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M14x questions about CPU temp and calling AW


Ixel

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As I've had no response to the reply I posted in the thread similar to this thread I thought I'd better open a new thread, as I have one or two questions before I go and call AW/Dell.

I was playing Star Trek Online yesterday and I went to look at ThrottleStop after what appeared to be a freeze once, noticed my CPU temperatures across all cores had maxed out between 97-99C, which I know is very wrong.

Basically I understand the general consensus is to email/contact AW/Dell, but I have one or two questions. 1) I replaced the hard drive in my M14x, but unfortunately accidentally broke a clip on the left side of the ZIF on the board, the right clip is fine though and still holds the SATA cable in place, my concern is that will this be a problem for AW/Dell when they (I assume) will notice? 2) Can they do a repaste at my house? If so how long would you say it may typically take them to do either?

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I'm not one who has had to deal with warranty's all that much, but I do have a 1 year warranty on my current Lenovo Ideapad Y460. I called awhile ago about a faulty AC adapter cause it was making a buzzing noise. They wouldnt send me one without sending the one I have and I didn't want to be without my laptop for 2-3 weeks. Turns out it hasn't went the trip yet after a month or so since I called.

Not that it has anything to do with your case but lenovo I think is more strict when it comes to warranty stuff. I doubt dell will make a note even of your broken clip. As for a repaste unless you have some inside tract on getting dell to repaste for you I have never heard of them doing that, they will just replace the mobo I would assume if your temperatures are out of control.

You have to realize though is it is that time of the year when if you don't have air conditioning on in your room your temps can very well easily reach your temps. As well with not taking it apart and cleaning it and sometimes software issues, I any more with win 7 start fresh every month or so, doesnt take but 10 minutes to restore my factory image I have on it.

Edited by jeffreybaks
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Ixel - almost all of us have uh... disconnected the Sata drive incorrectly. Just contact Dell and dont worry about it. Chances are they may just give you a new motherboard which in turn would resolve the sata connection as well. ( I am assuming you are talking about the optical sata connection). If they have to repaste im thinking minimum an hour and 15 and max 2 hours. I can do the whole job in about an hour and 45 but I take my time to make sure I dont scratch any parts.

Best Case scenario is call them and complain about temps. Tell them you want a new motherboard. This will fix the sata connection too.

Last, If you are really concerned about support just put it back as close to stock as you can. When I had an issue I called Dell and had them send me the parts and I replaced them myself. Most techs are cool so I wouldn't worry about it.

Good Luck,

StevenX

Edited by Stevenxowens792
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I'm not one who has had to deal with warranty's all that much, but I do have a 1 year warranty on my current Lenovo Ideapad Y460. I called awhile ago about a faulty AC adapter cause it was making a buzzing noise. They wouldnt send me one without sending the one I have and I didn't want to be without my laptop for 2-3 weeks. Turns out it hasn't went the trip yet after a month or so since I called.

Not that it has anything to do with your case but lenovo I think is more strict when it comes to warranty stuff. I doubt dell will make a note even of your broken clip. As for a repaste unless you have some inside tract on getting dell to repaste for you I have never heard of them doing that, they will just replace the mobo I would assume if your temperatures are out of control.

You have to realize though is it is that time of the year when if you don't have air conditioning on in your room your temps can very well easily reach your temps. As well with not taking it apart and cleaning it and sometimes software issues, I any more with win 7 start fresh every month or so, doesnt take but 10 minutes to restore my factory image I have on it.

Thanks for your replies everyone.

@jeffreybaks: I see, I forgot to mention however that my room is air conditioned to maintain at room temperature of 21C, without the Amcor A/C I'd be sweltering at 25-26C during hot sunny days.

@all: I'll call Dell/AW tomorrow and speak to their tech department, explain the issue and as you said Steven, state a new M/B and hopefully I can kill two birds with one stone. The clip and temperatures back to normal. I've temporarily disabled turbo to prevent temperatures going above 70C.

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@HT - To replace the TIM the entire motherboard has to be removed. The only items you can leave is the LCD and the little panel that holds the speakers. Everything else has to be completely removed and the motherboard is completely removed from the chassis. I have now done it twice. I had to replace the chassis since the spring loaded screws got stripped somehow. When I first received the notebook they never fit correctly into the base so who knows...

Its not a novice break down. The online manuals do help a bit. I have some more inside pics i need to post.

StevenX

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@HT - To replace the TIM the entire motherboard has to be removed. The only items you can leave is the LCD and the little panel that holds the speakers. Everything else has to be completely removed and the motherboard is completely removed from the chassis. I have now done it twice. I had to replace the chassis since the spring loaded screws got stripped somehow. When I first received the notebook they never fit correctly into the base so who knows...

Its not a novice break down. The online manuals do help a bit. I have some more inside pics i need to post.

StevenX

Here's a screenshot of my last temperatures when playing Star Trek Online for an hour, not as bad, but in my personal opinion, still bad and warrants calling Alienware, though I'm interested to see what your opinion or other opinions are before I call them today, before 4pm hopefully if anyone replies by that time.

post-351-14494988137301_thumb.png

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Yeah, 90's are bad.

Right, that's all I needed to hear. I'll give Dell tech support a call (right department hopefully) and see what they can do. Hopefully this so called 'troubleshooting process' won't be long winded.

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Well that was a quick phone call, after being transferred to the right department. The troubleshooting process was minimal, compared to most companies I've dealt with, impressive. Sadly I wasn't as lucky as some others, I was offered a technician to replace the heatsink/thermal paste instead of a possible motherboard change, oh well, fingers crossed I won't get any issues regarding the half broken clip if he/she notices.

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They probably wont notice.. As mentioned before just put the machine as close to stock as possible. A lot of times (what i noticed on mine) the heatsync were not as tight (stock) as they should be. That alone my have saved my a few degrees but then putting on the shin etsu helped a bit as well.

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yea 90s are uncommon even for a laptop that needs to be helped along when you game with a/c and fans blowing on it while its propped up. I guess what I think of right when I see that is the insides are clogged with dust and debris but I also think of break in time. Some laptops go through phases Iv noticed, some will disagree and its kinda bias but there will be some times when your laptop will reach 80's after so many months and then it will change a few degrees for no reason either up or down but a few degrees can make a big difference either way.

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Well, there's really no reason for any CPU or GPU to exceed 85C if it has a proper cooling system. Most CPU's and GPU's these days have a 95C to 105C Tmax, and getting within 20C of that is cause for alarm.

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Here's an update.

The technician has been today, took him at most 30 minutes to replace the heatsink and repaste the CPU, quite fast! He said allow it at least 2 days to settle (understandable), and keep an eye on the temperature of the CPU to see if it reaches similarly high temperatures, if it does call Dell and we'll replace the motherboard as it could be a faulty chip. Excellent customer service and warranty!

So, after a small 30 minute game of intense battle fighting the Klingons, and winning 1st place in the fleet action (of course ;)), here are my latest maximum temperatures from ThrottleStop.

81jQ3.png

Given the fact my room is air conditioned to maintain 21C, there's a Cooler Master NotePal U3 with fans positioned under all vent locations (3rd being at the middle front where there's a very small vent), fans of course running full speed, I still find it hard to believe these temperatures can be called sane, but perhaps I'm wrong. I am tempted to try it without the NotePal underneath it, flat on the desk, to see the temperatures then.

Opinions?

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30 minutes only.. Dang I would have been nervous! Glad to hear it went well. Please keep us posted on this for sure.

Im going to time it next time I do it to see.. but it took me at least an hour and change. I know for certain I take my time with high quality alcohol and a huge pile of qtips to get it as clean as possible.

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Another update today, after allowing more time for the thermal paste to settle.

5DFbh.png

As you can see by that image, it looks like temperatures both idle and max are much improved. I ran Star Trek Online, wPrime (1024M twice), and the CPU overclocking is just in the sense of modified turbo limits in the BIOS, I was able to maintain just over a stable 2.73GHz under wPrime 1024M tests with an average temperature, in celsius, in the 70's across all processor cores.

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Ixel - Can I ask a favor? In bios, if you max the turbo limits on each option (it doesn't hurt because thats how I run every day 24/7). If you run wprime1024, while also running throttlestop, and sit and watch the multiplier plus actual speed, how does the 2720qm step?

Example: (on max turbo limits(stock bclk)) Here is how it goes.

Start Wprime1024

Turbo = 26x00 = 2594mhz Lasts for 3 minutes or 180seconds.

Turbo = 25.54 = 2548mhz Lasts for the remainder of wprime.

Forgot my normal total score.

Point is when I need 8 threads for a game like bfbc2, it never goes below a 25 multiplier and most of the time stays at 26.

How does your 2720qm perform?

Thanks!

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Ixel - Can I ask a favor? In bios, if you max the turbo limits on each option (it doesn't hurt because thats how I run every day 24/7). If you run wprime1024, while also running throttlestop, and sit and watch the multiplier plus actual speed, how does the 2720qm step?

Example: (on max turbo limits(stock bclk)) Here is how it goes.

Start Wprime1024

Turbo = 26x00 = 2594mhz Lasts for 3 minutes or 180seconds.

Turbo = 25.54 = 2548mhz Lasts for the remainder of wprime.

Forgot my normal total score.

Point is when I need 8 threads for a game like bfbc2, it never goes below a 25 multiplier and most of the time stays at 26.

How does your 2720qm perform?

Thanks!

Assuming I've set the BIOS up correctly to begin with, that is up to the fused value for the long limits and 99 for the short limit, here are the wPrime results.

Four Threads (default):

- Started at 2996~ (x30~)

- Wavers between 2910-2990 (x29-x30) after 100 seconds

- 455 seconds took for test to complete on four threads

Eight Threads (as my CPU offers eight):

- Started at 2910-2990 (x29-x30) wavering

- 2625-2696 (x26-x27) after 50 seconds

- 2625-2630 (x26) after 70 seconds

- 335 seconds took for test to complete on eight threads

(!! Bear in mind the second test was performed quickly after the first, and so initial starting results may have differed if I had started it from a normal idle temp !!)

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Thanks so much Ixel. I wonder what the cpu stays at during gaming (multiplier with 4 or more threads active). BFBC2 or Crysis 2 or Witcher 2. Just curious.

I don't have any of those games installed, however I did try Star Trek Online which uses between 40-60% CPU most of the time and the multiplier remained at 30.00, sometimes dropping to the 29's for a second or two.

Temperatures (maximum) today are slightly up a bit again, in the high 80's (86-89C).

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  • 3 months later...

Hi all! I know this thread is old, but am having concerns similar to the ones expressed here....

Have been playing BF3 on my M14x and though the machine is competent in running the game, I wanted some more fps, without really losing all the eye candy. So I decided to overclock my GPU and memory... Judging from various posts around the net, 700/1400/1000 (core/shader/memory) was looking to be an uber-safe overclocking option; people had gone as far as 800 on the core. I decided to try 750/1500/1000.... the game would definitely run beautifully, but then after an hour of gaming (BF3 multiplayer - just reached Rank 25 :)) i noticed my max core temp was 96 deg. C. That got me worried, and I changed my OC to 720/1440/1000 yesterday. An hour of gaming on that and I remember hitting 95 deg. C on one of the cores as max.

My first question is, are these temps normal for my kind of overclock?? I am using a Targus chillmat too, and considering all that, I think its not....

EDIT : My specs are - M14x(Red) - Core i7 2630, GT 555m 1.5 GB, 4GB RAM, 900 P screen...

Edited by gladiator
Forgot to include specs :
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Ive hit those temps with the A05 Bios on my i5. Those temps are super normal for A05 bios. Im not certain on other bios but i know its not uncommon to hit 90 degrees. M14x runs really hot. If your worried and using throttlestop then dissable throttlestop and your temps will stay well within the safe are.

I forgot to plug my fan in after i repasted my m14x and i went for an hour or so before i realized my fan wasnt on. (Web browsing and 5 minutes of furmark) Just goes to show how good throttling is.

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Ive hit those temps with the A05 Bios on my i5. Those temps are super normal for A05 bios. Im not certain on other bios but i know its not uncommon to hit 90 degrees. M14x runs really hot. If your worried and using throttlestop then dissable throttlestop and your temps will stay well within the safe are.

I forgot to plug my fan in after i repasted my m14x and i went for an hour or so before i realized my fan wasnt on. (Web browsing and 5 minutes of furmark) Just goes to show how good throttling is.

Thanks for the reply ninja! That makes me feel better, even though my bios is A01 and not A05 :)

Havnt really done anything pertaining to throttle stop... did try disabling turbo-boost and though it did help the temps, there was some frequent in-game lag spike... reversed the turbo boost and it disappeared...

I really wonder how people are getting higher overclocks with lower temps?? :02: this might sound pretty noobish, but shouldnt we all be able to get the same OCs with the same temps, given that our m14x's all have the same card and more or less the same configs too???

Would really like to get the views of any of the moderators too on this.... Stevenxowens792, are u there?? :D

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Theres slight variations between cards, Super slight physical anomolies that are either good or bad. No two cards are identical, But usually their virtually the same, like the sweat spot for overclocking the 555m is about 750,1000 on almost all m14x's. And alot of those people who hit those high clock speeds (800,1000) Usually volt mod their GPU/CPU and repaste their CPU and GPU with aftermarket thermal paste.

Off the top of my head there are two things you can do to get lower temps.

1)find the thread for alienware fan control and force your fans to 100% when gaming

2)Repaste your Cpu and GPU.

On a side not the CPU and GPU use the same heat sync so theoretically if one component runs cooler than the other it will help keep the overall temps down. Just some thoughts. Also, you can try removing the plate over the ram to increase air flow.

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