Nexus High Temperatures

[martyc]

I'm a bit concerned about the temperatures I am getting in particular the HDD and GPU. Cores seem to peak v high too.

GPU has been as high as 96C and HDD peaked at 72C yesterday !

Should I be worried ??

examples...

11

12

13

[Evil Tactician]

I hope you mean your CPU hit 96 and not your GPU ;)

Either way, have you considered a notebook cooler? I bought one before my Nexus even arrived, as a 15,4" with that much power is guaranteed to run much hotter than your average laptop. I want to 'tilt' the notebook slightly for easier typing, so I figured I might as well get a cooler and do both things in 1 go.

Also - make sure you use it on a flat surface with sufficient space around the laptop to provide good airflow. Clean the fans/make sure there is no dust build-up inside your laptop. Try a notebook cooler as well.

Undervolting could be another option but I leave it to the experts here to comment on that one - personally I prefer not tinkering with such things unless really needed. (As long as temperature isn't an issue, I'd prefer not to go down that route for safeties sake.)

[Squeals]

I agree with Evil Tactician,
In any case, you should consider a can of compressed air from eBay, remove back panel to reveal heatsink, direct the nozzle into your fan vents and blow every vent until no dust flies out.

Temps like those COULD also mean ur thermal paste is drying out. How long have you had it for?
Good airflow is a heck of a major playa, it means the difference between 50 and 65 on my old laptop.

But i'm getting a Nexus now too!! Hope it will stay cooler than 96 ;)

[martyc]

no, I do mean the GPU temp (see image 3) !! ...although all temps seem to be pretty high. It does seem to have got gradually hotter since Christmas cos it definitely didn't start out that hot.

I have got an Akasa Libra AK-NBC-08BK cooler but it seems to make little difference...it was sat on this (plugged in !) when i recorded the attached temps.

I can try cleaning dust out...can it really make that much of a difference ??

I've has the Nexus since October and i love it :-) ..gotta get those temps down thou

[Evil Tactician]

I can try cleaning dust out...can it really make that much of a difference ??

The difference dust makes really depends on the level of dust build-up. With the age of your machine it really shouldn't make quite the level of difference you are observing.

I'm no expert, I am sure one of the helpful lads from Kobalt will provide you with the answers you need :)

[ciushk]

THB martyc those temps really make me worry :( they are pretty over normal, when your parts could become damaged .
You should proceed like Squeals said, removing your back panel to verify your thermal paste and your heatsinks, and if anything is blocking your lappy airflow circulating properly through vents.

[MrDJ]

martyc, give kobalt a call as those HD temps are dangerous. ive been quoating everyone 65c max but now theres a thread on nbr stating 60c is the max for hard drives.
could you run HD Tune for us.get it HERE (http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=373)

[martyc]

ok, no probs. I downloaded HD Tune over lunch and installed. Do you want to see read and write results ?

I had left the lappy downloading something this morning, sat on a desk on top of my Akasa cooler. HD Tune immediately came up with some "critical HD" message stating 57 degrees.

Guess I'll take the back panel off this evening to see if there is anything obvious. I'll give Kobalt a call this afternoon.

[neil@kobalt]

First thing to do is download Real Temp and GPU-Z, they are more trustworthy than CPUID.

As all the temps seem on the high size it's very unlikely to be any one component at fault or thermal paste etc. It sounds much more like the actual cooling capacity of the system is being restricted, either by dust in the chassis or the fans not controlling the temperatures properly.

I think Andrew is already in email support with you on this but let us know if the inside of the chassis is clean or dusty and we can go from there.

[MrDJ]

hi marty
sorry,i forgot to mention that the default temp is set at 57c
i changed mine to warn at 61c and panic at 65c
if you could post the result picture that would be great but change the default temp first.
you could also try the error scan.

[martyc]

I have been in email contact with Andrew regarding the consistent BSOD's i have been getting on bootup since the RAM upgrade. This was the first time I have mentioned the high temps so he'll not already be aware of this concern.

will do as you suggest and check using Real Temp and GPU-Z as well, and rerun HD Tune.

Will also defo look inside tonight as well to see if there is a dead mouse stuck in my fan :-)

thanks guys

[MrDJ]

this patch brought my temps down by roughly 3c and for others there was reports of upto a 5c drop so it might be worth giving this a go.

Intel Matrix Storage Manager 8.2 (hard drive): must be updated to version 8.5 to keep the hard drive cooler:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16750/eng/IATA85ENU.exe

ive just run an error scan using HD Tune and im getting a critical temp. error of 60c so if you do run the scan tick the quick scan box.
finished the scan and in the last minute the temp has dropped 5c to 55c already.
so HD Tune is a bit like defragging where the temps. go quite high as the fan doesnt kick in.

[henrybutt]

Those temps are worryingly high. I have a review sample of the M860TU which is significantly hotter than the average notebook, however the temps have never reached those levels. The HDD reaches around 60 tops and im not 100% sure about the others but they're not that high. 70 is FAR too high for a hard drive and could really reduce its lifespan significantly.

Is there a possiblity that you have some dodgy temperature sensors which may be fixed by a BIOS update?

[Squeals]

Try Everest if you can buy it
http://www.lavalys.com/

Great diagnostic program.

My old Asus laptop (the one thats about to be replaced) became dangerously overheated Christmas of 2007, CPU while gaming hit 100 C, GPU and Hard drive never got as high though.
After blowing out a *surprisingly* moderate amound of smoke *ahem* dust...all the temps went down considerably, CPU was hitting about 85-90 while gaming.

Really makes a difference if dust is indeed the culprit.

[martyc]

ok, I took the back off and it all looked fine, very little dust and no obvious blockages as far as i could tell. I turned it on too to check the fan. Gave it a bit of a wipe before running some tests....

Temps still look very high...e.g. GPU goes from 50 to 90 after 10 mins playing World of Warcraft :confused:

[neil@kobalt]

Can you let me know if the fans are spinning up and then ramping when the system is under load - it almost sounds like the fans are stuck on 1 low setting.

[martyc]

there is just the 1 fan ??

...certainly it seems to get noisier when under load and quieter when idling.

[andrew@kobalt]

Thanks for the comments / suggestions in this thread guys. martyc's Nexus is coming back to us so we can have a good loook at the temps.

Brgds
Andrew

[neil@kobalt]

Evil mentioned undervolting, though also warned away from it so I thought I'd just state our point of view on it!

Undervolting is usually mentioned as a way to reduce temps and also sometimes as a way to overclock. We don't officially support overclocking in our laptops as they are just not designed for it but either way I would seriously warn anyone off undervolting. If a system is getting too hot then there's something wrong with either the hardware or the cooling - undervolting may temporarily cure it to a point but it will just put more strain on the components and delay the inevitable. In escence what I'm saying is that undervolting should never be used to fight temp issues as it will never get to the root of the problem:)