Dell Laptops - Heat Issues

[Valleychatter.com]

I have owned a Dell Inspiron 5100 for about 3 years and almost from the begining it has had heat issues.  I am limited to probably less than an hour of battery time when I am moible with the thing.  But at home, it sits on my desk with the back elevated a little with a small desk fan blowing on it.

If I don't do that... it clips out in less than an hour.

I have taken it apart, cleaned the fan, cleaned everything else and still there is this heat issue.

I guess the question I have is does anyone else with a Dell Laptop have these same issues and if so, what have you done about it?  Other than carrying a fan around all of the time, it really is a bit of a pain.

Max
ValleyChatter.com

[Flame]

Are the fans working properly? Spinning as fast as they should? Is your heat sink doing ok?

Flame

[Fed]

it clips out in less than an hour

What does this mean?

[Flame]

My guess is that it turns off after an hour. Clips off = Craps out = Turns off/goes on error.

Flame

[Valleychatter.com]

Sorry for the delay, but yeah, the fan in the laptop is working fine.  The heatsinks and everything else are clean as a whistle.

I would say it has done this since about 6 months after I unboxed it.  Witout a fan blowing across the computer, it clips (turns off) in under and hour.

I have thought about building a base with 5 or 6 micro fans I can carry with me that would operate off wall power.  It really is a pain in the neck.

/me

[dl65]

Valleychatter.com........  If you have had this issue for almost 3 years ...... why on earth didnt you go back after Dell while it was still under warantee ?
If in fact the hi temp shutdown is causing the issue ....... ( and the temperature is really high as opposed to a defective monitoring chip ...... ) thats one thing however ........ It is possible that the issue is with .............either the .......
cpu cooling fan  , the heat sink or the thermal paste used is (was) improperly applied.  I would have a shot at Dell ....... if you get no satisfaction there ...... I would visit the Dell forums ........  http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums  ....
You will require your machine model make and the tag #    and possibly someone there may have a better solution .

dl65  

[GX1_Man]

I'm with you dl65. That's what warranty is all about, and Dell has been very good to me with their support, but I did report issues quicker than 3 years.

[renaldoaoa1]

I had this problem with my Dell Insp 8000.

I wish I still had the post that I got this info from, but maybe I can at least give you something to start looking at.
The first thing that was told me was my BIOS needed to be updated. I did that but it didnt help anything.

I downloaded a program call "dell inspiron 8000/8100/8200 fan control v2.20- (c) 2004 by C. Diefer".
What this does is run in your bottom right corner of XP and checks your cpu temp/gpu temp/ cpu load/ cpu speed and turns the fans on and off. When I use this I set it to when I wanted the fans to run and at what speed (fast/slow).

For example,
My 1st and 2nd fan turns on when my cp hits 40c and they turn off at 38c
If my cp goes over that then setting 2
My 1st and 2nd fan runs fast at 45c and turns off at 40c.

This means that if my cp gets over 41c both fans runs fast, but when it reaches 40c then my first setting takes over and runs my fans at slow speed until it gets down to 38c which the fans turns off.


I would start looking at a program like this for your specific model tho, but this was the only way I could get mine to stop cutting off after a few mins of running and it would take a good bit of time for it to cool off.

Youll love it when you find it.

Hope that helps.