Dell heatsink gone bad (Maybe)!!!

[deepakgates]

I have dell inspiron 15r with ati graphics and 4 gig ram.
recently i had a weird problem. After using laptop for sometime the display of my laptop goes off but power remains on.i had to let it cool off to use it again.

now since im out of warranty and i have no plans to renew it (as its worth 15k) , i visited a repair shop and all he did was reapply thermal paste. the problem went away for almost a week and then it reappeared again.

my theory is its either a heat sink problem or motherboard problem ..(im going with heat sink) so im buying heat sink online.

Heatsink and Fan of DELL Inspiron N5010 NC4TX

what do you guys think am i going in right direction. or go for replacement motherboard or should i simply renew my warranty

 

[sukesh1090]

have you read any good feedback about that shop?if you haven't better stay away from it and if you are buying it from outside of india then you may have to go through customs which any one in india may want to avoid and even it costs too much of money for shipment.
i don't think there will be any problem with that piece of metal so better check whether its fan spinning or not.if its not replace it with a fan from old laptop or ask that repair guy he may have it.

 

[deepakgates]

have you read any good feedback about that shop?if you haven't better stay away from it and if you are buying it from outside of india then you may have to go through customs which any one in india may want to avoid and even it costs too much of money for shipment.
i don't think there will be any problem with that piece of metal so better check whether its fan spinning or not.if its not replace it with a fan from old laptop or ask that repair guy he may have it.

thanks for reply.i think you are right but the website says it will charge $10 for shipment. anyways im gonna postpone buying from that site. and my fan is spinning there is no other reason than a damaged heat sink which could explain this behavior in my laptop.
plus ive got my laptop screen checked by connecting external monitor and it faces the same problem.

 

[coderunknown]

check temperature yourself using HWMonitor. Maybe the GPU is heating up to critical level hence display goes off.

 

[deepakgates]

that is exactly the case but i already have a laptop cooler .. so what is it a faulty motherboard or a faulty heatsink

 

[coderunknown]

laptop cooler will push air into the vent. its upto the laptop fan to do the cooling job. if it fails, even an AC won't stop the laptop from shutting down once it crosses max allowed temperature.
First of all check temperature using HWMonitor. Or take a screenshot and post here after using it for sometime. It'll show if gpu is overheating or not. If your laptop supports switchable graphics, turn to inbuilt graphics and monitor temperature. Also though i am not sure HWMonitor should show the fan speed. Running at low speed can cause problems.
If fan is working fine but GPU is still heating, it can be cause of loose heatpipes as most laptop use 1 fan to cool both GPU and processor.

 

[deepakgates]

im using RealTemp and ive seen my gpu crossing 105 C temperature, but currently it is 66 C. and this does not always happen. its like for every 6-7 tries my laptop will run perfectly normal for more than 2 hrs (playing games) and other times i wont run for more than 10 minutes(without gaming)

anyhoo attached is the screenshot

 

[coderunknown]

105 for GPU? what temperature the processor shows? as i said the heatpipe connecting GPU and heatsink may get loose else laptop will show this problem all the time.

 

[deepakgates]

ive also seen processor touching 110 (on one core). so you are saying i must screw heatpipe properly

and my laptop is running for over an 3 hrs without problem (played counter strike for half hour) with max GPU 93 C. ive no idea what the **** is happening to this machine.
sometimes it just wont start and sometime upto 4 hrs.

im really frustrated

 

[coderunknown]

if GPU and processor both are hitting 100+, you got some serious cooling problem. Can't say exactly what problem it is but i have a strong feeling your fan is malfunctioning. Stopping at times or won't start.
PS: If fan stops working for a few seconds also, the processor + GPU can overheat and can cause shutdown.

Check the heatsink and fan for dust or loose parts. If those are ok, then you may have to replace the fan assembly (repair shops will do it). Lack of thermal gel is definitely not a problem else this would have been a continuous one.

 

[deepakgates]

thanks that was much help. i guess will be replacing heatsink

here in agartala repair shops dont keep heatsinks .could anyone give me any india based seller for buying heatsink online.

 

[d6bmg]

Processor touching 110C.
Seriously, don't run the laptop.
1. Clean it
2. reapply TIM
3. check in the task-manager & search for the program which is eating processor cycles (must be in the start-up)
4. It could, well, be a virus problem.

 

[deepakgates]

did all that and i have kaspersky antivirus. as i said its most probably a faulty heatsink.. !! or is it

 

[sukesh1090]

^^
buddy play some games or anything while running the temp monitor in the background and then just post a screen shot of the temp monitor after 30 mins or so and post it here.then only we will come to know the maximum temperature.

 

[Tech_Wiz]

If Temps are hitting 100+ for both CPU & GPU by all means the culprit is cooling. Get the laptop to service center and get it checked.

 

[CyberKID]

This could be a problem caused by faulty blower. Try putting your hand in front of the vent. I faced a situation with the blower(i.e. the fan), which stopped spinning and my system shut itself down abruptly. When I restarted my laptop, I found that the fan was not spinning at all, so I just disassembled my laptop (which went out of warranty in May) checked and cleaned the fan and the motherboard (won't recommend you to play with it, coz, I faced a lot of problems putting back the things, like the flex cables, particularly the two connecting the keyboard and the touchpad with the motherboard).
You could check the fan at regular intervals.

 

[d6bmg]

If Temps are hitting 100+ for both CPU & GPU by all means the culprit is cooling. Get the laptop to service center and get it checked.

Then the heat-sink gone. Time to replace it along with the existing blower fan.