Dell :: Why M1710, M170, Gen2, M90 Overheat &

I've been using my M1710 that I built from parts over two years ago and it still runs great. But guess what sports fans...this thing does have a supreme maintenance issue. An issue that Dell has never admitted. I might even call it a design defect.

And that major issue/design defect is the fact that dust bunnies form between the cooling fan outlets and the heatsink cooling fins located on the ends of the CPU/GPU heatsinks arms. The result is that air flow is blocked and heatsink efficiency goes way down, so "baddaboom baddabing"...higher temps. If your lappy is getting hotter than normal, check your fan speeds if you have I8kfanGUI as they will most definitely be running faster than normal. As an example, my maximum fan speeds are pretty consistant at 42CPU/38GPU. Right now, as I'm typing this they are 44/40 and my CPU/GPU temps are above average so I have to do something I hate to do...

...and you'll hate it too if you're having heat problems, but it MUST be done sooner or later. You, or someone you trust, will have to carefully disassemble your lappy to remove the offending dust bunnies. This requires removing the top palm rest and power switch/hinge covers, keyboard, myriad motherboard connectors, and the video card. Of course, you'll also want to remove the battery first. Here is a link for the Dell service manual to guide you in your disassembly if you don't have access to one: [url]. Until the video card is removed you won't be able to see the dust bunnies since Dell seals the tops of the fan outlets with black tape. After peeling up the tape you'll still have to remove the fans and they will need cleaning also. This is when you'll see why your "Precious" has become a POS. If you've ever looked at the mesh filter screen on your clothes dryer you'll see the same damned thing. So what's next?

After removing the bunnies, thoroughly clean the fan blades, heatsink arm fins and don't forget to clean the bottom case inlet/outlet vents. A mini-sized vaccuum is good to start with and/or take dampened-with-water Q-Tip swabs and maybe even an old soft toothbrush to do the deed. And then?

Afterwords, carefully reassemble your lappy, but don't forget to reseal the tops of the fan exhaust areas. Electrical tape works great. If you unplugged your CMOS battery you'll have to re-enter your bios settings. After boot-up you'll notice the lappy is cooler and quieter and the fans won't be running wide-assed open as often.

Don't forget these lappies generate a lot of heat naturally and any air flow blockage yields dire results. I was quite disappointed after I installed an unlocked T7600G CPU and could crank it up in the U.S, but here in Thailand I can't run it hard above 2.33Ghz for long due to higher ambient temps. This means the cooling system is just adequate and there's not much room for poor conditions.

One more tip. I usually do this cleaning every three or four months and there's always a dust bunny, or two, even if the fans don't look too dirty. Last Spring I actually disassembled the whole unit and used a Dremel to open up the exhaust slots in the back of the case bottom to hopefully increase exhaust air flow . After re-assembly I cut up some old panty hose and taped a small piece over each case fan inlet vent to filter out the dust. If you also add the panty hose filters be careful not to block any of the vent slots with tape. I did this about six months ago and it finally needs cleaning again, so it just about doubled my maintenance interval.

Now then, why do I say this is a design defect? Simple, as this same problem has existed since the XPS Gen2 for all models with discrete graphics cards plugged into the motherboard as they're all the same design. Dell should have revised the design to avoid this problem or at least they could have made the bottom cases such that the cooling vent areas could be easily removed for access. This also should have been added to the manual as a periodic maintenance requirement. I guarantee that they've spent a huge amount of money by having to service or replace probably thousands of these for overheating over the last few years when the condition was avoidable to begin with. How sad, and moreso for the unhappy customers.

Another problem I had with my Gen2 was that the graphics card heatsink wasn't transferring heat away from the GPU and it kept overheating. It was easy to tell once the power switch cover and keyboard were removed because I could then touch the heatsink over the graphics card and it was hot as Hell while the cooling arms were much cooler.

Dell replaced the 6800 with a 7800 under warranty so I was happy at the time.