MSI A6200 I5-430 overheats during heavy usage

Hello,

I see most of you have a GX640 but im a cheapskate. I got a A6200 for dirt cheap and specs wise its enough to handle all my tasks. However its heatsink and fan is not. During general computing its quiet and efficient however after loading up call of duty modern warfare 2 the fan begins to run really loud after about 30 seconds. after 4-5 minutes it hard locks up and i have to hold the power button down. Honestly at 1280x720 with most settings off or low its a playable framerate but not good enough for me to give up my desktop PC. However that was the original idea. It plays WoW in max resolution at 40-50FPS again with most settings on low, but it doesnt bother me one bit.

I wrote to MSI not because I wanted my laptop replaced or fixed but to see if this was a known issue. Here is their responses.

"MSI Tech. 06/14/2010 Dear Customer, this model of notebook was not meant for gaming but for as you mentioned general computing tasks word processing, net browsing, office work, some video playback. call of duty modern warfare 2 a somewhat recent game will likely overtax the GPU on this notebook pretty quick.
MSI Tech. 06/14/2010 Dear customer, the laptop is not design for 3D gaming. This laptop only design for general computing. This laptop only come with basic need video card not for high performance 3D gaming need. If you only have a week, we suggest you contact vendor exchange the laptop design for gaming. Thanks!
"

I am not writing this post to flame MSI, their response has been quick and if this laptop didnt overheat it would be flawless. I am curious if any others have had similar problems with their A6200. I am thinking about pulling the heatsink out, lapping it and then applying some artic silver 5. I might also get a lap cooler for it to sit on -- but there isnt hardly any vents underneath this thing. I think their answer is bogus though because my Acer (also a core i5-430) had zero problems gaming for extended hours. I sold it to my sis to buy this MSI though.

 

I just downloaded HWmonitor. idles around 37C. I loaded up both cores with OCCT and after 3 minutes it was up to 78C and it seemed to have leveled off. Call of duty is probably putting about 30-40% load on the CPU, but since GPU is on chip im not sure how that comes into play. CPU was at 2.557ghz entire time of the OCCT run.

Ok with HWmonitor running in the background i loaded up COD MW2. after about 5 minutes my screen flashed for a moment the machine locked and then recovered. I close out of COD MW2 and checked temps. My core 0 and 1 were both at 71C max and the GPU was also around 73C. Apparently COD MW2 is just to much load for this laptop. WoW and Starcraft 2 dont put this much load on it -- they seem to run fine.

 

hmm those temps are just fine. I hit high 80s with my CPU and no problems. I don't think it's a temp issue.

 

Like Minerals said those temps seem fine, however you should do a CPU stress test with Prime95 or Orthos to see how hot it really gets.

 

" integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD "

Try update drivers first.

 

Thats a good idea, though I had already updated all my drivers to the latest on MSI website this time i went to intels website. there was a much newer version so i installed it. Rebooted it, fired up CoD MW2 and after about 3 minutes as GPU temps went over 70C the intel adapter crashed.

Event 4101 in the event log "Display driver igfx stopped responding and has successfully recovered."

It still seems to be heat related. OCCT and wprime only load up the CPU, i could try running OCCT and furmark at the same time to reproduce these results.

edit: I just ran furmark and occt at the same time for 4 minutes. GPU temp was 87C Core 2 was 85c core 1 was 84C but no crashes. Maybe its not crashing from the heat afterall. COD crashed and recovered twice within one minute of running so must be something else...

 

What a crappy response from MSI. If it locks up due to heat then there's a problem. I would call them again and demand to speak to a manager.

In the mean time, try installing another driver, maybe going back to factory default. Also, it might very well be that the heatsink isn't sitting well. Get some MX-3 (AS-5 is outdated now), and try applying it. Also inspect the heat pads connecting the video memory to the heatsink to make sure everything's sitting well. If you're still doubtful, feel free to post some pics here and let us have a look.

Other than that, try playing another game and see if it locks up. Try something taxing like Crysis or the likes. You can download a free copy of Crysis demo anywhere online and run the benchmarks. If they don't lock up, it may have something to do with your COD installation.

 

I don't think Crysis will work on integrated Intel graphics, and there are no heats pads for the memory as it's not discrete. While MSI's response is to try to divert the attention away from a possible issue, they do have a point about the 3D gaming thing.

 

Ooops. I got this thing mixed up with the GE600. Yeah, uh... I'm not sure what to do. Disregard my post pls

 

I google searched intel HD graphics cod mw2 and found TONS of people are having the same problems i am so i believe this is a problem with the graphic chipset and NOT MSI's fault. there is multiple threads on Intel forums reporting this issue and no response from Intel.

I will say it plays world of warcraft for hours without issue as did my Acer. I never actually tried COD MW2 on my Acer either. At first i believed this was a heat issue but since it didnt crash with occt and furmark running with temps much higher then recorded while gaming I have decided to just sell my MSI notebook and my desktop to buy a dedicated gaming notebook. Thanks for everyones replies.

 

Did you ever find a solution for this? Perhaps a chipset update?

I have a problem with this laptop "not responding" in firefox for anywhere from 5-90 seconds at least a couple times a day. Usually it's in hotmail. It also does this when I'm just trying to open a folder in windows.