My laptop overheats despite several efforts.

[MarvelK]

Hello everyone,

I have a Toshiba Qosmio X505 series gaming laptop. I bought it over 3 years ago. I had been running smoothly but now it over heats and shuts down after couple hours. Before it used to happen once in a while during playing games but now it happens after couple hours even if I only have single browser open.

I did some research, opened the computer the cleaned heat sink and fans thoroughly with compressed air. It didn't work. Then I went ahead and bought a thermal paste. I opened my laptop, took everything apart, cleaned it and applied thermal paste on CPU and GPU and re-inserted the heat sink. It still doesn't work, it does the same thing if not worse.

Now my question is, what else I need to do and why its still happening. Now, that I turn on my laptop, I can feel the heat within ten minutes. I am thinking maybe it is because I had been abusing (playing alot of games, sometimes all day long during weekends) it recently?

Any suggestions or comments?

Thanks
Damon

 

[unoriginal1]

What method did you apply for the thermal grease? To much can act as an insulator and actually make it run hotter.

Also what temps are you getting? Are you certain it's the cpu that is heating up?

(you've gone through the proper troubleshooting steps so far, just fine tuning )

 

[MarvelK]

I tried my best to make the paste layer as thin as possible and also making sure no area is uncovered. Not sure if something happened when I was putting the heat sink back on.

At cold startup, its on 49%, after couple mins it stays at 54 and then spikes to 62 and boom.

Using Core Temp: At this moment, all cores (0 - 4) are averaging at 54 (While Toshiba utility says its at 48%)

There are two fans and I can feel GPU fan is running cooler while CPU is hot.

 

[ram1009]

This is why there will always be desktops.

 

[unoriginal1]

K try re applying your thermal paste again. You may have gotten an air pocket or something. Look up "pea method" and use that. make sure you clean off the old paste and that your not getting any on other components. Use your compressed air again to clean out the fans.

WARNING: DO NOT blow air directly onto the fans making them turn. The air will turn them faster then intended and it's an easy way to ruin the bearings. Hold the fan in place with a pen or pencil and then use the air to clean it.

See if you get better results. If not.. About the only other options are going to be using some form of alternate cooler. There are laptop coolers (I personally don't think they work that well thou)

 

[dingo07]

it sounds like the fan in your heat sink is not working - confirm the fan spins and runs while the computer is on - and run speccy http/www.piriform.com/speccy/download to monitor the temps

 

[MarvelK]

Just re-did everything again. Let see how it goes.

When I opened the heat sink, I could clearly see that I had too much paste on. I used the "Per Method" this time, but I don't feel comfortable using that method as I can't really tell if it was evenly spread or not. I used it anyways and lets see if make any difference.

I will update after an hour or so.

Thanks all for your suggestions and feedback.

 

[unoriginal1]

No problem good luck. It's common especially when it's your first time doing it to apply way to much. Then it just acts as an insulator and actually makes the issue worse. Hope that resolves it for you.

I didn't even think about what Dingo had suggested which is a good idea. Make sure the fan on the cpu its self is turning properly too.

 

[MarvelK]

It seems to be running better but I can still feel its running hot. Downloaded SpeedFan tool, and all CPU cores are at around 55C. Is it normal?

Also, I am seeing some unusual spikes in activity, and suspect it could also be infected with virus that making my CPU work hard. I think my fans are working fine.

Initial issue seems to have resolved.

Thanks all

 

[dingo07]

IMO speedfan is too cumbersome to use- I like the simple fan curve edits you can make with MSI Afterburner

have you looked at Resource Monitor to see what's going on with your cpu?