Enigma IV Overheating

[yurad]

A year and a bit ago, I bought an Enigma IV from PCSpecialist (Nvidia GT 650m and Ivy Bridge i5). I mostly use this laptop for light gaming every now and then, otherwise, for video rendering and normal use such as browsing the internet, Office and Youtube.

Anyway, when I got the laptop temperatures rarely exceeded 73 - 75 C even while playing a game. Now if I leave it on for around 2 hours while I have a few programs open and watching something, my processor reaches 83 C at which point I shut it down to prevent damage. As for gaming now, similar temps are inevitable (as well as on the GPU) after around 20 mins. I believe the problem is that the fans are set on to too low of a speed even when these temps are reached.I always use a cooling stand, it helps slightly, but not enough. When the fans are set to 100% during POST, they sound much louder than what speeds they reach during the high temps I experience. I have checked the fans, there is no dust/gunk buildup. I believe it is a BIOS problem, but it (Insyde H2O) does not have fan controls. Should I upgrade my BIOS? Is it an OS problem? What can I do to speed the internal fans up (my BIOS cannot be used with Speedfan)?

 

[mantadog]

What software are you using to monitor the temps? The CPU isn't going to be damage at 83 degrees, it should be safe enough up into the high 90's so you do have a good bit of head room. The worrying this is it seems to be doing this on a very low workload. Did you order the upgraded thermal compound? It could be after a year its just started to dry out a little. My desktop now runs 15 degrees hotter than when I got it which is purely down to the compound drying out, but that is after 3 years.

Does the computer take the full 2 hours to reach 83 degrees when just undergoing light use? If the temps are maxing out at 83 degrees you have nothing to worry about. You will only really need to worry when they reach the 90's or a thermal shutdown occurs.

Grab a copy of prime 95 and set it running for 10-15 minutes, what temp does it reach?

 

[yurad]

1. I use HWiNFO64 for my temperature readings and I did not order the upgraded compound.

2. Right, I ran Prime95 for 14 mins on 4 threads, with the laptop elevated. (I realise that Prime95 does not test the GPU).

The test started on CPU: 68C, GPU: 50C

The peak temperature was reached in 6 mins CPU: 88C, GPU: 66C

After that the temps started dropping and stabilised after the 10th minute at CPU: 80C, GPU: 65C

Should I presume that the load temperatures are normal? Prime95 reported no errors.

 

[mantadog]

Seems 100% normal to me on the CPU side of things anyway. 88 degrees is perfectly acceptable if you are not experiencing any other symptoms of overheating then I think you are safe enough to just forget about it, obviously keep a check on it to be sure it doesn't get worse.

The other symptoms would be shutdowns/blue screens when under heavy load or artefacts on the screen when gaming. It sounds like the laptop is using the minimum fan speed possible at all times, so the fan is unlikely to ever spin at 100%. The BIOS has determined that say 60% is fine to keep the CPU cool and around 80-85 degrees which is perfectly safe.

As I said feel free to monitor it and if it does get worse then come back, however at this moment I don't see much to be concerned about.

 

[yurad]

Since in the past I have also noticed the GPU overheating, I ran FurMark at 960x540 resolution, temperatures of 93 C were recorded only after a minute of running the 'Burn-in test'. Is this fine too? I had to stop the test as temps were showing no decrease.

 

[mantadog]

Hmm 93 is hot, but what really matters is gaming temps.

Artificial benchmarks on the GPU (and CPU for that matter) always push it harder then games. Fire up your most demanding game on the most demanding settings you can play at. Play for a while and then have a look at the temps, it should be fairly stable after 10-15 minutes. That's about your best bet for testing how the whole system is being cooled.

According to what I could find after a quick search around was the 650m can handle up to 105c, that's hot and way too hot to use for long otherwise it will have a shorter lifespan. I wouldn't like it to go much higher than 93 but as I said gaming is were it matters. have a go at gaming and see what you get.

 

[yurad]

Right, I started up WarThunder for the first time. During the joystick set-up menu and the main menu, in 6 mins I had the CPU hit 89 C (which was fine), but the GPU hit 101 C. I immediately closed the application, just in time before the GPU hit its maximum of 105 C. I have never experienced temperatures of above 100 C. What happened there? The game was running on high settings, there were no artifacts or frame rate dips.

 

[mantadog]

You shouldn't be getting over 100 degrees at any point, probably should really be getting over 90 on the GPU. Still under warranty by any chance? I think you might have a problem with the thermal paste on the GPU, reasonably easy job to do but depends how comfortable you are inside a computer.

 

[yurad]

I have silver warranty, which means I have parts and labour still active but not collect and return. I think I will be able to do it by myself though. What kind of paste do you recommend?

 

[mantadog]

Arctic cooling mx-4 is good

 

[yurad]

I will order some compound, apply it and report back with results. I thank you very much for your help.

 

[yurad]

I got a hold of some Arctic Cooling MX-2. The laptop was surprisingly easy to take apart (requiring removing of 1 panel on the back). After taking the heat sink off, I used several cotton buds dunked in isopropyl alchol to clean the GPU, CPU and the copper heatsinks. After I could see my reflection in the chips, I put a pea of MX-2 on each and used a piece of card to spread a thin layer. After a 5 min assembly, I booted up and waited 5 mins before measuring idle temps. The results were much lower. The CPU was at 43 C and the GPU was at 36 C, Prime95 gave a CPU max of 67 C (NOT 89 C). Gameplay at 1080p, reached a max of only 67 C on both chips. The thermal paste (along with a bit of fan cleaning) had made massive improvements.

The generic thermal paste already there had gone to everywhere EXCEPT the chips' contact to heat sink. All of it was AROUND the chip not on it. Now I can do anything on this laptop without this getting to ANY uncomfortable temps. I strongly recommend to all getting the upgraded compound when customising your computer.

 

[mantadog]

Good work, give it a couple days of general usage before the paste really comes into its own though, so you might be able to get a bit lower yet.

Anyway glad its all sorted

 

[4ner]

Always remember to clean out ever 4-6 months