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Laptop overheating

Started by Zebug , Aug 06 2011 11:09 PM

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21 replies to this topic

#1 Zebug

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 11:09 PM

greetings all. My wife has an ASUS U50F series laptop and she said it was getting hot recently. I threw HWMonitor onto it and saw that when the comp was just idle the core sat around 78 degrees C while on a cooling pad(I didn't try to stress it and see how hot it got)

Took it apart and cleaned out the dust from the fan, vents, ect (it needed it) and temp didn't really drop. I then cleaned off the old thermal paste and reapplied. Now when it is idle, it hovers around 60 degrees without the cooling pad(still too high in my non-expert opinion) but when stressed it got up to 90 degrees C and of course the video started getting real choppy at that high temp.

She did mention that she heard the fan making a noise right before this issue started. The fan does spin freely when I turn on the laptop but I don't know the RPM's (I guess it isn't monitored as HWMonitor didn't show anything on fan speed like I normally see on my personal machine). I'm starting to think the fan isn't kicking into high gear (if they even do that) when its needed.

What do you all think about just ordering a new fan for it and giving that a shot. If not that, could it be something with the mobo not telling the fan to pick it up? Any ideas/thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Edited by Zebug, 06 August 2011 - 11:11 PM.

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#2 Blaze413

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 11:31 PM

First I would try speedfan which can let u bump the fan to 100% and see what happens
http://download.cnet.com/SpeedFan/3000-2094_4-10067444.html

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#3 HiroPro

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 11:43 PM

I believe that's an older model Asus where they used to use two heatsinks with TWO fans. One for the CPU and chipset and another for the video chip. If you have managed to get to the CPU sink/fan and clean it up and also confirm the fan is spinning properly and freely it could only be the hard to get to video fan/sink. A lot of newer notebooks use a monolithic heat sink design where all three of those chips get cooled via heatpipe to a SINGLE sink with a SINGLE LARGER fan. I personally wouldn't purchase a notebook if it uses two fans and not the much better single fan monolithic cooling design used in the best notebooks today. I also consider fan access for replacement when purchasing and I also order a spare fan at the time of purchase. The two major landfiller events for a notebook is cracked screen and dead fans. In both cases the machine becomes shamefully e-waste due to lack of fan replacement availability and the RIDICULOUS price OEM laptop screen replacement parts cost.

I would also check to see what power profile is being used. Try to use a profile where the CPU is clocked down while idle/low CPU usage. I believe asus calls this profile "Quite Office".

Edited by HiroPro, 07 August 2011 - 01:54 AM.

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#4 Zebug

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Posted 07 August 2011 - 08:45 AM

I don't think there are 2 fans, below is a pic of the goods. I'll throw that speedfan on and take a look, thanks. Now that I think about it more, the actual keyboard gets hot right where the fan is and hence where that heat pipe connects with the fan/vent area. So perhaps the thermal paste is doing its job and transferring the heat just fine, I'm just not getting the heat out of the laptop......just theorizing here.

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#5 HiroPro

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Posted 07 August 2011 - 02:59 PM

hmm... Did you remove the fan assembly/housing and blow air through the sink fins/blades/ribs ? Even if you clean out the fan hamster cage there could still be dust/debris between the sink fins. I checked the net and found it's integrated graphics on CPU die thus why it only has one heat pipe. Looking at the design though I can't help but wonder how the chipset is cooled as it's on the top of the mainboard under the keyboard.

I would also check to see if there is a BIOS update for that notebook. BIOS code can affect how the fan ramps up and down based on temp. It could have a BIOS with poor curves on the fan throttling. I've seen this is the past with Asus notebooks. Also make sure there isn't a process running that's consuming a lot of CPU cycles. I would also select "Quite Office" for power management profile as it will throttle the CPU clock speed.

Edited by HiroPro, 08 August 2011 - 01:54 AM.

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#6 Zebug

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Posted 08 August 2011 - 06:57 AM

here is a screen shot of the laptop's HWMonitor and Speedfan....I can't monitor nor change the speed of the fan:

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#7 rotor123

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Posted 08 August 2011 - 01:42 PM

A quick test to tell if the heatpipe has failed. I have found bad heatsink assembly's in two laptops where the fan raced, the laptop got very hot and the air coming out of the heatsink was cool. Low air flow would have suggested blockage of the fins except I had cleaned them when I was replacing the Motherboards, High air flow and low temp suggested the heatsink assembly had failed, replacement cured that problem. That was observed after replacing the motherboards as the high temps had killed the motherboards. Lucky owners, they still had warranty with Toshiba so it was free for them.

With it running use a finger. the end of the pipe at the fins should feel the same temp as the end by the CPU. and of course the air should not be cool coming out the laptop when the CPU end is hot. Fan speed is generally temperature controlled on laptops so as to run it as slow as possible to get better battery life.

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#8 HiroPro

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Posted 08 August 2011 - 02:04 PM

I've never seen a heatpipe fail before. They are filled with peroxide. Great advice rotor123!!! I still have to ask what power profile your are using? Performance profile will clock the CPU to max speed and leave it there. Quite office etc will throttle it down to under 1 Ghz. It can make a HUGE difference in CPU temp. Also did you CTRL-ALT-DEL to see if any processes are using excess CPU cycles? plugin contrainer for firefox can have issue and consume a ton of CPU power with a screwy plugin.

Edited by HiroPro, 08 August 2011 - 02:05 PM.

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#9 rotor123

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Posted 09 August 2011 - 09:17 AM

It is also possible that the Heatpipe did not fail in use. IT could have been a manufacturing defect instead. The One I recall the owner saying it always ran hot which could support that possibility. The Other one I never talked to the user, only the father.

This year is the first time I've seen that particular problem.

Edit, I just remembered: I did replace one last year on a older laptop that was shutting off from overheating. Running it with the keyboard out so I could feel the heatsink assembly and sure enough the CPU end was very hot and the end at the fins was cool. So somehow they can fail.

Edited by rotor123, 09 August 2011 - 03:58 PM.

My next Upgrade, USB 3 on my remaining desktop. The only External storage devices I currently Buy are USB3 devices

How Does a computer get Infected? http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/2520/how-did-i-get-infected/

My first Computer had a Whopping 16K of memory @ 0.89MHz. My first hard drive held 20 Megabytes and never filled up.
My Oldest Motherboard and Hard Drive are a 80286 @ 8Mhz and a Seagate 20 Megabyte MFM drive.

Forum Rules, The BC Welcome Guide

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#10 Zebug

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Posted 10 August 2011 - 10:46 AM

Update, I haven't had a chance to look at her laptop since Saturday and HiroPro, I will check the power profile the next time I have access to it, though no matter what it is, the core temp shouldn't get to 90 C by watching a youtube video.

As far as the heatpipe, it is transferring the heat through the heat pipe as it gets VERY hot near the fins. I did order a new fan just to have it on its way just in case, worst case scenario is I figure it out and I didn't need a new fan and I'm out $30...not a big deal.

I'll update this thread with whatever my final outcome is just in case someone else does a forum search and reads this topic.

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#11 Zebug

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Posted 14 August 2011 - 07:55 AM

ok, the new fan and heat pipe arrived and I threw it in this weekend....no difference. Core still gets to 90C while watching a simple youtube video. I am now at a loss.

Could the CPU itself just be bad or is this more indicative of a motherboard not carrying instructions as it should?

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#12 Zebug

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Posted 26 October 2011 - 11:03 AM

I apologize for the necro-post but I forgot to come back and finish off the story, so just in case someone is ever reading this post in the future, they can see the final outcome.

Anyway, I did replace the fan and attached heat pipe, reapplied thermal paste and after a few uses (about a week) the laptop was staying nice and cool. I was able to buy a new fan/heat pipe on ebay for ~$30 so I don't know if it was just the fan or just the thermal paste died or what, but replacing all of it worked.

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#13 rotor123

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Posted 26 October 2011 - 11:54 AM

Glad to hear that you were successful.

If you used something like arctic silver I believe it needs to burn in. Also too much compound can cause problems just like too little.

My next Upgrade, USB 3 on my remaining desktop. The only External storage devices I currently Buy are USB3 devices

How Does a computer get Infected? http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/2520/how-did-i-get-infected/

My first Computer had a Whopping 16K of memory @ 0.89MHz. My first hard drive held 20 Megabytes and never filled up.
My Oldest Motherboard and Hard Drive are a 80286 @ 8Mhz and a Seagate 20 Megabyte MFM drive.

Forum Rules, The BC Welcome Guide

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#14 redsfan11

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Posted 21 April 2012 - 05:29 PM

Im actually having the same problem with my computer. I have the exact same computer as that you have and I tried to look up the heat pipe and fan on ebay and was not so lucky to find it... any advice would be much appreciated..

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#15 rotor123

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Posted 22 April 2012 - 08:02 AM

The heat pipe itself is just part of the heatsink.

Look up heatsink assembly for your make and model and you should find it.

The heat pipe is not a separate part it is a part of the heatsink =. It carries the heat from where the CPU is to the cooling fins.

This is just to show what they can look like as a sample.
http://www.blackmoreit.com/products/parts-laptop-parts-heatsink/at019000200-toshiba-at019000200-equium-a200-heatsink.html
The curved copper part is the heatpipe in this example for a specific model of Toshiba.

My next Upgrade, USB 3 on my remaining desktop. The only External storage devices I currently Buy are USB3 devices

How Does a computer get Infected? http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/2520/how-did-i-get-infected/

My first Computer had a Whopping 16K of memory @ 0.89MHz. My first hard drive held 20 Megabytes and never filled up.
My Oldest Motherboard and Hard Drive are a 80286 @ 8Mhz and a Seagate 20 Megabyte MFM drive.

Forum Rules, The BC Welcome Guide