Clean your vents!

I always thought I had one of the "bad" M1530s that overheat constantly no matter what you do to it, so I'd undervolted, got myself a cooling pad, aimed fans at the back, everything, and I still found that I was getting temperatures for both the GPU and CPU in the low 90s after prolonged gaming. I always thought, "hey, I have a dust free room, no way my vents are clogged" and they looked like they were clean, but then I finally decided to check it out with the cover off the cooling system and a can of compressed air in hand. I blew out the rear heat vent and found BIG chunks of dust built up in there, cleaned it all thoroughly, and turned the system back on. Now, under the same conditions that were resulting in my GPU reaching 92-94 C, I top out at 75-78 C, which with the 8600M GT is totally acceptable. What a difference just from a little bit of dust! I just hope that if I did damage to my card during all that time running hot, it fails while I'm still under my warranty.

 

Yeah, definitely. I worked on an Alienware m9700 about a week ago with SLI 7900GS that would shut down after about 10 minutes of running. Figured out it was a thermal event, cleaned out an enormous amount of dust, and now it runs without a problem.

Never underestimate restricted airflow's impact on your computer's performance.

 

Yep, even on desktop's this is a problem. Only my old Dell there was only one fan for the whole system. There was a duct from the cpu to the back fan (the only fan) and it ran cool, but after a few years it started shutting off by itself. Opened it up and BAM HOLYYY MOTHER OF...there was a lot of dust to say the least. Cleaned that baby out and it ran good as new

Being *clean* and having a *dust-free* environment doesn't always mean your computer isn't getting dusty

 

Laptop tend to accumulate lots of dust. While upgrading my ram to 4gb, i noticed how dust had accumulated in my 4 months old mac. I immediately cleaned it.

 

Most people don't see the accumulation of dust just on the outside of their systems - the easiest way is to get a good LED light and shine it at an angle at your monitor (on or off), and the rest of the top of your system. You'll be surprised at how much surface dust accumulates daily.

Dust is the #1 contributer to electronics failure, and most people don't even bother to clean out their systems - they treat them like a toaster, literally. Plug it in and it should work right? Yeah.....

Electronics today are a lot more susceptible to heat damage than they were 20 years ago (systems were a lot bigger then too), and you could get away with a lot more dust buildup. The worst were high-voltage units, like old CRT's - HV attracts dust like a magnet, and the heat buildup over time really killed things. I remember working on units that came in from the field having so much dust buildup you couldn't see the components at all. Forget canned air - you needed a compressor for those things.

One thing you can do to lower your intake is to rig a simple filter on your intakes - get a simple greenie scrub pad (without soap of course) and cut it to fit over the intake. Tack it on with a couple of small pieces of blue masking tape. Don't use Scotch tape - Scotch tape has an extremely high static charge when pulled from the roll. Same with Velcro - pulling Velcro apart generates a high static charge as well so don't use that.

The greenie pad acts as a micro filter for dust - you'll have to clean it every couple of weeks or a month depending on your room, but it'll keep the dust out of you system a lot more. It's an old trick we used to use back in my submarine days, since the electronic racks had metal filters and they were a real PITA to remove and clean. We just cut pads to fit (we had plenty of them for clean up days) and put them over the metal filters. I've used them ever since.

If you don't use something like that, you should really consider blowing out your vents monthly at least, and system internal every 6 months. Don't forget you keyboard - you would not believe how much crap gets underneath the keypads. Dirt, skin particles from your hands, hair, you name it. Most keypads can be lifted off of their switch plungers for replacement - you just need to use something thin and stiff to pop it off.

One more thing -NEVER USE a standar vacuum cleaner on any exposed electronics assembly. Laminar airflow at the nozzle tip of a standard vacuum creates an extremely high static charge which can literally destroy an electronic assembly. If you've never seen an Electron Microscope scan of an ESD damaged circuit, it essentially looks like a bomb hit it, or more precisely a lightning strike. Just rubbing your feet across a carpet is enough to generate 50,000 volts - no current, but high voltage anyway. You know what it feels like when you get zapped after touching a doorknob afterward. ESD nozzle tips aren't really that effective either, though they sell enough that they convince enough suckers that they are. ESD rated vacuums are extremely expensive, so don't bother with those. Just used canned air. If you want to use a stiff brush to loosen dust from boards you can, but don't use a nylon brush - same problem with ESD. The best ones to use are the small brushes used for soldering.

If you're wondering - I used to inspect and certify Aerospace Contractor ESD workstations for the government during my QA days prior to retiring, so I'm not making this stuff up. Even if you don't damage an assembly outright, you can stress it enough that it will fail long before its time. Prevention is the best option.

 

This is a picture of my 8700's after two months. I usually clean out my laptops regularly, but just got f-ing lazy that time, lol.

You definitely gotta keep things clean in there.

 

#1 rule of compressed air blasts (air can):

LOCK your fan blades in place by inserting a toothpick or small paper clip in between the fan blades. This will prevent the fan from spinning at an UNSAFE RPM. Granted newer fans are designed better than old ones but why take the chance. Compressed air can spin the blades very fast - be safe and lock em down.