I can't cool my laptop

[Dargeron]

Hello, I'm asking advice because I have trouble with a laptop that I use for gaming. There must be something wrong with the graphic card, because it gets really hot (as hot as 100ºC) after about 20 minutes of playing any demanding game. When the GPU is cold, the games run perfectly, but when it's at 100ºC they just freeze or get to 1 or 2 FPS, which sucks.
First I tried getting a fan cooler, and that extended my straight play time to about 30 minutes only. After that I opened the laptop, cleaned it, and then I found that leaving it open (I mean, not screwing back the plastic cover on the bottom) extended my play time to about one hour. But even with that, after one hour I reach the 90ºC mark, and then everything starts going wrong.

Is there anything left that I can do? Do you think getting a better cooler, perhaps one of the huge fan coolers designed for gamers, will fix it? Should I spend the money on that?
I've also seen a few DIY hand-made water coolers for laptops, but I would rather find an alternative solution, even if it's relatively expensive, because I'm not very good at crafting things by myself.
Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated... thanks a lot in advance! 😀

 

[dudewitbow]

its probably the thermal paste being dry on your cpu/heatsink contact.

 

[rusabus]

Hello, I'm asking advice because I have trouble with a laptop that I use for gaming. There must be something wrong with the graphic card, because it gets really hot (as hot as 100ºC) after about 20 minutes of playing any demanding game. When the GPU is cold, the games run perfectly, but when it's at 100ºC they just freeze or get to 1 or 2 FPS, which sucks.
First I tried getting a fan cooler, and that extended my straight play time to about 30 minutes only. After that I opened the laptop, cleaned it, and then I found that leaving it open (I mean, not screwing back the plastic cover on the bottom) extended my play time to about one hour. But even with that, after one hour I reach the 90ºC mark, and then everything starts going wrong.

Is there anything left that I can do? Do you think getting a better cooler, perhaps one of the huge fan coolers designed for gamers, will fix it? Should I spend the money on that?
I've also seen a few DIY hand-made water coolers for laptops, but I would rather find an alternative solution, even if it's relatively expensive, because I'm not very good at crafting things by myself.
Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated... thanks a lot in advance! 😀

When you opened the laptop to clean it, did you remove the fan from the heatsink? Laptop CPU/VGA coolers typically use an axial blower fan to blow air through a heatsink. The design tends to build up dust between the fan and heatsink, eventually plugging it up completely. But you usually can't see the blockage without removing the fan from the heatsink.

If the heatsink is not plugged, you can replace the thermal compound on the VGA cooler. This often will fix cooling problems. Just make sure you reinstall any thermal pads in their correct locations. Another possibility is that your fan is not working properly and is incapable of hitting maximum RPM. Most laptop fans can hit 5-6000 RPM, but the only way to know for sure would be to get the fan's part number and look up its rated speed from the manufacturer and compare that to the speeds your fan is hitting. Does your laptop report VGA fan speed?

--Russel