Heat Issues

[sebsch]

I have a Gateway P-6705u, with a X9100, eight gigs of DDR3, a one gig 9800M GTS and two hard drives. Recently I have been having horrible overheating issues. I just put new thermal paste on the CPU last week but I still can only play Arkham City for about 20 minutes, on all the lowest settings, then it shuts down from the heat. I do have it propped up, but I do not have any extra fans underneath, I have found they do not help. I am considering getting a T9900, but am looking for other options. Also, would a T9900 even help that much?

 

[Raiddinn]

I can't find a link to the PC you have.

In any event, I would like to because it really sounds like you could use a new case and I don't know if you have a standard motherboard or not.

A good case is worth its weight in gold. You can get a case for 80ish that does really well getting new cold air in and old hot air out. I suspect your computer has a top mount PSU too, moving it to a bottom mount case would double its life expectancy.

 

[sebsch]

I guess I should have made myself more clear; this is a laptop, not a desktop.

 

[rwayne]

I kinda thought it was a laptop when I saw it had a 9800M (Mobile) graphics chip.

Most laptops are not really engineered for gaming and as a result overheats.

If you are going to stick with a laptop I HIGHLY recommend the ASUS G74:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGyc36KKdRw

My coworker just picked this up. It is awesome and it has a great cooling system. The back end of it has huge vents to exhaust heat. It is beast of a machine too. Intel Core I-7 Processor and a Nvidia GTX 560M graphics.

Here is the product page:
http://usa.asus.com/Notebooks/Gaming_Powerhouse/G74SX/

 

[sebsch]

I plan on getting something similar to that this summer, I do not have the money now. That's why I was wondering if I could eke out a few more months with this one if I got a t9900 instead of an X9100.

 

[Raiddinn]

I wouldn't pay the money for a t9900 if I was getting a different laptop soon anyway.

Also, you probably are kinda screwed about the issues you are having, laptops aren't built for keeping cool.

 

[sebsch]

It didn't used to run this hot, but I don't know what else to do besides try putting new thermal paste on it, even though I just did that last week.

 

[Raiddinn]

You might want to try some spray air.

 

[Dogsnake]

You need to have it opened and cleaned out. I bet the vents and air paths for the fan are full of dust.

 

[phyco126]

Also check to see if your fans are working properly. Sometimes they will fail slowly, as in no spin fast enough to keep it cool. Or other times, they just outright don't work.

As Raiddinn said, make sure you clean out the heatsinks with a can of air.

 

[Raiddinn]

I had a laptop a while ago which had a fan that went bad.

I had to keep a can of spray air nearby and blow it in the exhaust port to spin the fan before it would start up.

 

[phyco126]

Same here Raiddinn, except my laptop had plenty of ventilation so the fan not working wasn't too big a deal. A chill pad was definitely needed, however.

 

[Raiddinn]

Mine wouldn't even come on if the fan didn't come on. Like it was programmed into the BIOS to not even attempt booting if the fan isn't on. It would just beep at me if it wasn't capable of spinning.

My 2 year old child was tuned into the sound. She heard the beep and ran over to where the spray air was and grabbed it and brought it over to me. Probably every 2nd or 3rd boot wouldn't work because of this problem.