Overheating issue?

[ThanosIsKing]

I've asked this question at TechSpot and got no reply, so I thought I'd get a response here. Recently my laptop has been shutting off without warning. I read that most of the time this is because of overheating due to dust collecting in the grill between the fan and the "exhaust" (don't know what else to call it). I opened up my laptop and cleaned it out thoroughly with compressed air, but I still get some overheating issues. I've been watching the temperatures like a hawk with SpeedFan, and I do not like what I see. The temp of HD0 usually rests at around 49C, but when I have Skype open it gets all the way up to 58C. Also, Temp2 and Core have a tendency to fluctuate between 65C and 90C, but are now sitting constant around 82C. Finally, according to SpeedFan, it's not reading any RPMs from my fan. Is there something that could be happening that makes my computer fan not start up, thus causing the computer to overheat? I haven't really done anything different to the laptop that I can think would cause this to happen.

[suburbandecay]

Speedfan not reading the RPM of a fan doesn't necessarily mean anything (unless it used to then there is definitely a problem). I would verify that the fan is indeed spinning. If it isn't, you'll have to check and make sure that it is still plugged into the motherboard. Otherwise, I would guess that it simply failed and needs replaced. Also, with some laptops, I have had to completely disassemble them in order to get all of the dust out of them. Oftentimes you will get a "dust sponge" that forms where the fan and heatsink meet. What model laptop is this anyway?

[ThanosIsKing]

It's a Lenovo G555. I'll try disassembling it to get the dust out of the thing.

[emax4]

While you're disassembling it, you might want to go ahead and reapply thermal paste to only the components that use them, if you dare. I had an old 8400GS video card that was running above normal temps. I removed the heatsink, wiped off the old paste from the sink and chip with a coffee filter, reapplied some Arctic Silver 5, put it back together and it ran about 20 degrees cooler.

[Daskinor]

Ditto on checking the actual connection between the heat sync and CPU.

Sometimes manufacturer may use these 3m heat sync sticky pads instead of paste. The Pads dry out and become brittle after a few years and lose all heat transfer ability.

[ThanosIsKing]

When I opened it up I did find the 3M sticky pad around my video card. I've replaced that with Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste but the laptop still shuts down randomly. And SpeedFan is still saying the core is getting as hot as 85C. Could the heat sink and/or fan itself be faulty?

EDIT: Kept watching SpeedFan, and the Temp1 got to 100C and Core got to 96C before shutting down this last time. It lasted about 4 hours or so this last time.

[Chromatix]

Rather than disassembling it, the easiest way to check if the fan is still working and not blocked is to feel for the airflow. If the machine is running that hot, you should be able to find a hot blast of air from *somewhere* on the machine.

Fans do sometimes fail, and would be a good explanation for the symptoms you are seeing.

[draggar]

One issue is that this is a laptop, most of the time the fan does not run 100% of the time and depending on the settings may rarely run.

I'd say open it back up to make sure the fan is still plugged in - some have sensitive plugs that can easily become loose and to also check the settings - if you're not worried about the noise of the fan and battery life I'd say set it to run more often.

[tech_monkey]

A couple of clarification questions. Where do you usually run your notebook when it is shutting down on you? Is there anything application-wise you are doing before it crashes? Any error message? Does it crash when left on a desk idling with the screen up? Does it immediately try to restart?

[ThanosIsKing]

A couple of clarification questions. Where do you usually run your notebook when it is shutting down on you? Is there anything application-wise you are doing before it crashes? Any error message? Does it crash when left on a desk idling with the screen up? Does it immediately try to restart?

More clarification:
I'm usually running the notebook on my lap or on my desk when it shuts down. There isn't anything application-wise I'm doing beyond having Chrome and SpeedFan open. There is no error message. It crashes both when left idling, when in use, sometimes even when it's asleep. It does not immediately try to restart.

I'm thinking it's an issue with the fan. The fan IS connected properly, because I can feel the warm air coming out from the grill, and because I can hear the fan working, but after a little bit the fan just stops and never starts again until I start the computer up again after about an hour of inactivity (meaning being shut down). So puzzling.

[tech_monkey]

More clarification:
I'm usually running the notebook on my lap or on my desk when it shuts down. There isn't anything application-wise I'm doing beyond having Chrome and SpeedFan open. There is no error message. It crashes both when left idling, when in use, sometimes even when it's asleep. It does not immediately try to restart.

I'm thinking it's an issue with the fan. The fan IS connected properly, because I can feel the warm air coming out from the grill, and because I can hear the fan working, but after a little bit the fan just stops and never starts again until I start the computer up again after about an hour of inactivity (meaning being shut down). So puzzling.

While the term laptop is used for them in most situations, i would not recommend using it on your lap, mainly from horror stories of them burning people/battery catching fire. I would recommend as a stop gap a cooling mat of some sort. Cheap ones with a fan could help a bit, some of the more expensive ones have coolant, there are some that are in between that have fancy ways to help. a quick bit of googlfu and i found a couple in the cheap range ($20-$30) that might work, but also changing your settings in power management might help. What OS are you running?

[ThanosIsKing]

While the term laptop is used for them in most situations, i would not recommend using it on your lap, mainly from horror stories of them burning people/battery catching fire. I would recommend as a stop gap a cooling mat of some sort. Cheap ones with a fan could help a bit, some of the more expensive ones have coolant, there are some that are in between that have fancy ways to help. a quick bit of googlfu and i found a couple in the cheap range ($20-$30) that might work, but also changing your settings in power management might help. What OS are you running?

I'm running Windows 7 32bit. My main thought is still that the fan went bad or that the fan is no longer communicating with the motherboard correctly. I'm trying to hunt down a replacement fan, but in the meantime I might get a cooling mat. How long would I be able to use the computer without a "proper" fan?

[tech_monkey]

Really hard to say. With a cooling mat, it might last a while long than without. If it's under warranty then i would suggest looking at that as a way to repair/replace. When i worked for those kinds of desks a few years ago, the manufacturer's warranty was a one year that came with the machine, and if you got the store's warranty it takes over after that.
From the sounds of it, it is not under a warranty, though so I would check the advanced power settings. Control pannel> hardware and sound> power settings> Change power scheme> advanced settings then under Proc power management is system cooling policy, I would set it to active on plugged in, if battery life is no issue then set it to active too. Other settings that might effect heating are the graphics and HDD. if you are running Aero (transparency and other stuff) i would suggest turning that off as your graphics chip should use less juice. Screen dimming, would be a thought, though i am not sure it would effect the proc. It sounds weird, but pull the battery and try running it while plugged in on the desk. Batteries can get warm with extended use. If you put extra RAM in then pop the expansion port off the case and hit it with the canned air. All i have for the moment.

[tech_monkey]

Oh, and if you haven't already got one, look at external hard drives. If the computer is as flaky as it sounds to me, back ups would be in order. Having not done this myself for too long have lost much in the way of data from HDDs going bad.

[ThanosIsKing]

Really hard to say. With a cooling mat, it might last a while long than without. If it's under warranty then i would suggest looking at that as a way to repair/replace. When i worked for those kinds of desks a few years ago, the manufacturer's warranty was a one year that came with the machine, and if you got the store's warranty it takes over after that.
From the sounds of it, it is not under a warranty, though so I would check the advanced power settings. Control pannel> hardware and sound> power settings> Change power scheme> advanced settings then under Proc power management is system cooling policy, I would set it to active on plugged in, if battery life is no issue then set it to active too. Other settings that might effect heating are the graphics and HDD. if you are running Aero (transparency and other stuff) i would suggest turning that off as your graphics chip should use less juice. Screen dimming, would be a thought, though i am not sure it would effect the proc. It sounds weird, but pull the battery and try running it while plugged in on the desk. Batteries can get warm with extended use. If you put extra RAM in then pop the expansion port off the case and hit it with the canned air. All i have for the moment.

Thanks for the options. I've set the system cooling policy to active, and I hope that helps. I've already tried the canned air approach (that was the first thing I tried) and that didn't help much. The battery shouldn't be an issue, since I just replaced it about a month and a half ago. If this doesn't work, I'll have to find a new fan and try that.

EDIT: After having those options tried, my laptop STILL overheats and shuts down. I'm more sure now that it's the fan than ever, since the fan now has trouble starting up (sounds a little similar to a car trying to start up but not quite getting there. The fan still goes sometimes, but just doesn't get up to the soft whhrrr speed that a laptop fan should be at.)