Acer Aspire 5470G-6979 Overheating

[irenicus87]

I have had this laptop for 2.5 months and for the first two months, the laptop ran smoothly and coolly. However, over the past 2 weeks, the laptop has been having severe heat issues. First it Blue Screened with a Ram error during a game. Since then it has repeatedly shut down during games due to overheating (resulting in a windows error upon start up).

I took the computer apart and cleaned the heatsink/cpu of all the old thermal paste and replaced it with a fresh coat of Arctic Silver 5. Since then the computer has been idling at 45°C, spikes to 70°C during normal use, then jumps to at least 85°C during regular game use. Worst of all, when running 3dmark06 it hit a peak of 105°C. After running memtest for over an hour and a half (4 passes) there were no errors picked up in the RAM. The GPU passed 3dmark06 without crashing as well.

When running memtest however, I have to make sure I keep a fan pointing at the computer so that it doesn't shut down. I discovered this the hard way as without the extra fan, memtest got part way through the 4th test and then shut down from overheating. Even when idling, the computer seems inordinately hot, with the touch pad being very warm even when the computer is just sitting there.

The CPU fan seems to be running fine and pushes out a good amount of hot air. I would guess that it is not an issue with the GPU as the computer still overheats during the memtest, leaving the question me to wonder if it's the CPU, the RAM or simply the motherboard that is the problem. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions as to what the problem could be.

Thanks alot,
Brian

Computer Specs:
Model: Acer Aspire 5470G-6979
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
CPU Type: Intel Core i5-430M(2.26GHz)
Memory Size: 2GBx2 DDR3 1066
Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Video Memory: 1GB DDR3 VRAM
Graphic Type: Dedicated Card
Chipset: Intel HM55

 

[irenicus87]

Anybody?

 

[irenicus87]

Nobody has even an off-the-cuff suggestion?

 

[mbevolution]

if the fan is pushing a lot of hot air out, that means you've correctly seated the heatsink. showing that it's prolly just the fact that computer is getting old. so get a lappy cooler and you should be fine.

EDIT: your temp seems to be normal of a laptop, mine hit over 100C many times and is still running fine, laptop cpus generally have a high threshold. but if you are experiencing shut down issues, i would highly recommend a laptop cooler pad (the one with fans, don't get the fanless ones) and that'll reduce your temp by at least 20C and you shouldn't experience any shutdown problems

 

[irenicus87]

This laptop isn't getting old. As I said in the first post, this laptop is only 2.5 months old. And more importantly, this CPU has a thermal threshold of 100°C meaning that past 100°C damage is done to the CPU itself. Prior to this the laptop ran extremely cool and the touchpad/keyboard were never hot, whereas now the keyboard and touchpad will almost burn your fingers. I also already use a chillpad with two 80mm fans built in and it makes no difference at all.

 

[Kenmitch]

Why would you tear it apart and play around in there if it's most likely still under warranty?

Did you play around with the power saving features in windows? Is speedstep working?

 

[irenicus87]

I pulled it apart because I was certain that I could put it all back together again without it being possible to detect. The extent of seals throughout the entire laptop was a small sticker on the heatsink that was easily pealed off during the disassembly and replaced during reassembly.

As for the power saving settings, the laptop is set to the performance settings rather than balanced or power saving. And unfortunately Speedstep is not supported on the mobile intel processors.

 

[mbevolution]

you sure the fan is working properly? can you hear it spin to the max? if not try messing with some of the settings in bios or get speedfan and try controlling it see if it helps.

sorry i didn't notice the laptop is 2.5month old. maybe a better solution is to send it back and let them replace whatever's needed.