Dell Studio laptop overheating?

[mikehende]

Owner says "it heats up then turns off", I ran memtest for 2 passes, it heated up but did not shut off, I have been running Seagate tools HDD test, I had chosen the "short" test and almost immediate it is showed in red "Short DST - FAIL" but the Test Status bar is still green like it's doing something and this has been running for an hour or so now, any ideas please?

[allheart55 Cindy E]

That's hard drive failure, Mike.

I wouldn't waste any more time on testing it.

 

Instead, I would pull off anything the owner wishes to keep while you are still able.

Continuing to run the test will place more unneeded stress on the drive.

[mikehende]

What is confusing here is the unit was heating up only when running the memtest but after I aborted the test the unit went back to being cool, I just blew out the fan area with compressed air but the fan was running all this time, so far it has not shut down after being on for about 8 hours so without it shutting down I wouldn't want the owner to replace the drive then find out it's something else. I am thinking to first back up the owner's files as you've suggested then run some stress tests to see what happens?

[allheart55 Cindy E]

Have you checked the temps under load?

[mikehende]

No, should I run something like cpu monitor?

[Ratchet Infotech]

hi mikehende , i think you should open the laptop to clean the blockage.Remove the 8 screws in bottom panel. no need to remove the battery.

[allheart55 Cindy E]

No, should I run something like cpu monitor?

Either that or Speccy. https://www.piriform.com/speccy/download/standard

 

You may need to clean and reapply thermal paste to the CPU.

[mikehende]

Alright, I have installed hardware monitor, what should I do next please to stress the laptop? The owner doesn't have any info which needs to be saved.

[allheart55 Cindy E]

You could use Intel Burn Test. http://www.xgamingstudio.com/files/IntelBurnTest.zip

 

Make sure you read the cautions. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?197835-IntelBurnTest-The-new-stress-testing-program

[mikehende]

Not sure cindy, I don't wish to take chance to fry the CPU and that utility looks like it will kill anything which is not 100%?

[allheart55 Cindy E]

I don't blame you, you should really only check the temps etc while under load.

 

:D (You did ask about stressing it.) :eek:

 

Why not try playing a few graphic intensive games?

[mikehende]

I have been running continuous youtube videos for an hour now, will run it for a few more hours.

[mikehende]

I have been running youtube videos for a few hours now CPU's 1 and 2 temps have been showing 67degrees, load 29%, memory 55%, HDD Temp 37 degrees. I opened the bottom cover and tried to feel around for anything that's hot, only thing I found was the long copper rod which goes from over the CPU to the back of the fan, any ideas?

 

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr298/mikehende/20150402_160313_zpsxrcslvjc.jpg

[allheart55 Cindy E]

That's part of the cooling unit, Mike. Like I said earlier, you probably need to clean and reapply thermal paste to the CPU.

[mikehende]

The "long generic" hdd test failed too.

[allheart55 Cindy E]

I don't think it ever really does any good to run the long test when the short one shows failure.

 

However a bad hard drive is not the cause of the overheating problem.

That's more than likely caused by dried up thermal paste.

 

So it looks as if the hard drive needs to be replaced and new thermal paste applied to the CPU.

[mikehende]

I agree, that sums it up in my opinion.

[mikehende]

I told the owner if she has to spend anywhere close to $200 on this old machine she's better off purchasing a new one which runs just over $300 but I appreciate the help in diagnosing, thanks!

[allheart55 Cindy E]

You're welcome, Mike and I agree with you.