Graphics Card Overheating issue?

[buckypilot56]

My graphics card seems to be overheating. Not only when I play games, but during idle. For example:

http://i.imgur.com/LlrCj.png

In the screenshot you will see that I have 0% activity (I was at the desktop) but for some reason my card is running at 93 C's. I have a Radeon 6970 card in a laptop, and while in games I expect the temperature to peak a little bit, it seems crazy for this thing to run at 70 to 90+ C's while I am idling around on the desktop. On top of the heat issue, its also extremely noisy because, I assume its attempting to compensate with the fan. I really have no idea what could possibly be wrong with the thing. Just to preference, as soon as I start my computer (from a shut down) it jumps right up! And if I play a game, it jumps up even more (understandably) and then when I exit it doesn't go down, it simply seems to idle at 90 or so C's.

 

[gregck]

laptop. found your problem here.

 

[buckypilot56]

While I do realize that everything is crammed in there and such, I've seen plenty of other laptops at least at idle run significantly less hot, and significantly less noisy. I figured that it should scale to the level of activity it is currently under?

 

[HVDynamo]

My guess is that either your Heatsink/Fan is clogged with hair and dust, or the thermal paste is no longer transmitting heat effectively. If the laptop is new and it is doing this, I would send it back. Those temps are too high. Otherwise, cleaning it with compressed air and or reapplying thermal paste should fix the issue.

 

[buckypilot56]

My guess is that either your Heatsink/Fan is clogged with hair and dust, or the thermal paste is no longer transmitting heat effectively. If the laptop is new and it is doing this, I would send it back. Those temps are too high. Otherwise, cleaning it with compressed air and or reapplying thermal paste should fix the issue.

I've cleaned out the fan of dust (which there was not a large amount of at least to my knowledge, its harder to tell on a laptop I presume). So the thermal paste seems to be a possible issue? Where can I buy thermal paste and secondly where do I know where to apply it?

 

[graemevermeulen]

I've cleaned out the fan of dust (which there was not a large amount of at least to my knowledge, its harder to tell on a laptop I presume). So the thermal paste seems to be a possible issue? Where can I buy thermal paste and secondly where do I know where to apply it?

I'd open it up if it's not in warranty, buy some thermal paste from a local shop or order some online.

If it's still in warranty, send it back.

Your laptop is a fire hazard!

 

[HVDynamo]

I've cleaned out the fan of dust (which there was not a large amount of at least to my knowledge, its harder to tell on a laptop I presume). So the thermal paste seems to be a possible issue? Where can I buy thermal paste and secondly where do I know where to apply it?

There may still be dust in there that you can't see, as graemeverme suggested, open it up if it is out of warranty and and you may be able to clean it better. As for thermal paste, you can get some from any microcenter, or order some online at www.newegg.com. I personally recommend Arctic Silver 5, but there are some other decent thermal pastes out there as well. The thermal paste needs to be applied between the heatsink and the chip it is keeping cool. You would need to clean the old thermal paste off carefully (don't use anything that is abrasive) using a soft cloth (paper towels work too, but they leave fibers behind which isn't ideal) and some isopropyl alcohol. Clean both the chip and the heatsink and allow to dry. Then apply a thin layer of the new thermal paste to the chip and spread evenly. Basically you want it as thin as possible, but still covering the whole thing. Then reattach the heatsink and put everything else you had to take apart back together.

PS There are some that would argue the technique of spreading the thermal paste, rather than putting a small bit in the middle and letting the heatsink spread it when you put pressure on it. I don't prefer that technique because it is harder to tell if the right amount is applied. You don't want too much as that can cause problems. Also, Arctic Silver 5 will conduct, so you want to be sure that it isn't going to short something out.

The links below should give you some more information on application of thermal paste. All of these however describe desktop CPU's which have the metal heatspreaders on them. Your laptop chip will likely not have the heatspreader so be sure to just apply the thermal paste on the raised part of the chip (this is the back side of the actual silicon chip).

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/234174-29-application-thermal-paste-correct-technique
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/howto_install_cpu_and_apply_thermal_paste
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7rPqCvCt0g