Question on effects of overheating

My question: "If a computer gets hot enough to the point that it shuts down, how hard is that on the machine in general?"

I'm not talking about a situation where it's been running really hot for a long time and then eventually shuts off - but if it gets so hot that it shuts off in a very brief amount of time, so it isn't actually hot for very long.

I ask because I have a game that makes my laptop overheat like no other. It does so very quickly (comp goes from cool, to screaming fans, to power off in less than two minutes).

I've played other games with similar system requirements that don't do this whatsoever. So I think that this might be some issue between the game (Medieval Total War 2) and my video card (Nvidia Quadro), as Quadros are optimized for stuff like AutoCAD rather than games.

That being the case, I don't think that this will solve the problem, but I'd still like to clean the fan/apply new thermal paste/do what I can to lower temps and try again.

However, if I'm subtracting "x" amount of time in the computer's lifespan every time it gets hot enough that it's forced to shut down, it might not be worth messing with.

This is just one of those abstract questions I've never heard a good answer to.

My understanding is that the computer is supposed to shut down BEFORE it gets hot enough to do any damage to the components.

But that doesn't necessarily seem to mean that the stress on the machine getting that hot isn't still really bad for it, even in small, short doses.

But I don't really know if it's significantly bad enough that I should shy away from testing this more, so I'm hoping someone else out there will.

Just to head it off at the pass: I realize that laptop computers in general (and Nvidia Quadro cards specifically) aren't really intended so much for gaming, etc, so I'm really only looking for information about heat here.

Thanks.

They shut down because they have built in protection which detects the heat and shuts them down. It's a good idea to try an minimize the heat (use a laptop cooling stand for example) but it's not really hurting your hardware that much. Where things go wrong is when it fails to shut down, and temps skyrocket and things start breaking.

Generally it should not cause too many problems as long as the shutdown temp has not been set to a ridiculously high levels. It is has not been set and is just a default it would be good to understand what is causing it to get so hot so quickly.

Maybe you should try some CPU and Video benchmark tests to check what is causing it so you know for the future.

I agree with cleaning and applying fresh paste for CPU and GPU if it has a removable heatsink and checking/cleaning the fan(s) as well.

Thanks for the info.

I decided to visit laptopvideo2go.com and download geforce drivers (167.something-or-other) and a modified .inf file to let me use them, which gave me the same results as before.

So much for my little theory ;-).

I ran a temp monitoring program while I ran the game, and it looks like the temps simply are shooting up really high (hit 100) really fast.

I guess this game in particular is just taxing the system in ways that games with similar requirements aren't.

So I'm gonna strip the laptop down and clean it, and apply some good thermal paste and see what that does.

I bet it hasn't been cleaned since it was manufactured, so I'm optimistic that it'll make a significant difference.

I was worried that getting the system hot enough that it shuts down repeatedly could potentially damage it, so I didn't want to keep trying to run the game if I was harming my system by testing it.

I figured it was fine, but it's good to get confirmation from other folks that the system should shut down before damage becomes a concern.

Thanks.

Let us know how it goes after you clean it and apply new thermal paste.

It may come down to the cooling is not sufficient when you really work it hard, hopefully some properly applied good quality thermal paste will help at least a little.

I went out and picked up some arctic silver 5 and took my laptop apart, and I didn't like what I found.

The gpu has no heatsink. None. Nada.

My question is whether or not it's supposed to?

It's a Dell Latitude D620.

They give you two options for graphics: either the standard Intel integrated, or the Nvidia Quadro 110m.

Here's what I'm wondering:

This was a refurbished unit I bought on Ebay. I'm normally leery of refurb units (and buying electronics on Ebay), but the price was right, the place I bought it from had over 50,000 feedback and 99.5% of it positive, and there's a 30 day warranty so I thought I'd take a shot.

I'm wondering if maybe Dell uses two different heatsinks - one for the standard integrated graphics, and one for the Nvidia upgrade?

And being that it's a refurb, I'm wondering if perhaps the board was replaced, and if perhaps the old board had the Intel graphics option, and they went ahead and stuck the old heatsink on the new board with the Nvidia chip.

So first of all, does anyone know if the Nvidia chip is supposed to have a heatsink?

It seems totally nuts that it doesn't, but you never know.

There aren't any holes on the board to mount one on, but it could've been meant to have a pipe running from the cpu heatsink to it.

My next question is, is there anyway to mod one on?

There's no way to mount it to the board, but I wonder if it would be worth trying to get an appropriately sized/shaped piece of copper or aluminum and attach it with some arctic silver ceramique, or something else that would create a strong bond between it and the chip.

I really don't want to mess with a cooling stand, etc, but I'm really interested in getting the temps to acceptable levels somehow that doesn't require lugging around extra equipment.

I included a picture with the Nvidia chip circled so that you can see what I mean.

Thanks.

I've used High Heat Silicone to mount Custom Heatsinks to the Vidcard ram b-4...they never fell off...I had to pull them off.
So if you can manage to find a Lowprofile,high CFM fan I thinks it's worth a shot...can't hurt

P.S. I would still invest in a Laptop Cooling Stand...They can be had for approx $20 or less...and really not that bulky

Thanks for the tip.

I actually just did a bit more googling, and it has the wrong heatsink on it.

Dell offers two different heatsinks for this laptop, one with a pipe for the graphics chip, and one without.

Mine is the one without.

Which is why it hits over 100 C and shuts off when I try to play Medieval: Total War 2.

Fortunately I played this right, and decided to not leave feedback until after the warranty is up.

So I'm going to contact them about it tomorrow and see what they'll do for me about this.

Honestly, I have no idea how long this laptop's been running like this, and what it's been through. So I'm not thrilled.

But hopefully they'll work out a solution for me.

And if not, the item technically wasn't as described in a few different ways, so if they want to stick me on it, I'll just return it for a refund.

Thanks.

Be careful...disassembling of your lappy might have voidded your warranty

No wonder it is going into thermal shutdown on heavy graphics work.

I think it would be hard to find a passive heatsink to fit into a notebook, headroom would be very low.

If you do not get anywhere with the supplier remedy or return option you mentioned see if you can locate a service manual online.

It should show the heatsink for both and part numbers, then see if you can google the correct heatsink to see if they are easy to get your hands on one.

From the pic you posted it looks like it currently routes the heatpipe from CPU to northbridge, maybe the other one adds another heatpipe cooling point before or after the northbridge to include the graphics chip.

Don't forget to keep us posted as this could help other people with the same problem.

Alright, I got it all sorted out.

I contacted the place that sold me the laptop, and the gentleman I spoke to couldn't have been cooler about it.

He said he was aware that some of these D620's with the Nvidia option don't have the proper heatsink, and that he had spoken to Dell about it.

And he said that whoever he spoke to at Dell claimed that using the proper heatsink with the extra heat pipe for the GPU didn't make much of a difference - which is ridiculous.

But he said that he saw things my way, and told me he'd send out the proper heatsink for nothing as it was still under warranty.

I got it yesterday, but didn't have time to put it in until tonight.


I had trouble installing it since one of the pipes was a little bent, but I bent it back to where it needed to be and threw her in with some arctic silver 5.

Arctic silver 5 on the CPU, that is - GPU pipe had one of those thermal sponges, and I opted to use that instead of pulling the sponge off and bending the pipe to where I'd need it to use grease.


And I'm VERY pleased with the results.


With the old heatsink, running Medieval: Total War 2 would send the GPU temp over 100 degrees C and shut the computer down.

With the proper heatsink installed, I ran the same game the same way, only for a longer period than it took to shut down before - and the GPU temp didn't break 70 C.

And my CPU idles in the high 30's C, and hits the low to mid 70's when running the prime 95 torture test for a while.

The low to mid 70's on the CPU at 100% load would worry me a little, except that after a bunch of googling, I found that apparently the core duos operating temperature range is 0-100 C, according to this, so I think I'm good.

I've included a picture of what the proper heatsink looks like - same as the old, just with an extra pipe.

I have no idea how often Dell uses the wrong heatsink on these.

So if anyone out there in internet land has a Dell D620 with the Nvidia option and your GPU temps are ridiculous, it could be a good idea to go here, which is a good tear-down guide for it, pop off your keyboard according to the instructions found on that site (very very simple, just be careful taking the hinge cover off), and make sure that your heatsink looks like the picture posted below.

If it doesn't and you see that bare Nvidia chip staring at you, you can pick up the proper heatsink from here.

I've never dealt with that company before, but googling them didn't yield anything ominous, and they have the best price on this heatsink I've found (as of 9/09).

I was fortunate enough to not have to pay for mine because of the warranty, but others may not be so lucky.

So thanks for the help all, and good luck to those who encounter this problem.