0

I have a friends laptop, a Compaq CQ62, that I feel is getting to hot.

The average temperature when it is sitting there doing nothing is 75 degrees celsius, and that is with the fan on high speed.

When I run a CPU stress test, the CPU temperature reaches 105 degrees celsius, and then shuts down due to over heating.

It is a Core 2 I5 - 450M

I have pulled the laptop apart looking for a reason for the excessive heat, but cannot find anything.

Any suggestions please?

Improve this question
1
  • Is the fan and fan exhaust coated in dust? Clean it as best as possible. As the others have said, check the thermal paste (clean old off and apply new for best results) and to make sure the heatsink is actually contacting the CPU fully.
    – Kinnectus
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 9:56

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

Bad/old TIM (or overapplied TIM) can cause overheating.

When you take the laptop apart, make sure you use the correct amount of TIM (Thermal Interface Material - the grey/white gloop that sits between the CPU and the cooler).

Typically, something just smaller than a pea would do the trick. It's normal for some to spread over the edge of the CPU die, but take care not to apply too much, as this can effectively suffocate the CPU and make things worse.

A lot of people have different opinions on how you should spread TIM, but I generally find that if you add the pea-sized dot in the centre of the CPU die, then fit the heatsink, the pressure should be enough to spread the paste.

If you find that the CPU is covered with some sort of pad, like in the photo below, you may be better off applying new paste rather than replacing the pad, as these can wear out and break, causing bad heat transfer:

enter image description here

Improve this answer
1
  • personally, I always spread it with a credit card [I actually have one just for the purpose;) Minimises over-spill.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 10:15
1

Classic symptoms of overheating. It is a bit old, so heatsink is viable to be clogged. Best way to check: locate grilled exhaust of the cooling system and when computer is on and cover it with hand or piece of cloth. After 10 seconds or so (tops) the hand/cloth should get very hot and fan should spin up to max speed and be quite loud. If you feel only warm on hand/cloth, that's it.

Do the following:

  1. Shut down the laptop, remove battery and vacuum it as best as you can. I recommend using a soft brush end for that. GENTLY!! Concentrate on keyboard and every opening on the bottom and sides of chassis, taking extra time with exhaust. Again: GENTLY! Brush can get momentarily stuck under the keys and/or in the intakes, so slow and easy does it.
  2. Invest in a can of compressed air. Spray the air into the grilled exhaust. Spray the air into the fan intake on the bottom of the laptop. Repeat as long as dirt comes out of either end (and, quite possibly, from under the keyboard, so keep laptop open). I found out that this procedure works better with laptop turned on. You may end up using full 300ml can...
  3. If no dirt comes out either end you need to disassemble the machine and clean the heatsink/fan directly. In that case make sure you follow directions as in other answers.

Make sure you hold the can upright with valve on top, as compressed air turned sideways or upside down is used for fast cooling, which causes any sprayed surface to be moist.

When working as DELL DSP I often pulled dirt out of heatsinks. Sometimes they were closed with half an inch thick dirt, hair, thread and dust, compressed into one big layer, closing completely air circulation.

EDIT:

Cleaning heatsink/fan means that you need to disassemble cooling system into separate parts, as the dirt will build in the space between fan's prop and intake of the heatsink

Unfortunately there may be instances when cooling is clean. In that case there is BIOS update in order (if there is newer version) or in extreme cases fan and/or heatsink and/or fan control chip happened. Those extremes require part replacement. However, they happen usually with brand new systems, straight out of the box and not older than 3 months or so.

Improve this answer
0

Is the CPU fan working properly ? The CPU temp is quite high even for thermal transfer problems.

If the fan is OK, you will have to remove the CPU heatsink, clean it up, add some thermal paste and put it back on.

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    @Overmind - This sort of seems more of a comment. Can you provide additional information that might lead the author to a solution?
    – Ramhound
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 11:41
  • Since the user is familiar with disassembly, there is no reason to describe less relevant details. The answer is exactly what must be: brief and to the point.
    – Overmind
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 12:22

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .