Throttling (M14x r1)

Knightinator · 14 Jul 2013 at 22:08

So recently my fans have been spinning up for even the smallest task and I think either the cpu or gpu is throttling as gaming performance seems to dip randomly. My laptop has a i5 2430m and a gt555m, I know that fans ramping up has been an issue for this model but I'm concerned about the temperatures that the cpu/gpu might be reaching.
I've had the laptop for a little over 18months now and never opened it up or cleaned it with compressed air or anything. Is it possible the heatsink may have shifted or the paste needs re-applying?
Also what would be the best way to quickly check the temperatures? It is super hot here at the moment which probably isn't helping.
Cheers.

thepharcyde · 15 Jul 2013 at 08:48

Install MSI Afterburner to monitor temps whilst gaming. You can have the GUI on screen whilst gaming . but yeah compressed air on the vents etc can't harm as judging by the spec its an older machine and will clog up over the years. I cannot comment on reseating CPU/GPU but it may require keyboard removal to get access so if you're not confident get an expert to do it

Knightinator · 15 Jul 2013 at 19:19

Cheers for the advice, ran afterburner and fifa 12 for about 5 minutes and the gpu hit 88 and the cpu 99 on both cores. I'm guessing thats quite hot? The game was seriously slow then, would that have been throttling? Also I don't think the fan had fully ramped up, is there a way to check the fan speed, with Rivatuner or similar?

Knightinator · 17 Jul 2013 at 15:51

Decided I'm going to take it apart and give it a good clean and repaste. Do I need to use a particular paste as its a laptop that will be moved around a lot or should something like mx-4 be fine?

FlyingFish · 17 Jul 2013 at 22:02

Certainly throttling on the intel chip there, gets to 100C and then throttles.

Get a can of compressed air and blow/brush out the fins of the heatsinks and associated vents. If they are not too bad then you'll probably have to go down the road of regooping the heatsink/s.

Dont know the layout inside your laptop, but you may need thermal pads as well as compound to do the job. Google should be able to help. And anything you do will be a lot better than how it left the factory!

My GX660 is modded with an extreme (unlocked) cpu, and also a 7970m, both way above what it came as stock, and both are overclocked. I use a program called throttlestop to control the clocks of the cpu to ensure a nice stable overclock without tipping over the 100C limit. Upto now Ive been running rock solid but because the ambient room temp here has gone up 10C Ive had to drop the clocks to keep the temps under 100C.

When it goes back to normal Brit weather, I'll run my normal overclocking profile

Mick

Knightinator · 17 Jul 2013 at 22:19

Thanks for the insight FlyingFish, just about put it all back together again now. Ended up getting too impatient/concerned about temps to wait for the paste, so decided to take it apart and try and clean it as a short term improvement. The results were somewhat shocking!
(apologies for phone pics)

Before:

After:

Back in windows now and temps at desktop/browsing on chrome are down to mid 40's instead of 60's and the fan keeps shutting off completely compared to permanently being span up. Absolute night and day difference.

thepharcyde · 18 Jul 2013 at 09:01

Good stuff fella, looks pretty gunked up.