Laptop GPU Overheating GPU fan speed inconsistent

Hello all,

Haven't had a problem with my laptop in a long time, but having an issue. Specs in "My specs"

My computer was getting real sluggish and I realized it was quite hot. Usually, my laptop blows out hot air as it is a gaming laptop, but it doesn't seem to be doing that. I looked in speedfan, and couldn't see any speeds for my computer, but the gpu was hitting 80C. topped out at 82C and I turned it off. Fan was not blowing out air at all...

So I took of the bottom panel of the laptop so I could see the fan and the fan was moving every now and then. at 70C, the fan was not even moving and it started heating up again.... the fan didn't turn back on while it heated up to 75C so i turned it off again. The fan is moving slowly when it moves, but it is like it isn't being controlled as it should.

Also tried to blow out dust, took off heatpipes/heatsink and reapplied. I am travelling so I don't have thermal paste, but thermal paste looked good still. I had reapplied thermal paste recently so it still is in good shape.

Downloaded MSI Afterburner and it seems the Fan speed is not changeable in there... its up to 75C again

Any suggestions on what I can do to check the GPU fan speeds or reset the control for it so it spins back up as it should?

thanks in advance,

Thorsen

Ok so in MSI afterburner, i just underclocked the GPU. its slowly lowering in temp.

back down to 72C, but I need to fix this lol

nope nevermind... still getting hot. sitting at 74C at 0%GPU load.

When the fan does come on does it run at full speed. The reason I ask is because when a fan has something like a bearing going bad it will take more amps/volts to start it to turn and until your system gets hot it will not get the required amp/volt to start it up. It takes many more amps/volts to start a fan than it does to keep it running.
I would replace the thermal paste and the fan. Both are cheep.

theveterans said:

Have you tried resetting your BIOS because fan speeds are usually controlled by the BIOS. Or maybe you thought you reapplied the thermal paste properly, but the thermal paste is not getting enough contact area with the heatsink thus making the CPU and GPU hot. BTW, those temps are very abnormal for idle speeds.

Thanks, theveterans. I Applied new thermal paste and temps started from fresh boot at 50C idle, but it still climbs slowly, steadily toward 80C. Takes a while longer, but the fan never hits full speed. if I put any load on the GPU, it goes up quickly and doesn't cool off. Thermal paste is def. working as it should. when i took off the bottom cover to check, the heatsink was very hot all the way to the fan and the blades in front of the fan were hot. Might be the GPU is going bad? and overheating? not sure....

Layback Bear said:

When the fan does come on does it run at full speed. The reason I ask is because when a fan has something like a bearing going bad it will take more amps/volts to start it to turn and until your system gets hot it will not get the required amp/volt to start it up. It takes many more amps/volts to start a fan than it does to keep it running.
I would replace the thermal paste and the fan. Both are cheep.

Thanks Layback, this is something else that I was unsure of. I haven't done anything to the BIOS, but I will reset and see if it starts to spin up properly. also for the fan going bad, I didn't want to purchase a new fan if mine is physically ok and then install it to see the same issue, but I will look into this as an option if further investigation goes no where. Before replacing fan, I will "cut blue wire" to see if the fan can run at full speed.

I also tried reinstalling the NVidia drivers, but that didn't seem to help....will give the BIOS a shot...

Also, found out the GPU fan speed is listed as CPU fan speed due to there being only one fan.

Still in the process of moving, but had this happen last night while away from home. luckily there was a compusa nearby that I could get thermal paste from. I might not get back to this project till next tuesday or wednesday....

Thanks for all the good info guys :)