GPU overheating threshold corrupted? laptop shuts down at 65 C

[nickchanger]

Hi, I have a three years old Acer Aspire 5742G with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series. Never had big problems with overheating until a week ago when after a power outage my laptop started to shut down on me constantly. After some testing I found out it invariably shuts down when the GPU temperature reaches 65 C. This seems quite low to me and I'm pretty sure it didn't work like this before.

I cleaned the insides of the laptop (not much dust there or anything) which helped to lower the temperatures a bit generally but it didn't solve my problem. Resetting BIOS didn't help either. I believe some setting is corrupted somewhere but have no idea what to do to repair this. Is there anything else I can try?

 

[dkjohnson21]

I've cleaned many computers and the cpu fan cases need to be cleaned of dust/lint from the inside, there are usually four tiny screws holding the top of the fan case on, take it off and remove the stuff from the inside fins then remove the old thermal compound from the cpu and heatsink and replace with a new thin coat of compound on both. cpu temp should run at about 45 degrees celcius. 65 is not extreme but it is still too hot. Don't forget to plug the fan back in. Hope this helps

 

[nickchanger]

Thanks, I will try the thermal paste if I can get it (they don't sell such things much in SE Asia where I currently stay) but still, it doesn't really answer my question. The temperature threshold for the laptop to shut down should be, I believe, somewhere around 90 C, not 65 C, as it is my case now. Is there any way to repair this?