Solved! What else can I do to keep my laptop CPU's temp down??

[leglesscheetah]

I use a Dell G7 gaming laptop and it has served me well for the last year or so. Lately I'm running into huge temp spikes whenever I boot up a game. It kicks up to about 90-93 C after a couple minutes of the game running. I currently have a really good cooling pad that elevates it and has the fans perfectly set below the intake vents. I'm just not too sure what to do from here. Is there anything else I can do to drop the temp? What could be causing it?

 

[AlHuneke]

This is kind of a wild suggestion, but as a EE who worked with thermal designers over the years, I know that just blowing more air is not always the answer. Depends on a lot of complex aerodynamics. If you just run the machine with the vent clear (like on a hard table top) is the temp situation worse?

Have you looked using the task manager at the processes tab to see what is using a lot of CPU/GPU power? You may need to right click on a column header to enable the GPU display. Click on each column header to bring the heavy processes to the top.

Maybe it just needs to be cleaned. Don't do this without understanding how to take precautions for static (ESD) and don't use regular brushes. Good idea to take picture. Don't disconnect anything you don't absolutely have to. Don't remove the RAMs. They don't need cleaning. Concentrate on what the fan(s) deal with. Make sure you keep track of screw lengths and put them back in the right places.