Dell Studio 1535 Overheating?/Cooling solutions

The processor (Core 2 Duo T5750) is idling at about 54-57 C which I gather is relatively high. Is there anything I can do about this? I ran ORTHOS with HWMonitor and the peak temperature is about 64 C for both cores.

In general, it's not too hot of a laptop, but when stressed, sometimes the area to the left of the trackpad gets unbearably hot.

I'm considering a cooling pad, but preferably nothing too expensive or obscure.

 

If you are technically sound you can remove the heatsink and apply Arctic Silver 5. The factory thermal pads are junk. You can purchase Arctic Silver 5 at Radioshack or online from ebay/amazon.com. If you don't feel comfortable taking the heatsink off you can always ask a friend, but it is fairly straightforward. Here is a guide, be sure to remove your battery and ground the laptop by pressing the power button.

Base Cover:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/1535/en/SM/base.htm#wp1223484

Heatsink:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/1535/en/SM/cpucool.htm#wp1179839

 

This. I cannot stress how awful the Dell thermal pads are. I recently replaced my own T5750 with a T9500, and while I did that, I replaced the crap pad on the heatsink with some real Arctic Silver 5, and it's made a world of difference so far. Idle temperatures have dropped from the high 40's/low 50's Celsius to the lower-mid 30's, sometimes 40 or 41 after extended use.

You might also want to try undervolting. We have an excellently written and comprehensive guide to undervolting here in our Hardware and Aftermarket Upgrades forum. There's no real danger, and you can cut your CPU temperature a few degrees. My T9500 is undervolted right now and it runs beautifully.

 

I tried undervolting...on RMClock, I couldn't set the voltage lower than 0.95 V for some reason.

 

Your processor's voltage doesn't go that low. The minimum is just above 1.0v at the maximum clock.

 

Processors have a certain range of voltages to work with. Even if you could force it lower than that .95V mark, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

At 0.95 V, the temperatures seemed roughly the same as without RMClock. I didn't think undervolting was useful...unless I'm misunderstanding something.

 

Undervolting will not make a huge difference, maybe an average of 5 degrees Celsius or so. And it has the added side effect of prolonging your battery life, perhaps 10 to 30 minutes.

 

Agreed. You can't rely solely on undervolting to bring temperatures down. If you haven't already applied AS5 I suggest you do that, you will notice a huge difference.

 

Is there a break-in period for the AS5? I applied it and the temperature difference is marginal...maybe 2-3 degrees.

Maybe I'm just impatient.

 

200-300 Hours. Turn the computer off from time to time to let the AS5 cool. The T5750 may just run hot. if you are encountering temperatures below 70C then you're in the clear.

 

Exactly. My T5750 was always pretty toasty since it's an older Merom 65nm processor, which used more power and bled more heat than my current T9500, which is a 45nm Penryn, and uses less voltage and runs cooler.

 

Sorry to bring up an old topic but I too am having an overheat problem with my Studio 1535.

When you say to apply Arctic Silver 5, does it replace the factory thermal pad? Or does it work with the factory pad?

 

You have to remove the thermal pad, clean the heatsink surface and CPU die with rubbing alcohol (higher % is better), and apply AS5 directly between the die and the heatsink.

 

Thanks, I am about to apply the AS5 but see a total of 5 areas that look like they have pads. I attached a pic. Do I just apply the AS5 to just the copper area? Or all 5 of the areas? Thanks again.