Best Way to Lower Temps?

[Lucaz172]

Alienware M14x R2

650m 2GB Core 1000Mhz Memery 2000Mhz

I7 3630QM Turbo Forced at 3.2Ghz

My GPU stays at temps around 70C, while my CPU spikes at 95C, sometimes 100.

I'm REALLY afraid to repaste, since I wouldn't be able to replace the computer if something went wrong.

Anyone have any tips for temps? If repasting is the best option, would someone be so kind to link a VERY detailed tutorial?

[prosetheus]

You could use a can of compressed air to clean your heatsink without having to repaste. Just remember not to let the fan spin in the opposite direction whilst cleaning. You could also raise the back of the laptop whilst gaming, as in prop it up with something to increase airflow.

A powerful laptop cooler might also help.

On the software side, use throttlestop to manage processor speed. Most games are very poorly optimized and try to get the most out of turboboost, raising temps a lot for no good reason as they only utilize 2 or 3 cores at most. I even disable turboboost for older games.

[brainwreck]

i find opening it up and blowing on it with an air can works great i do this once a month

[ratinox]

Cleaning out the dust should always be your first activity. Nothing else will help if the physical bits are clogged.

Prop up the back with anything that opens up airflow under the fan. I use a couple of cheap rubber door wedges. That alone is good for a 5C to 10C temperature reduction on the CPU under peak load.

I don't know when it was added but I know that the A13 firmware has a toggle to disable CPU Turbo. Turning CPU Turbo off is good for a 10C to 20C peak temperature reduction on the CPU.

[Lucaz172]

I do clean it out often, and when I did it brought the temps down by about 10C, but it still peaks at 95C. And I do keep it propped up, that was one of the first things I did, since the ventilation on the M14xR2 is terrible. Thing is, I need the turbo boost on things like Battlefield 4 to get at least 40 frames while keeping the game from looking like I'm playing on a 360. I DID need the turbo on Planetside 2, but now with optimizations, I don't need it, but it's nice to a constant 60FPS instead of 30-40.

[Eats7]

i can tell you what i've done

I've repasted, removed the ram cage, and clean the vents, and now i don't see my cpu temps go past lower 80s. and even that's rare.

[ratinox]

I do clean it out often, and when I did it brought the temps down by about 10C, but it still peaks at 95C.

Which is 10C lower than Intel's maximum temperature rating of 105C so you're operating within the manufacturer's specifications.

[bstapley]

If you've done all the things above, then you may want to re-paste the GPU / CPU. The first time that I did a re-paste, I (like you) was a bit freaked out about the potential of breaking my nice laptop. I watched quite a few YouTube videos and read several articles on pasting. After a while, I decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at re-pasting. Honestly, it is not hard. By FAR the most time consuming part was taking the laptop apart and putting it back together again.

Long story short, I would recommend that you re-paste.

[Lucaz172]

Can I get an example of what the temps you had before and after are?

[JPriami]

What about using those laptop stands that have fans in them to move air? I have one that made by cooler master. Its drilled aluminum, does well for making sure your not suffocating your laptop.

[zenvendof]

:54_002:WARNING: You can break you machine if you are not careful during the dis-assembly, especially the white bracket that holds your DVD/Blueray cable to the motherboard, it's actually brittle. Otherwise the rest with some care you be OK, expect to spend at least 4 hours on it and expect more just in case you forgot a screw or a cable to plug back (it happens....), Make sure you are in a static free environment (where I am humidity works for me), get an anti static strap and attach the other end to any kind of earthed metal. Radio shack is your friend.

Thought I did make at least 1 of my first 5 messages meaningful. Here it goes!

If you follow instructions carefully, you will finally have access to the motherboard which you will have to unscrew the heat sink+fan combo. It's not a very good design as you can see both the CPU (On the extreme left), GPU (in the middle next to the fan) are extracting heat via two copper pipes, they both goes to the same heat spreader fins setup which the fan blows against.

You can easily get the dissemble info, a good one I followed here:

Alienware M14x Disassembly/Teardown and Upgrade Guide!

Check out the above, when I got the machine via a used vendor, it got dents, hair, dust, skin (OMG) all kinds of horror on it. When I took it apart I basically sterilized the machine.....with gloves and a mask, it was that horrible. The area I highlighted is actually where it cause all your problems, accumulated dust/hair/otherwise non air blow-able particles/dust/gremlins/....etc.

Here is the system temp on normal usage (60C average and peak around 80C++) I have like 40 chrome web pages and a VMWare running at the background.) If I put some door stoppers behind I probably bring down the temperature further as suggested.

Before the cleaning, temperature for both CPU/GPU stay constantly above 65C, reaching an ungodly 102C under load and emergency system shutdown (not to mention the fan was constantly loud). For repaste I recommend you review the web a little, I used Cool Master's E1, anything that's easily to spread, cheap and good review will do.

Another tip will be taking a small USB fan and put on an angle, blowing you and bring in some cool air to where the fan draws air under the laptop. You and the M14X gets cool together, awesome!

Have fun!

Zen

[shadow]

Lower room temperature if all else fails

[wy19865]

Maybe you can try to turn off the cpu turbo mode

[AstralSparks]

i use stacks of books that makes the air vent breathable it really helps my laptop cool, and i use standing fan to direct the airflow to my laptop

[brainwreck]

i have a laptop cooler that helps me out its a thermaltake massive 23LX cooler does a good job

[hamgammon]

Cannot recommend more redoing the paste more and getting a laptop stand. Coolermaster Notepal U2 stand has 2 fans powered by USB and the m14x fits inside to keep it safe when on the move. The fans can be unclipped for cleaning and moved on the stand to keep the important parts cool.

[mccahon]

Whoa that is high, make sure your fan port is not covered, and limit your CPU to 90% in battery options. I am sure there are better ways of managing, but that is what I do.

[XenivouS]

Ive repasted and keep mine on a Cooler Master cooler. Works great and haven't had any major issues with cooling other than the normal throttling issues sometimes.

[Quix Omega]

If you want lower temperatures while gaming you can disable CPU Turbo in the bios, it will keep the CPU from speeding up to it's turbo speed and save the extra heat. The GPU in the m14x (or m14x R2 or the new 14) is not powerful enough to require anywhere near the CPU power the laptops actually ship with so if you're gaming and not say encoding movies this is a good idea. As a bonus it prevents the GPU from throttling in most cases. Just remember that you did do this in case you feel like turning it back on later. I leave turbo boost off on my m14x R2 most of the time. It saves battery life too.

Re-pasting this laptop is a huge pain, you need to totally disassemble it (I've done it to mine) so make sure you're comfortable with the idea before you do it.

[nosammai]

I was having a similar problem, and it turned out that I just had a ton of dust stuck between the heatsink and the fan. I tried blowing it out with compressed air, but that didn't really help. I actually had to pull out the fan, and there was a 1/4" thick strip of dust between them that I pulled out. It's crazy how much it will stop the flow of air and heat up your computer.

If you're going that far, you might as well just repaste the CPU at the same time, I got a good 8-10C drop in temps by switching to some Arctic Silver.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Alienware M14x R2

650m 2GB Core 1000Mhz Memery 2000Mhz

I7 3630QM Turbo Forced at 3.2Ghz

My GPU stays at temps around 70C, while my CPU spikes at 95C, sometimes 100.

I'm REALLY afraid to repaste, since I wouldn't be able to replace the computer if something went wrong.

Anyone have any tips for temps? If repasting is the best option, would someone be so kind to link a VERY detailed tutorial?

i3-3630QM is a low grade CPU that runs hot. Best to scout for a high grade chip that runs x12 multiplier at ~0.80V. See info at: http://forum.techinferno.com/hp-business-class-notebooks/2537-12-5-hp-elitebook-2570p-owners-lounge-37.html#post77432 . For the 2570P owners in that thread that would mean either getting a 35W i7-quad (i7-3632QM) or seek out a efficient i7-37xxQM or i7-38xxQM.

If that's not a option then consider limiting the the turbo frequency by one-three multipliers using Throttlestop. That will lower TDP and associated heat.

I also found that sandwiching a copper shim between the heatsink and the CPU reduced the temp spike when the CPU is undergoes an instant 100% load.

[Boby]

Re-paste is the only permanent solution. Fans, propping up the lappy, air cleaning are just secondary methods.

[ratinox]

The best TIM in the world is useless if there is no coolant flowing through the heat exchanger. In other words, there are no "secondary methods" in a cooling system. Either everything works or the whole fails. Ignore cleaning an airflow at your own risk.

[Kitri]

Hi, my M14xR1's temperature hangs between 65 and 79 mostly, but I keep getting system crashes. Not BSOD, just everything freezes. Haven't been able to confirm if this is heat-related though, I know my BIOS says something about throttling at 90 degrees, don't know if it's maybe that. Since you're all talking about cleaning laptops and temperature and stuff, has any of you had this issue or have any ideas what it could be? I don't want to attempt to clean it and break it in the process :-P

[neverware]

What i do myself is clean the heatsink once a month with the air duster cans, like everyone else. and i also never put my laptop on cloth or other things that may contain dust or lint that can get sucked up clogging air flow. with this, my comp runs fine under intense loads, never going above 90 Celsius. but at normal loads it stays well below 65.

Edit: Ohhh and i forgot. i also use HWinfo to mod my fan speed on demand. so i can boost up the fan when i deem its necessary. you can also set fan speeds to variable temps.