Bizarre Undiagnosable Laptop Heat Problem

[Tetrimino]

For about two months I have been unsuccessfully attempting to repair my laptop, which is generating significantly more heat than it previously did. This is a bit complicated so bear with me.

Some background:

I have a Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming (about 3 years old) which I use for programming and gaming. Recently the laptop has become incredibly hot to the touch during gaming, much more so than it previously has. While attempting to fix the problem, I have taken it to local repair shops and sent it back to Dell, but no one was able to find the problem. During this process, the fans, heat sink, and motherboard have all been replaced, to no effect.

Here's what makes the issue so unusual:

1. The laptop's CPU core temperatures are reading at a maximum of 80 degrees Celsius, which is theoretically acceptable for a gaming laptop, but the casing is becoming hotter than any laptop casing should
2. The laptop is not shutting down or reacting whatsoever to the heat
3. The fans clearly work and occasionally run, but only for brief periods of time (cool the laptop by a few degrees then stop)

Here's my theories as to what could be causing the issue:

1. Faulty thermometer readings showing the core temps lower than they are (unlikely that all four core thermometers are broken though)
2. Software issue created when I reinstalled Windows (also unlikely, as the heat started about a month after the reinstall)
3. BIOS problem (BIOS is up to date so also unlikely)

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? I'm at a loss and if I can't fix this I'll likely have to buy a new PC.

[Keltest]

Could be the fans themselves arent working. They should be going near continually. Are they clogged? Did dust or hair get in them enough to jam them up?

[Tetrimino]

Could be the fans themselves arent working. They should be going near continually. Are they clogged? Did dust or hair get in them enough to jam them up?

That was actually the first thing I tried. I opened up the laptop and used compressed air to clean out the fans but it didn't help much. The thing with the fans is that they run for a few minutes at a time, but don't consistently run when they should.

(Edited to have less ambiguous sentence structure)

[snowblizz]

If fans, heatsink and motherboard have all been replaced it shouldn't be mechanical one would think. I had an Lenovo I had to physically disassemble (I had rip out the entire heatsink assenbly with fan and then redo all the thermpal paste and so on to get at the fan parts though so I could manually remove the dust and lint stuck in it. No amount of blowing it clean worked I had to use a pincer to remove it bit by bit. And then it went back to normal from refusing to start up at all.


If as you say the fans blow only for a while it may be they are not set to cool it down enough. I.e. they are in more of an "quiet" operating mode than "cooling it down". I would manually set the fan speed when it gets that hot and see if it helps. That would tell you if 1) fans are working at all well enough to keep it cooler and 2) that possibly the thresholds for when to turn on or off fans or ramp them up is or is not working properly.

I will say ambient temperature also matters. If it's summer and 30C inside it's a heck of a lot harder for it to keep cool than if it's winter and 20C inside.

If the laptop doesn't have dedicated software for the fan there should be a number of programs that monitor and control fans you could use.

Can't exactly rule out a sensor issue of some kind too.

[sihnfahl]

Okay, how about downloading a temperature monitor program that you feel comfortable installing on your machine, and recording the temperature readings from each probe?

Also, if you have older games, run those for a while against more modern ones. Is there a significant temperature difference between them?

The unfortunate part of laptops is that there's no advanced option to hit up fan control in the BIOS. You might be able to do it in the advanced power settings (system cooling policy in processor power management, see if it's set to 'active', but that's more of a 'windows thinks it's running a bit warm, up the fans' thing than a direct fan control)

So you'll have to download a third-party fan control software that's compatible with portable devices if you want more direct control of fan speeds.

[GrayDeath]

How large is the area where it is that hot?

Cause given the replaced parts, that sounds to me like the heat is somehow directly transfered to a chassis part (maybe an insulating piece slipped out/crumbled and the repairmen/Dell did not replace it)?

[WinterKnight404]

Have you checked to see if the CPU was overclocked?

Invest in a cooling pad perhaps?

https://www.amazon.com/HV-F2056-15-6...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

[Sean Mirrsen]

If you ever managed to accidentally spill oil onto/into it, or tried to lubricate the fans and overdid it, you may be having an issue with temperature transfer. I partially cooked a small portion of my tablet PC's screen when trying to fix a malfunctioning cooling fan, by not waiting long enough to let the fan drain of excess fluid and letting a bit sewing machine oil runoff get between the back of motherboard and the screen.

Same thing might happen if you have insulation missing where it should have been, or inversely, present where it shouldn't be, not letting the heat distributor plate inside the chassis dump heat into the heatsink.