TheWookieWay

Commendable
Jul 12, 2016
5
0
1,510
My desktop sucks, so my gaming laptop is used for gaming and streaming anything demanding.

6th gen Core i7 6700hq, 8gig ddr4, terabyte HDD, GTX 960M 2g, used heavily for at least 9 months or more in dirty environment (cat hair everywhere!), but it's elevated and on a cooling stand, plenty of air underneath and vents never blocked. Ambient Temp is always AC cooled to 60-70F, can get down to 50 in winter.

Laptop used to run cooler, and cooler boost fan used to actually HELP when engaged and there was no question it's engaged.

PUBG (playerunknown's battlegrounds) is a very demanding modern game, and in playing it and trying to stream some of the time, i have done every possible tweak to get every last FPS out of my system, yet I still run everything on "very low " settings in game.

The PROBLEM: CPU temp 89c, GPU temp 92c .. fans do not reach 3000 rpm anymore (they used to). I don't think this is healthy longterm. laptop has 2 year extended warrant through newegg that will expire in Feb 2018.

Fan used to be loud but worked, then started making noise and vibration, and I worried about this for a while, but decided i'd take care of it when it died or stopped cooling enough... somewhere along the way, the fan stopped making noise but still blows air out of pc on both sides (cpu and gpu fans)

It may have been when I fine tuned high performance mode for max FPS, that I somehow limited the fan profile, but fans run between 1000rpm and about 2500rpm (est) even at max temps. when not playing demanding game like PUBG, normal idle temps can be from 38 to 50c (sometimes around 60c).

Laptop options include Speed (high performance), Comfort (balanced), and Eco (green). Fan has Turbo boost button. All combinations are giving same high temps when game is running!

Power profile for high performance has been tweaked for max FPS in gaming due to PUBG demands, but since high temps, I have tried to back that off a bit in favor of lowering temp, with no results.

Question: can I clean out my fans without messing with thermal paste? (ie clean it while still attached to PC, i live in remote area)
and.. Can I do this without voiding my warranty sticker?

This question also applies to wanting to install an M.2 SSD. I have with PC for 30 years, and worked ON them for 20 years, not afraid of doing things myself, just don't have lots of workspace or tools any more.

I'd really like to clean my fans, but I'm surprised at how LITTLE dust/cat hair has been near the vents when cleaned from the outside. You can see part of both fans through the bottom and they both "look" fine. I even used the vacuum trick (carefully) to try to draw out more dust and got nothing.

I can't find the exact details of what my max temp (throttling) and max safe temp (acceptable operation range) should/can be.

Dragon Gaming Center was giving the same temps before and after upgrade. I have not upgraded anything else like EC/BIOS/etc .. it worked before at lower temps even with demanding games, and turbo fan boost used to work better, and both fans spun faster in the past. So it should still work now without having to upgrade anything.

Where have I gotten lost?

Hardware failure from fans that used to make noise and vibrate but don't now?

A system setting change that caused my fans to be limited when they should be going near full speed?

I've been investigating for a week (reddit, google, tomshardware, etc) and not coming up with good answers, just people with similar temps and a variety of answers about those and what to do about it.

I'd be ok if it's within operating range for high demand gaming, IF i could actually lower temps and increase fan speeds when i want to. The fact that I cannot increase fans over 3000rpm, and I cannot brin ng temps down under load have me concerned. I used to leave cooler boost on untli temps dropped under 50c after gaming.

Temps on ECO setting still get down to about 38c if not using laptop for anything.

Money is a big issue, so anywhere i can save spending or down time is a good idea.

UPDATE: found out from newegg, that warranty sticker is only for MSI, and I am already past 1 year, so no worries about cleaning my fans, OTHER than can I do it without thermal paste need?
 
Solution
It could be that the fans themselvels are worn out if all the dust has been cleaned.

You could also uninstall all programs that you don't need to make the laptop run cooler when playing games or doing normal things. Also if you don't sign into windows apps and disable driver updates as windows gets this wrong all the time.

Also have a local account instead of a microsoft account.

Also play without the battery if it is removable as this can make a huge difference in the temps.

TheWookieWay

Commendable
Jul 12, 2016
5
0
1,510
well, with "comfort" setting, it changes between high performance and balanced profiles as needed, and temps are in the mid 80s now under same high load, and about 38c at idle.

It must have been throttling because my framerates in PUBG (just in menu) because at lower settings, i am now getting 13 to 18 more fps in menu.

At night, when I sleep, i turn it to eco mode, and idle temp is 35c roughly.

I still wonder about the fans not going as fast as they used to, but they also used to vibrate and don't anymore.
 
It could be that the fans themselvels are worn out if all the dust has been cleaned.

You could also uninstall all programs that you don't need to make the laptop run cooler when playing games or doing normal things. Also if you don't sign into windows apps and disable driver updates as windows gets this wrong all the time.

Also have a local account instead of a microsoft account.

Also play without the battery if it is removable as this can make a huge difference in the temps.
 
Solution

TheWookieWay

Commendable
Jul 12, 2016
5
0
1,510
the fan was indeed going out (cpu side) and you do need thermal paste to remove the gpu/cpu heatsink assembly, and reseat after services fans if you need to take them out.
In this case, i finally replaced the CPU fan, and all is well again.