Overheating Problems

Jamie · **Posted:** April 1st, 2011, 8:08 pm

I have been having a lot of overheating issues throughout the past few months, but recently it's just gotten super bad to the point where leaving my computer on standby makes it heat up to around 80 degrees C. When I start up my computer, it is around 60 degrees. After maybe two hours of browsing the internet/watching youtube, it's around 80 degrees. If I video chat on Skype, it will jump up to around 95 degrees after 5-10 minutes. If I play Runescape, it will jump up to around 95 degrees after 20-30 minutes of playing. I'm positive the fan still runs because I can hear it, and the ambient temperature right now is around 24 degrees in midday. I've also gotten quite a few overheat shutdowns (three in one day a few days ago). Is there anything I can do to fix this, or is my computer really just that bad that it can't handle Skype/Runescape/etc? I've been able to Skype vchat for up to 6 hours before no problem, now I barely can for 6 minutes.

I've had this laptop for about 8 months.

Things I've tried:
1. Updating my BIOS to the latest version, no change.
2. Getting a laptop fan pad. My current one doesn't work too well, so I bought another one and a heat vacuum. They're still both in shipping so I haven't tried them out yet, but I have a feeling they won't keep the temperature down too much.
3. Trying to clean out my fan. However, my fan is pretty much hidden away in my laptop (there is some sort of metal casing around where it is when I remove the bottom piece around the RAM/HD/etc, so to get to it I have to remove that metal casing which involves removing pretty much everything except the motherboard), and when I tried to once, I broke the keyboard cable clip, so out of fear of more casualties I would rather not attempt to take it apart.

My specs:
Manufacturer: Dell
Model: Studio 1458
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q720 @ 1.6 GHz (quad core)
RAM: 8.00 GB
OS: Windows 7 64 bit
Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450

I have heard rumors that the CPU and GPU of this model share the same heatsink...could that be an issue?

Adbot · **Posted:** April 1st, 2011, 8:08 pm

Chief Snake · **Posted:** April 2nd, 2011, 5:50 am

Sounds worthy of repair under warranty. I'd try contacting Dell unless you really need it at the moment.

Pfkninenines · Global Moderator 12/4/08

It's common for notebooks to have a shared heatsink, but they're designed to keep the device cool anyway. If you're still under warranty, get it looked at ASAP. If not, clean it out ASAP using compressed air.

If you've done the cleaning routine before, the best guess that I'd have is that the heatsink has become dislodged from the CPU / GPU and isn't doing its job properly. If you can't get it fixed under warranty, either be very careful doing it yourself or take the precautions and have a professional do the job. Supposing this doesn't get fixed (just the overheating, not necessarily the heatsink) you're risking overheating your mainboard, and will be looking forward to a very costly replacement + someone else piecing it together again.

My sister's i7 in her notebook (a Lenovo W500 series) runs ~50-55C idle, and can get up to 65-70 while browsing. It does run hot compared to a good majority of notebook processors, but that's what you get with a higher performance part. That being said, standby (idle, not standby) shouldn't bring the temps up at all, and the 95C is extremely worrying. Most I've seen hers go was while I tested out TF2 and I got it in the low to mid 80C, which isn't too unusual for a performance notebook.