Is this laptop overheating?

[geo909]

Hi all,

I'm helping a friend to set up her 3-year old fujitsu amilo li 2727. It had overheating problems due to a dirty fan and an awfully bloated, cpu-hungry vista installation, and it was always turning off.

I did some cleaning and a format and although things are obviously better (fan sounds normal, no spontaneous power-offs whatsoever), I need someone who knows about these things to tell me if the situation sounds good:

The laptop's CPU is an Intel T2310. According to this page, the Tjunction (I assume that's the maximum temperature it can handle) is 100 degrees C. Now, when the laptop is calm without many things going on, the temperature is around 65. I started running several programs simultaneously (probably way more than a normal every-day usage) on purpose and it reached 78-79 degrees.

Do you think those numbers are ok, or would you consider the laptop to be somewhat overheating?

Thanks in advance for your time..

Update: I have > 15 tabs on chrome (10 youtube videos playing/loading), skype, a virus search running, picasa, 2 instances of vlc, dropbox, office 2007 word and powerpoint running.. The temperature, after around 25-30 minutes has reached a maximum of 89 degrees and the system is fully responsive.. That should be okay, right?!!

 

[JRock247]

Your CPU can run at those temps but would not advise it! Check your CPU heatsink/fan is seated correctly and try re-appying your thermal paste and try a decent make of thermal past (Arctic Silver 5 or simialr). Your temps do seem bit high but laptops generally do run higher than desktops temps. Try using 'SpeedFan'to monitor your CPU fan, as your laptop gets hotter your fan should speed up, make sure it is doing. What are you using to monitor the temps? Check your BIOS temps and/or use 'CoreTemp' and report back.

 

[geo909]

Your CPU can run at those temps but would not advise it! Check your CPU heatsink/fan is seated correctly and try re-appying your thermal paste and try a decent make of thermal past (Arctic Silver 5 or simialr). Your temps do seem bit high but laptops generally do run higher than desktops temps. Try using 'SpeedFan'to monitor your CPU fan, as your laptop gets hotter your fan should speed up, make sure it is doing. What are you using to monitor the temps? Check your BIOS temps and/or use 'CoreTemp' and report back.

Hi and thanks for the quick reply,

I used CoreTemp to check the temperature. I'll definitely try SpeedFan when I assemble the laptop again and will report
back.

For now, I have the laptop opened to check the heatsink.. It seems to be siting ok. But the fan is not accessible and I cannot really see if the fan or the heatsink are clogged with dust. I have to first remove the heatsink. I've never removed a cpu/heatsink before; I'm willing to get a little bit risky and try to (my friend got another laptop and this is mine to play with now).

Could you please tell me which screws you think I should remove to get the heatsink off? I have labelled them with letters in the picture below. I guess that should be the A's and B's, right? Is there anything I should be careful of?

PS. Needless to say that I won't blame anybody who gives advice if I harm the laptop during that.

 

[JRock247]

OK refering to your above image, the A screws are for the part of heatsink that is over your graphics card, so remove them. Then remove all B screws, they are for the part of heatsink over your CPU. I don't think you will need to remove the D screw but if you can't remove the heatsink, try that screw. Don't undo the C screws, no need. Removing the heatsink will be fine, I have done this 100's of times. Once you remove the heatsink, you will see the top of yuor CPU and GPU, they should have some thermal paste on them, I would suggest re-applying some thermal past if you have some. Once the heatsink is out clean it up good, remove any dust/dirt. You can now try and clean the fan as well, give it a blow with some compressed air or blow hard on it. If you are a little unsure about removing the heatsink still, check out some youtube vids, it will give you an idea what to look for and what to watch out for. But like I said, its a simple process and you should have no probs.

Let me know how you get on and if you get stuck or need any help, just message me, more than happy to help out.

 

[JRock247]

Oh and another thing to be carefull off is static electricity. If you standing on carpet, were shoes to prevent static build up. Best to do this on a wooden, marble, plastic etc work surface and stand on tiles or floorboards. You can dis-charge yourself if you touch something metal. All the years working on pc's and laptos, I have never broken a machine or bit of hardware from static electricity but best to be carefull.

 

[geo909]

OK refering to your above image, the A screws are for the part of heatsink that is over your graphics card, so remove them. Then remove all B screws, they are for the part of heatsink over your CPU. I don't think you will need to remove the D screw but if you can't remove the heatsink, try that screw. Don't undo the C screws, no need. Removing the heatsink will be fine, I have done this 100's of times. Once you remove the heatsink, you will see the top of yuor CPU and GPU, they should have some thermal paste on them, I would suggest re-applying some thermal past if you have some. Once the heatsink is out clean it up good, remove any dust/dirt. You can now try and clean the fan as well, give it a blow with some compressed air or blow hard on it. If you are a little unsure about removing the heatsink still, check out some youtube vids, it will give you an idea what to look for and what to watch out for. But like I said, its a simple process and you should have no probs.

Let me know how you get on and if you get stuck or need any help, just message me, more than happy to help out.

Many thanks for the precious help! I'll disappear for a few days, please don't consider that as a lack of interest (I also
have to travel a 30-min bus drive to get thermal paste so it won't happen soon). I'll report back when I get the paste
and deal with the laptop again..

 

[Pyree]

What's the ambient temperature geo909?

The idle is a bit high, but that can be due to high ambient temperature. Under load look normal.

 

[geo909]

Hi Pyree and thanks for the feedback,

Hmm.. I don't have a thermometer, but it should be a reasonable room temperature.
Most of the times I wear a t-shirt and sometimes wear my hoodie (it's winter!).

However, there is an update. I have an inspiron 1525 which I just realized it has a
similar CPU (Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2330 @ 1.60GHz). With some browsing
and very light use of other things, it does not exceed 60 degrees after one hour of
use in the same room.

So I guess the other laptop should be running on more or less the same temperature?

 

[Pyree]

Is the Dell fan working more than the Fujitsu?

 

[geo909]

Is the Dell fan working more than the Fujitsu?

Hmmm.. Unfortunately I can't give numbers (the dell is running linux and I couldn't make
tools like lm-sensors to give me the rpm's).

So, I'm not sure how precise this is, but it seems to me that dell's fan is working a lot. I think it
runs in almost full all the time..

 

[Pyree]

^That will explain why the Fujitsu is warmer.

If you have already reseat the heat sink, clean the fan, etc and the temp is still high, then you should use a laptop cooler.

 

[geo909]

Sorry for the late replies; the laptop is not my priority at the moment, but it *is* in
the schedule to finalize this.

Btw, the only computer store that I found around selling thermal paste and such,
only had this 'Metal Oxide Thermal CPU Paste Compound' by Startech. Paid around
5 bucks for a 1.5 tube. I couldn't find the Arctic silver 5 that was suggested earlier.

Do you know that brand? Should I avoid using it and buy the Arctic online instead?

 

[JRock247]

Sorry for my late reply!

I was only advising the Arctic Silver 5 as I have used in many times before and know its a good thermal paste. Never heard of Metal Oxide paste but should be OK, check reviews of it on google if unsure. I prefer to stick with makes I know but up2u.

Poste your new temps when you have re-installed the new thermal paste.

 

[geo909]

EDIT: I removed this post and repost some questions below.
Apologies for the mess..

 

[geo909]

Hi again!

It's been a long time, but I was very busy with life to deal with the laptop.
I found some time today and I opened it. As I was saying in my first post,
this laptop is overheating a little bit and I was planning to clean the heat
sink and apply thermal paste.

1. There is a sticker (with the barcode) on the CPU! Is that normal? Should I try to remove it?
2. Should I do anything with the glue-like thing on the graphics card?

I named some parts to make it easier to describe things..

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[Pyree]

The bar code is to stop you from removing the CPU for warranty purpose (warranty void if sticker removed). Rip it off if you are out for warranty.

That looks like a thermal pad on the GPU. They use thermal pad when the surface is round or irregular (the GPU die looks like a blob).

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835230030

 

[geo909]

The bar code is to stop you from removing the CPU for warranty purpose (warranty void if sticker removed). Rip it off if you are out for warranty.

That looks like a thermal pad on the GPU. They use thermal pad when the surface is round or irregular (the GPU die looks like a blob).

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835230030

I see, thanks.. I was not able to rip it of completely; the sides were torn and the rest
is still stuck there. I'm afraid to use my nails on that, so I'll leave it since I'm not going
to change the CPU anyway.

So, I left the pad there and applied the thermal paste on the cpu. Then I put everything
back together, I turned on the laptop, installed fanspeed and I saw that it soon started
to overheat. And then I saw that it detected no fan at all and I realized that the fan is
not working *at all*! I feel so dumb for not realizing this in the first place (although I
feel that I should have noticed, so it maybe happened after I opened the laptop?) and
there was no point in puting the thermal paste, although I feel I learned something..

:-/

Any advice as of where to start with replacing the fan? Is it pretty much a standard size
for all laptops, or are there a bazillion of different types and I'll have to find the specific
one?

I'm definitely going to do some research, but a few quick pointers would help..

EDIT: I already found a bunch of fans in ebay for the particular type of laptop, so I guess
I should just go with them?

 

[Pyree]

Laptop fans are not standardise. You have to get one that fits your model.

 

[geo909]

Laptop fans are not standardise. You have to get one that fits your model.

Thanks, so I'll go with one of those in ebay..