XPS L502x serious overheating issue (?)

Hi all

First post so go easy

I have an XPS15 R2 (i7 2630QM/GT540m), and primarily use the machine for work and SC2. I used to have the occasional freeze in SC2, and starting a few weeks ago it started happening more often. The GPU temps when this happened were mid-90s.

I logged a call with Dell support and they sent a tech who tried replacing the motherboard, but the replacement was faulty so he put the old one back, just replacing the heatsink/fan assembly. Result: furmark hitting 100deg within half a minute and then the framerate dropping to almost nothing.

I then logged another support call with Dell, and they sent another technician around who replaced the motherboard, heatsink and fan. Result: furmark hits 100deg within a few seconds. Also, the fan runs continuously now, even when there is no activity on the laptop and the GPU is running close to 0%.

Dell's solution after this was to remotely connect to my machine and set the max CPU performance to 80%, which did not achieve anything. If I play SC2, on medium I start at 60FPS and then within a few seconds it drops to 15-20FPS. I'm assuming the GPU overheats and throttles itself? Previously I used to play on high all the time without any performance problems, except for the very occasional freeze.

Now Dell are telling me that they've done everything they can and I must live with it as is.

What do I do? Is it worthwhile trying to do a repaste, or what can I tell them so they will fix/replace the laptop? I'm deeply regretting having called their support in the first place, as the problem has just been made worse and worse.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

That is very odd that dell will tell you that. Usually this calls for a full laptop replacement. What I would do is call Dell, and this time be disgruntled, as you should be and ask for either A) they replace your whole system or B) they fix what they broke and made even worse. sounds like your GPU is taking a constant dump on you and you might need a new heatsink..... Heat sounds like it's not conducting quickly enough to transfer out to the fins and the fans. Good luck!

 

They are going to call me back later today to see if their underclocking helped. I will insist on replacement and see what happens. Unfortunately, this level of service is the norm where I live, so I'm not holding out much hope.

 

It was "almost OK" before they screwed it up. They've gotta fix it.
Sounds like the tech is completely clueless though...

 

They are coming back on Tuesday (it seems 'next business day' does not mean what it says!) to fit a new motherboard, heat-sink and fan. The techs they sent seem reasonably competent at taking apart and putting the laptop back together, but both of them said they almost never work on XPS units. Probably not used to overheating issues in Latitudes due to no/low end GPU.

 

No ascendo, REFUSE, i mean absolutely refuse to have them underclock, your laptop performs the way it does for a reason, and if they cannot fix it, they need to replace it. If they refuse, ask for someone above them because that is ridiculous that your laptop comes with a certain performance and that performance must be hindered because of their neglect to check your system.

A few things i'd inquiry about, how are they cleaning the heatsink/CPU/GPU? Tell the tech they NEED to, and absolutely NEED to clean the contacts with isopropyl alcohol and the thermal compound must be MX-5/Arctic Silver 5 grade and above, not some cheap tube of thermal paste.

 

Update: different techs, from a different outsourcing company, arrived today. They replaced the board, heatsink and fan again.

The heatsink they removed had NO thermal paste on AT ALL.

Anyway, things seem better; furmark used to go right up to 100deg in a matter of seconds, now it maxes out at 79deg after about 40 minutes, which I think is acceptable. During heavy battles in Starcraft 2 the temps do go up to about 82 deg, but there are no slowdowns or anything.