Am I ruining my laptop?

[Taison]

Hey! I have a 6 months old HP Envy DV6 7204-ee with an upgrade to 16Gb Ram.
While playing games such as Mafia II and Crysis 3,the keys get hot and the fans expel scorching heat...
I have an external fan that I place under the device, but still...
Today the temperatures read:

TZS0 103C

Core #1 : 105C.

What should I do? Stop gaming on it? But I mean what is the purpose of having such powerful components(I7,16gb Ram,decent GPU) if I can't game on it or do more than basic stuff like browsing etc?....

Please help

 

[Azn Cracker]

it has a gt 630. I would not consider that a gaming laptop.

Theres nothing much you can do since those games are pushing the laptop to its limits. You can try getting a cooling stand for it, which may help.

 

[Rragar]

Hey! I have a 6 months old HP Envy DV6 7204-ee with an upgrade to 16Gb Ram.
While playing games such as Mafia II and Crysis 3,the keys get hot and the fans expel scorching heat...
I have an external fan that I place under the device, but still...
Today the temperatures read:

TZS0 103C

Core #1 : 105C.

What should I do? Stop gaming on it? But I mean what is the purpose of having such powerful components(I7,16gb Ram,decent GPU) if I can't game on it or do more than basic stuff like browsing etc?....

Please help

You ARE hurting the laptop. 100+ celsius is by no means a healthy temperature. You should already be concerned near 90 celsius.

There is something I would consider doing, though. You could buy a high performance thermal paste, such as IC Diamond or Arctic Silver (there's other brands, too) remove your processor, remove the stock thermal paste, apply the new one, and then put it back together. That should help at the very least a bit.

It is not bad to perceive very hot air coming out of the exhausts, since that means the cooling system is doing its job properly. It does mean trouble, however, when it's very hot both inside and outside, like in your case.

When was the last time you cleaned the cooling fans and the heatsink? Keeping both clear of dust will always help, and should be done on a regular basis. It might be possible your computer is clogged with dust - I saw this happen to a friend. His computer was overheating frequently, so we pulled it apart and it was almost like the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag.

TZS0 is your motherboard, and you posted your highest processor core temperature, is this correct? Are you unable to get any temperature readings from the graphics card?

I'm thinking that maybe your computer uses the same heatpipes both for the graphics card and the processor, and then flushes all the heat through the same heatsink. This tends to lead to insufficient cooling.

 

[Azn Cracker]

Hey! I have a 6 months old HP Envy DV6 7204-ee with an upgrade to 16Gb Ram.
While playing games such as Mafia II and Crysis 3,the keys get hot and the fans expel scorching heat...
I have an external fan that I place under the device, but still...
Today the temperatures read:

TZS0 103C

Core #1 : 105C.

What should I do? Stop gaming on it? But I mean what is the purpose of having such powerful components(I7,16gb Ram,decent GPU) if I can't game on it or do more than basic stuff like browsing etc?....

Please help

You ARE hurting the laptop. 100+ celsius is by no means a healthy temperature. You should already be concerned past 90 celsius.

There is something I would consider doing, though. You could buy a good thermal paste, remove your processor, remove the stock paste, and apply your high performance paste. That should help at the very least a bit.

dont think OP would be very comfortable opening up his laptop and taking everything apart.

 

[Rragar]

Maybe, but then the OP could try to find a person who could do that. It's the only thing I can think of that doesn't involve cutting holes for better airflow, or replacing the laptop altogether.

 

[Taison]

Maybe, but then the OP could try to find a person who could do that. It's the only thing I can think of that doesn't involve cutting holes for better airflow, or replacing the laptop altogether.

But guys,it's idling at 45-50degrees Celcius,and since im an audiovisual student,my work consists of video editing and music editing software,which will bring it to 85-90 degrees. Do you think a can of hot air will help? Or is taking it apart and cleaning it(getting someone to do it) better? And thank you all for your input

 

[Rragar]

Those idle temperatures are fine, and 85 under load is also acceptable. The problem comes when it gets past 90, because that's the danger zone. You want to minimize the exposure time to those temperatures. At 100+, you're almost certain to prematurely shorten the lifespan of the components in one way or another.

Do try cleaning your computer first. Buy a can of compressed air, and use it to blow through the intakes. If the intakes don't lead directly to the fan(s), then you will have to blow the air through the exhaust area, because that's where the heatsink will be (the heatsink catches most of the dust). Just remember to shut down and allow your computer to cool down to room temperature before you try this.

If you know how to safely handle electronics, I reccomend you carefully disassemble the laptop that you might better remove all the dust that would otherwise be very difficult to remove from the outside.

After you've cleaned it up, check the temperatures again, both idle and under load. See if there's an improvement. If the temperatures do not improve, then I would suspect the laptop's cooling solution is insufficient for your needs.

If you go for the high performance thermal paste, then, depending on the brand, model and volume, you could be looking at a $20 purchase on average.

You said you achieved no measurable improvement from the external cooling pad?

 

[Taison]

Those idle temperatures are fine, and 85 under load is also acceptable. The problem comes when it gets past 90, because that's the danger zone. You want to minimize the exposure time to those temperatures. At 100+, you're almost certain to prematurely shorten the lifespan of the components in one way or another.

Do try cleaning your computer first. Buy a can of compressed air, and use it to blow through the intakes. If the intakes don't lead directly to the fan(s), then you will have to blow the air through the exhaust area, because that's where the heatsink will be (the heatsink catches most of the dust). Just remember to shut down and allow your computer to cool down to room temperature before you try this.

If you know how to safely handle electronics, I reccomend you carefully disassemble the laptop that you might better remove all the dust that would otherwise be very difficult to remove from the outside.

After you've cleaned it up, check the temperatures again, both idle and under load. See if there's an improvement. If the temperatures do not improve, then I would suspect the laptop's cooling solution is insufficient for your needs.

If you go for the high performance thermal paste, then, depending on the brand, model and volume, you could be looking at a $20 purchase on average.

You said you achieved no measurable improvement from the external cooling pad?

The cooling pad does help take off about 5-10 degrees max... but i'm paranoid as the laptop was expensive (1400$) and now I can't even play games on it to distract myself while travelling . Anyways i'm taking it to get air blown thank you so much !

 

[jaguarskx]

Unfortunately, most laptops are designed to run hot especially if it is a small / light weight laptop. I have a similar situation with my 14" Lenovo IdeaPad Y470. I bought a cooling pad for it, but it did not decrease the internal temps at all. The only vents were for the internal fans and there is no way for force more air into the laptop using an external fan. Additionally, Lenovo called the underside of the laptop a "thermal panel" because it limits heat transfer. Even when it the Y470 is overheating (CPU throttles down) I can safely put it on my bare skin lap and it only feels warm.

At least for you the cooling pad works in reducing the temperature. To reduce it even further, you may want to consider disabling Turbo Boost (automatic overclock) when you play games. To do so go to your Power Options in the Control Panel, then select the current profile your laptop is using. You want to go into the Advanced Power Options/Settings, and scroll down until you see "Processor power management". Expand that and go to "Maximum processor state" and enter 99%. That will turn off Turbo Boost.

Prior to making any such changes, my temps will gaming ranged between 90C to 92C. The exception was GTA IV which caused the CPU to hit 99C and it started to throttle. Disabling Turbo Boost brought my temps down to about 84C when playing games, 89C for GTA IV. By lowering the CPU speed I can further reduce heat, but at the cost of performance.

Maximum power state does not work the way you think it will work. For example, my Y470 has a Core i5-2410m which has a standard speed of 2.3GHz and I believe Turbo Boost maxes out at 2.9GHz. As stated settings the max power state limits the CPU to only 2.3GHz. However, 91% - 98% does nothing. When set to 90% the CPU is limited to about 1.8GHz.

 

[jaguarskx]

As mentioned above, another way to reduce heat is by replacing the thermal paste. However, that requires you take apart the laptop which would void your warranty, therefore, I do not recommend this step until after your warranty has ended. If you do not want to do this on your own, then you can bring it into a PC repair shop and have them do it for you.

I would replace the thermal paste in my Y470, but I have an extended warranty on it which does expire until Sep 2014. Regardless, I don't really play games on it anymore and I am getting a new laptop as well. Not a gaming laptop, a business laptop.

 

[jennyITSupport]

A few other ideas:
- You could also try and reduce the power settings a bit. (You know - turn down the screen brightness, lower processor speed)
- Remove the battery (more air near the motherboard and it won't incur heat if it tries to charge).
- Turn off any other bits you don't need - wifi card, bluetooth
These may all be little things but will reduce overall heat production.

 

[yillbs]

Don't they market this GPU to people playing games? It is a gaming laptop, maybe not it's primary purpose, or intended purpose, but it's still a gaming laptop, it has the specs, and the hardware to allow it to play above average games. Furthermore, if it's causing an issue @Taison, are you playing all the games on there highest respective setting? I had an issue with my Radeon 8770 playing BF3 on highest, it heated up like no other. I can play most games on high settings with the core temp not getting any higher than 80, and i have a much much thinner notebook than you. It could very well just be dirty. Are you playing on a table, flat surface? If it's windows 8, put that beast in airplane mode, and kill all services you don't need. Usually helps when i put mine in airplane mode, and keep everything used to monitor, turned off. My fans are also under my laptop, and i still get decent temps. While we have two very different notebooks, you shouldn't have that high of a temp. Even if it started to rise that high, the cpu in theory , as well as the 650, should throttle down a bit to save face. Might want to look into the air thing, and a way to throttle them down when needed.

it has a gt 630. I would not consider that a gaming laptop.

Theres nothing much you can do since those games are pushing the laptop to its limits. You can try getting a cooling stand for it, which may help.

 

[Rragar]

I just thought about something else. Are your drivers up-to-date? There's been known excessive heat issues for certain NVidia products, directly caused by specific driver versions.

And also, this is less likely, but maybe you got a defective gpu. They are known to run hotter (among other issues) when they're defective. The problem is, it'll be harder to verify. It could also be something wrong with the thermal pad or the thermal paste (whichever came stock with the computer).

I truly hope it's not either of the last two. Try updating the drivers first and see if the temperatures improve.

Also, what was the average room temperature when you got those readings? Right now, it's disgustingly hot where I live (26-28 celsius average).