Dell Studio Xps 1645 suddenly overheating

I know there are A LOT of post about this, but I just can't find an answer for me. About a month after my 2 year warranty went out my laptop started overheating when just browsing the internet. And when trying to play games such as AC3 or even AC2 and Dead Space 2 and Skyrim it was just too laggy to play on any setting, where before I could play anything on max settings. I'm a technician so I've changed the thermal paste and even took out the little mesh. But I still get idle temps of 74c so I can't even game anymore. Ive got the a13 bios and a 130w supply. Ive tried a fresh OS so it doesn't seem to be software related.

The laptop I have is:
1645
Radeon 5730
i7 q720
6gb ram

I have an extended battery so the vents are clear. I just have no clue what is up. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

... and what are your load temps? Have you tried ThrottleStop?

 

Sorry for the late reply, I've been having more issues with this laptop.

Under load it will get to temps anywhere between 75~85 degrees C. And the past few days its been at about 77c while idle, running youtube at most.

I've yet to try throttlestop but I'll give it a shot tonight. I did notice that when I used a hp charger (was too lazy to grab my own) my computer started run at about 60~65c. So could it be my charger and battery?

 

As you can see... these are what my idle temps are... Setting clock modulation to a pretty much unusable settings was the only way to bring it somewhat down. I believe this laptop is on it way out... and I double checked the thermal paste and reapplied it to be sure.

 

it maybe time to open up the laptop and clean the fans out, and clean the fins on the heat pipe(s)

it is best to remove the fans and carefully clean them out, same for the heat pipe(s)

at that time you should consider a fresh application of thermal paste on the GPU and CPU

If your not comfortable doing this, take it to a computer tech and have them do it.

and if your under warranty by chance call dell and they can clean it.

 

I've done those steps already. I regularly clean out the fan and the fins of the heatsink. And I recently replaced the termal paste with arctic silver 5.
Thanks for the tips though. I am a technician so I'm comfortable with doing anything on this laptop. This is really the first time I've been stumped on a hardware issue.

 

Your sure the fans are working properly ?

unless the thermal paste did not set properly, or the thermal pads are bad can't think of what else it could be.

 

I know the fan works properly since it sounds like a jet. I did notice that when replaced the thermal paste a second time just in case I did it wrong, the thermal paste seemed to have squeezed out from the middle. So I assumed I had just tightened the heatsink too much. But even after reapplying it and not tightening the heat sink as much, it's still very hot.

So I'm going to try a different thermal paste. Have any suggestions?

 

I see the 1645 has separate heat pipes for GPU and CPU, and since you only mention high temps on your CPU i take it you haven't noticed any unusual temps on the GPU side. Therefore i consider that part of the cooling assembly to be working properly (GPU heat pipe, radiator & fan)

When there is no stress on the GPU is the fan pushing out hot air or just barely warm air?

• If air feels barely warm and CPU just gets hotter and hotter then it might be a cooling problem (thermal paste, heat pipe contact with the radiator etc). If this is the case you should also observe a generally higher temperature of the entire laptop assembly, as some of the heat generated by the CPU will "escape" towards nearby components: the back of your laptop will get warmer than usual. The fan will keep spining at high rpm but CPU won't cool down even in idle.
• However if air pushed out feels very warm, maybe even hot under load, then the problem might be somewhere else. The fan will spin down occasionally since the cooling assembly is able to do a proper job. If that is the case i would check if the CPU is properly entering power sawing states and changing frequency down to aprox 900Mhz when idle (7x multiplier for your CPU). Keeping Throttlestop off and making sure Windows Power Profile is properly configured would also help to isolate any problem in this area.

 

MX4 is good stuff, reasonably priced and non conductive like AS5,

 

I checked and the heatsink is seated properly. I decided to see what exactly was getting hot by physically checking. The CPU and the NorthBridge get hot. But the nothbridge gets extremely hot. The air that comes out is cold, the cpu gets hot, but the heatsink itself doesnt seem to be drawing the heat all the way to the fan. So now I'm really at a lost.

 

If the CPU heatpipe is also hot, then there must be some kind of contact problem between the heatskink and the radiator.

 

Isn't the north bridge usually sinked with a thermal pad ?

 

I suppose you could always replace the heat pipe assy, they are on ebay for about $ 10.00

Can't recall if I ever seen one that was bad - that did not have some form of physical damage

 

The CPU pipe is ho. too. It just doesn't get as far as the fan and the fins on the heatsink. the north bridge does habe a thermal pad but it seems to get hotter than the cpu. The GPU is cool though.

 

Well all I can think of is replacing the heat pipe assy

 

Alright. I will do that and report back.
Would it be a better idea to buy the heat sink in new condition?

 

as long as it is not bent out of shape or damaged in any way it should be good.

 

Well update. Replacing the heat sink has only helped somewhat. The fan no longer sounds like a jet, and it does seem to be actually drawing heat. But the fan is still loud with no load. Also the north bridge still gets extremely hot.

The only thing I can think of, which i doubt is the case, is that I was having some ram related BSOD screens. So i just switched the slots they were in. It fixed the bsod screens but it also more or less when the pc started running hot.

Edit: Spoke too soon about it not sounding like a jet.

 

is there any gaps between the fan and the heat pipe fins ? there is usually a cover of some sort to make sure all the air flw from the fan is routed through the fins and directly outside of the laptop case ?

Also just for the heck of it, take a look at the CPU usage and see what they are at

 

My pc has been running A LOT cooler now, like normal temps. I'm assuming the paste just needed to get adjusted? Not entirely sure. The new heat sink is def working.
The small tape between the fan and heat sink has been missing for a while now.

 

it can take a few days for the thermal paste to settle,

if you find temps still a little high place some tape between the fan and heat pipe, it will definitely help keep the laptop cooler.

 

I'm assuming you used the same AS5 you already mentioned early in the thread.

 

I know this is an old thread but my pc is once again presenting the same issues. No more than a month the computer came back to the same symptoms. And it really is dragging me down. Cant run a lot of processes, again, and can no longer game either. And I'm feeling like I just want to dump this pc.

An overview. I got a new heatsink and new thermal paste. Not the power supply. So yeah. Stuck.

 

Not having much luck are you.

take a look at the CPU usage and see if one or more of the cores is running continuously

 

Make sure the radiator is clean, don't be like this guy The dust can accumulate behind the radiator and will cause overheating. If you already checked for that (and you probably did), i hope you don't mind me mentioning it just to make sure.

Other than that... check if the CPU and GPU properly enter low frequency states while in idle, although the troubles you're having while gaming have little to do with low load power consumption.

PS: did you, at any time in the past, edit any hidden/advanced Windows power settings? are you using Throttlestop or any other software that might change CPU or GPU behaviour?

 

Well this extremely odd. I oppened up cpu usage in the task manager and it went down to 0%. The fan has even slowed down and the temps have gone from about 90c to 59c. Just by opening that up. Being a technician, I am seriously lost there.
I have cleaned out the dust as well. Nothing wrong with checking ^_^
That being said it seems core 2 seems to have some load at all times. about 2gb of ram always in usage.
I havent canced any advanced settings and arent using any programs. Which wouldnt matter since even when in bios the fan and temps are very high.

 

And when I closed the task manager, the fan picked right up and temps went back up. Opened it back up and the fan and temps returned to normal.

 

check how many processes are running and if one or more is using too much CPU time

It maybe either a virus is doing things to your CPU load, or you may have a damaged CPU core possibly from the earlier experiences with over heating.

I personally would be doing a fresh OS install at this point to 100 % eliminate the possibility of a virus. (over Kill yes, but that's just me) but checking the processes is a good start

 

Very late reply I know, but the laptop was dead for a bit.

It just up and died. some weeks later it was working again after I completely dissembled it. Then a week after that I was getting graphics artifacts and the screen was all green. Had to take it apart again and fiddle with the screen, replace the past, etc. So I'm just going to buy a new motherboard, cbf with this one anymore. Doing a fresh OS didnt change anything. It overheats just in bios. and the charger is a 130w as far as I can tell.

Unless you feel it is the i7?

Im going to get one with the 4670 graphics card so that I can do a hackintosh. Maybe replace the cd drive with a 2nd hdd. or a 1tb drive. Dunno.
I also want to get the white back. Would you know how the leather on the back holds out after some years?

 

I have seen very few CPU failures and those I have were usually due to over heating / over clocking

If you already got the new motherboard, I would start with that, and see if you still have issues with temps.

It is very strange how the problems seem to come and go that's for sure

 

Well besides the computer just not turning on for a good two or so weeks, its had the heating issue for about a year now. Ive always been suspect that it's the board.

Honestly the only thing I don't understand is that having the task manager on processes brings the core usage from about 60% down to typical idle usage. Which also brings the temp down from 80~90 degrees C to 50~60 degrees C.

I'm going to be ordering the new board this week.

 

Same overheating issue here w my 1645.

I did 2 things before my problem started 1. I applied a windows update. 2. I believe I got a virus while downloading a bk via bittorrent. I started noticing the lag and my PC would jump to the lock screen every 2 minutes (this was the virus). i ran AVG and found 1 infection and cleaned it. Shortly after rebooting I noticed the fan speed was high. I walked away and came back and with nothing but outlook and a web browser open it was still spinning super fast and loud. Then my PC shut itself off.

I let it cool and ran Malwarebytes in safe mode. It shut off again after about 30 min. Fan still spinning like it thinks it's a veyron.

 

Has anyone solved the problem? My 1645 is constantly overheating too...The same simptoms with the heatsink pipe, but judging from the results of GoodTofuFriday, it doesn't look like it's worth changing it....Anyway, the overheating is really annoying...

 

these laptops have serious design flaws if you look at the vent its actually covered by the screen when open. i have a 1645 with an ssd and running ubuntu and the only way i can keep it below 61C is to power it off. ive scowered the vast depth of laptop forums only to come across the same crap everywhere. the only thing i found that actually helped was to cut out the plastic cover around the vent to let it breath a little better ALWAYS have a cooling pad and stick an extra fan sucking air out the exhaust vent. also always run it closed with a monitor other than that no amount of replacement parts or quality of thermal paste will fix the overheating issues encountered by its poor unsuspecting users. i bought this originally in 2011 used for $400 and wish i hadnt but made the best of my purchase. my best advice buy a new machine.

 

My laptop has been running like crap for a while - fan running all the time... choppy performance... I run linux about 99% of the time. I was about to give up on it - I had been using the 13.1 closed source catylist driver but thought I would try the open source radeon driver. well that was worse.. I finally got the catylist driver installed and rebooted - the thing was smokin. it actually said 'overtemp 89C - not booting..' or something like that.. Yikes. I finally took the thing apart (I had blown it out from the back recently).

Well - I pulled the back, took the 2 screws out of the fan - removed the vent housing and pulled the fan out. OMG - the back side of the heatsink was caked with fuzz. Cleaned it out and re-assembled.

all I can say is wow. This is the best it has been in months.. It used to be that if I had firefox up - the fan would run almost full blast..

happy camper!
sam