Alienware Question

[Deft]

hey WIH gang, got another question to see if maybe one of you out there might know whats wrong. I have an alienware laptop I bought over a year ago with the following specs:

3.2ghz Intel
1gig ram
GeForce FX 5700 Go

Heres the problem, the laptop loads up and runs fine under normal use, whether it be writing papers or general internet use. Once I load up any game or other graphics intensive application, it will eventually turn itself off between 10-20min. It does get very hot underneath and Ive constantly kept up with cleaning out any dust that might have accumulated. I did do some research and some are suggesting that I replace the gel that you put under the heatsink to absorb the heat from the cpu. Just wanted to bring this problem up on these forums and see if any of you guys might know what I can do to stop the overheating. Thanks :thumbsup:

[Mad5cout]

I am guessing that is trying to overclock your video card or your processor and turning off due to overheating safegaurds. There is a place where you can set a top clock speed in your bios but I am not versed enought to tell you where or how. Perhaps you can read up or google the topic. :dunno:

[Deft]

Hmm, yea let me google that, thats something I havent tried yet. Thanks

[monos]

I am guessing that is trying to overclock your video card or your processor and turning off due to overheating safegaurds. There is a place where you can set a top clock speed in your bios but I am not versed enought to tell you where or how. Perhaps you can read up or google the topic. :dunno:

agreed heat is the likely culprit try checking your cpu temp in your setup

[Deft]

Ok, I checked the cpu temp, and its currently around 73 C. Any programs that I can use to lower the clockspeeds of the graphics card? Maybe that will work.

[N194CO]

73 C ?? That might as well fry you're CPU. Try buying one of those Lap Top coolers for your lap top.. All you have to do is lie it underneath your laptop and it will provide a fan that will somewhat, cool your laptop. But indeed replace the gel.

[Deft]

73 C ?? That might as well fry you're CPU. Try buying one of those Lap Top coolers for your lap top.. All you have to do is lie it underneath your laptop and it will provide a fan that will somewhat, cool your laptop. But indeed replace the gel.

Well I had recently bought one of those about a month ago and low and behold, the heating problem still persists. I'm supposed to get my laptop back today, I had a local computer store replace the gel for me, so we'll see if that fixes the heating problem. I'f not, do any of you know of a program that will let me underclock the gpu?

[N194CO]

go to the www.nvidia.com website and download nTune.. It can overclock or underclock things. I supose.....

[Gruthar]

Huh, I'm not terribly familiar with laptops, can't be much different than a PC, though. The question on the forefront of my mind is: is this a new development? Or has it always done this? I'm afraid I don't know what the average temp of a laptop CPU is, but 73C is ridiculous! Definitely a cooling problem. You said the thermal interface was already replaced... do you know what they used? (Arctic Silver, Ceramique, etc) Gel can knock it down a few degrees, but it definitely won't solve this. I'd check to make sure all fans are in good working order... I've had just one jam on me before, and lo and behold my laptop kept shutting down. So yeah, you either need to move a lot more air through that thing or turn down the CPU, which is almost certainly the culprit. GPU overheating is a different animal (you'll start seeing artifacts and such), so I'd leave that alone for now. I haven't used nTune, but like Mad said, you can do it in your BIOS. You'll have to hit a key at boot - which key that is depends on the motherboard's mfr... common BIOS are AMI, Award, and Phoenix. That should show up somewhere on boot. Most the newer BIOS allow you to adjust clock speed in 1 MHz increments.

I don't know how much Alienware has overclocked your laptop, but if they went far enough then they've probably raised your CPU's core voltage. If I were you, I'd set the CPU back to stock specs, then either overclock it yourself or get someone to do it for you, as if this isn't due to a hardware failure then Alienware was a little too ambitious. Good luck!

Edit: This just occurred to me. Some laptops have power saving modes you can force them into. I believe you can set the % drop on stuff like the CPU speed. You could use that as a workaround, but I'd still want to get the CPU running correctly.

[Bonez]

if you bought it over a year ago(and did the smart thing) you should be able to send it to alienware and get them to see if there is anything wrong with it that is causing the problems.

[Gruthar]

I'm guessing whatever warranty there was has now been voided by having the computer worked on by a third party. Still worth checking, though.

[Deft]

well my warranty already expired a few months ago so I went ahead and had some tech people replace the gel for the heatsink. I'm actually still waiting for the guys to call me so I can go pick it up from them today. We'll see if that helps with the heating problem.. As for the 73 degrees I mentioned, i had it wrong, it was 63 degrees.. just now realized my typo :crazy:

[Deft]

Well so far my laptop is been somewhat cooler after the heatsink gel was replaced. It still rises into the 60C temp but it hasnt freezen up yet. I think I'll be on the safe side and put a laptop fan system underneath. thanks for the input guys :mp5:

[XHamSammichX]

Yes, get a laptop fan system off ebay, they have some with 4 fan setup. My brother got one personally and never had problems afterwards, also keep that processor gelled, its really bad on it when its not.