Overheating

bennyc

Hi guys a bit of advice here would be great i know this is not an overclocking query but this forum would know better what I am talking about than the laptops forum I reckon.

I have an laptop with a possible faulty mobo. It went from working to not booting . I took it apart and with nothing to loose I had a go at a home mobo reflow. So now it is booting but the temprature goes straight to hell basically. The GPU and CPU are heading for 100 within minutes.
I installed a fan control utility and see the temps raising from boot the fan control says it goes from level 1 to level 6 I cannot notice any difference in fan speed at all.
My querys are if your fan is borked will the cpu and gpu temps still head north even if only sitting at the desktop screen.
I am thinking of getting a new mobo but dont want to shell out 200 sheets if its the fan thats causing the problems. Or maybe I need both.

ED E

A home reflow wont last long FYI. Probably something like 2-6 months tops.


Sounds like the fan isnt working at all. Did you use CPU paste when yo reassembled?


As soon as it powers on the CPU and GPU will heat up, if you arent actively cooling them they will overheat.

Aganica

ED E wrote: »

A home reflow wont last long FYI. Probably something like 2-6 months tops.


Sounds like the fan isnt working at all. Did you use CPU paste when yo reassembled?


As soon as it powers on the CPU and GPU will heat up, if you arent actively cooling them they will overheat.

Absolute rubish

WillyFXP

Aganica wrote: »

Absolute rubish

Your spelling is almost as good as your response.

Monotype

What's a home reflow? Heatgun/oven/annealing?

WillyFXP

ED E wrote: »

A home reflow wont last long FYI. Probably something like 2-6 months tops.


Sounds like the fan isnt working at all. Did you use CPU paste when yo reassembled?


As soon as it powers on the CPU and GPU will heat up, if you arent actively cooling them they will overheat.

No reason a reflow should fail, once the dry track is fixed it should be fine. I do agree about the fan though, it does sound like it's not coming on at all. Bennyc can you actually hear the fan operating? I presume you've cleaned the air ducts and made sure that the intake is not obscured when the laptop is on.

ED E

WillyFXP wrote: »

No reason a reflow should fail, once the dry track is fixed it should be fine. I do agree about the fan though, it does sound like it's not coming on at all. Bennyc can you actually hear the fan operating? I presume you've cleaned the air ducts and made sure that the intake is not obscured when the laptop is on.

I was working on the assumptions:
A - GPU fail, from experience this is the most common
B - Oven bake as a "Reflow"

In these cases longevity is very rare. If the OP had got it professionally done, yes, it could out last the rest of the components, but a home job, I doubt it.

bennyc

Yeah all ducts are clear although I am going to remove the sponge at the intake to be sure, the fan sounds very slow and way quiet for this size of laptop 18"+.
I have done a few home oven bakes and out of 3 three one worked a treat, another had zero impact and the third shuts down after ten minutes.
This is the fourth, the temps slowly head to 80+ before the system kicks in and shuts down.
In fact I baked this twice for good measure as I had blobbed the thermal compound onto the i7 the first time. After reading that apparently it is supposed to be in a straight line I took it apart again an and reapplied correctly. The GPU is a 5850 onboard so I have blobbed compound onto it.
I used both Arctic Silver remover and purifier on the chips and heatsyncs.

The metal on the heatsync becomes untouchable before shutdown and zero hot air can be felt at the fan vent.

I am thinking I might breadboard it tonight and see what the fan is actually doing.

bennyc

ED E wrote: »

I was working on the assumptions:
A - GPU fail, from experience this is the most common
B - Oven bake as a "Reflow"

In these cases longevity is very rare. If the OP had got it professionally done, yes, it could out last the rest of the components, but a home job, I doubt it.

Its close to the same price to have it done professionally and have a go at home then buy a working part if all else fails.
But as the GPU and CPU are heating exactly the same with the CPU being slightly hotter I am wondering if cooling could be the problem. Usually with a faulty GPU you would see a mess on the screen before shutdown / bsod. This is only shutting down at the moment due to heat and nothing else as far as I can see. I had an inspiron 1720 a few years back with a faulty GPU and the symptoms were different.

bennyc

Update:

I decided to try something for the crack last night and it worked for about an hour or so before heat finally got the better of it. Mind you I had to put on a HD movie to force the heat up which was good news.
I Macgyvered a CPU fan to the intake of the laptop and for good measure I covered all the other intakes to force the air over the Heatsync and out.

Even though the fan on two batteries was excellent not a lot of air was leaving the heatsync out vent which leaves me to believe a new fan may save me a mobo.
I reckon the next step is to pull it apart and see anything can be done with the fan or hopefully its a universal connector and I could just try another.

See image
Fan.jpg

Joeface

bit of a ruff mod

you can do it neater by soldering to the supply pins of one of the usb connectors .

Also I would recommend getting copper shims for each of the devices that are cooled by the Heatsink , the shims are cheap on ebay and do help a lot. There is also a mod video of adding an extra fan if i can find it again I will link it in .

bennyc

Just to update: I took it apart again and attached the basics and powerd it on, the fan was very slow with barley any air passing through. So then I went at the fan and found some dust in the inside of the fan so cleaned as best I could, I sprayed some WD40 into the hard to reach parts and powered it up again. Almost straight away you could notice a different noise from the fan, it started hight and went to a low speed straight away. I let it run for a while and eventully hooked up a monitor keyboard and mouse. I ran 3d mark 06 and got a decent score all the time the temp didnt reach much above 50 at peak with the fan doing its job.
I have it half stuck together again but I noticed that the intake for the fan is all wrong with little or no intake where the fan actually is.
Next step is to drill some small holes under the fan for more air and put it back together again.

image of the breadboarded mobo