     
    silvermana, Apr 13, 2011
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  11. 015734

    015734 Notebook Guru

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    hahahahaha... I remember playing that when it first came out on an IBM R31 with a 1.2ghz Pentium III and internal graphics... it actually worked though the FPS wasn't ideal :p

    Anyways, I doubt very much Farmville is stressing your system as much as Crysis 2 :) More likely is the flash coding isn't totally optimized and the plugin hits a bump every now and then.
     
    015734, Apr 13, 2011
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