Overheating, thermal paste look ok?

Ciano35

Hi,

I bought a Clevo gaming laptop with an i7 and gtx980m back in September and had no issues with it up until today. I was playing Battlefield 4 when the laptop froze and shut itself down. I now cannot start the laptop any more without it shutting itself down after a series of beeps, exactly what happens to the guy in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/clevo-860tu-beeping-and-shutting-down.428276/

I believe that the problem has to be heat related, but all fans are working and there's practically no dust anywhere inside. I removed the heat sinks just to have a look at the thermal paste and it looks OK to me but what do ye think?






Any advice is much appreciated,

Cian

freelancerTax

Ciano35 wrote: »

Hi,

I bought a Clevo gaming laptop with an i7 and gtx980m back in September and had no issues with it up until today. I was playing Battlefield 4 when the laptop froze and shut itself down. I now cannot start the laptop any more without it shutting itself down after a series of beeps, exactly what happens to the guy in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/clevo-860tu-beeping-and-shutting-down.428276/

I believe that the problem has to be heat related, but all fans are working and there's practically no dust anywhere inside. I removed the heat sinks just to have a look at the thermal paste and it looks OK to me but what do ye think?






Any advice is much appreciated,

Cian

looks normal to me,
but thermal paste cures once applied you cannot just plonk the heat sinks back on the old paste, you must now clean and reapply to all the heatsinks you removed

Ciano35

freelancerTax wrote: »

looks normal to me,
but thermal paste cures once applied you cannot just plonk the heat sinks back on the old paste, you must now clean and reapply to all the heatsinks you removed

That's ok I ordered new paste earlier today anyway. Is it ok that the paste is going in between the metal resistor looking things?

Solitaire

Not great, but not a major issue - any proper thermal paste is non-conductive and should not short the contacts on those teeny little SMD caps/resistors. Its more a sign that the original assembler went ham on the thermal paste and used too much, getting it everywhere in the process.

mass_debater

Solitaire wrote: »

Not great, but not a major issue - any proper thermal paste is non-conductive and should not short the contacts on those teeny little SMD caps/resistors. Its more a sign that the original assembler went ham on the thermal paste and used too much, getting it everywhere in the process.

One of the most popular ones is conductive, Arctic silver

Ciano35

mass_debater wrote: »

One of the most popular ones is conductive, Arctic silver

I actually know the brand they put in it, it's phobya hegrease extreme, is that brand ok?

freelancerTax

Ciano35 wrote: »

I actually know the brand they put in it, it's phobya hegrease extreme, is that brand ok?

depending how u removed the heatsink u may have dislodged a lump of it to the side, probably a little too much paste used as already noted.

magentis

Looks like way too much paste used in the first pic.Try cleaning it all down well and start again.There is a guy on adverts actually that does excellent quality thermal paste and also sells extremely pure isopropyl alcohol to clean them down.He is also a very nice guy to deal with,"doc solder" is his shop name.

magentis

Looking at that bit of tape holding down the wire in the first pic,it looks like its seen a bit of heat too.

Does that brown stuff come off the ic in the first pic or is it discoloured?

No harm giving those fans a good clean either while you are at it.

ED E

If the fan is still spinning, the mounting screws didnt break and you can't even get into windows then this doesnt sound like heat.


I'd be aiming more at a failed component, does opening it void the warranty?

JackHeuston

The laptop shut itself down probably because it reached a dangerous temperature while you were playing. But you should be able to start it again once it cooled itself.

You mention it beeps when you start it, what's the motherboard brand and model OP? Every motherboard has a beep code to tell you what's wrong in case of failure.

edit: or even knowing the exact laptop model would be helpful to find its manual and look for the code

Ciano35

magentis wrote: »

Looks like way too much paste used in the first pic.Try cleaning it all down well and start again.There is a guy on adverts actually that does excellent quality thermal paste and also sells extremely pure isopropyl alcohol to clean them down.He is also a very nice guy to deal with,"doc solder" is his shop name.

Thanks I've just bought the isopropyl now.

Ciano35

magentis wrote: »

Looking at that bit of tape holding down the wire in the first pic,it looks like its seen a bit of heat too.

Does that brown stuff come off the ic in the first pic or is it discoloured?

No harm giving those fans a good clean either while you are at it.

I never actually noticed that brown stuff until you pointed it out, I'll have a closer look later.

Ciano35

ED E wrote: »

If the fan is still spinning, the mounting screws didnt break and you can't even get into windows then this doesnt sound like heat.


I'd be aiming more at a failed component, does opening it void the warranty?

I can get into Windows alright for a about 10 seconds but it shuts down then. I really hope it's not a failed component

I've just looked at the warranty and can't see anything about voiding it if opened.

JamBur

Post up a description of the beep pattern. Is the laptop even reaching BIOS?

Double check your ram is seated properly, test with another card if possible

JamBur

Ciano35 wrote: »

I can get into Windows alright for a about 10 seconds but it shuts down then. I really hope it's not a failed component

I've just looked at the warranty and can't see anything about voiding it if opened.

If it's reaching windows then when are the beeps occurring?

Ciano35

JackHeuston wrote: »

The laptop shut itself down probably because it reached a dangerous temperature while you were playing. But you should be able to start it again once it cooled itself.

You mention it beeps when you start it, what's the motherboard brand and model OP? Every motherboard has a beep code to tell you what's wrong in case of failure.

edit: or even knowing the exact laptop model would be helpful to find its manual and look for the code

The exact laptop is a clevo p670sg, I'm just going to look for the manual now and will update this thread if I find anything.

Ciano35

JamBur wrote: »

If it's reaching windows then when are the beeps occurring?

It starts at the bios loading screen, continues beeping as it begins loading Windows and shuts down shortly after reaching the login screen. The beeps and shutdown still happen if I go into the bios settings.

JackHeuston

Avoid to turn it on until you replace the thermal paste and put the heat sink back on btw.

Ciano35

I've tried reseating the ram which made no difference but I must try a stick from a different laptop.

Also forgot to mention that the num, caps and scroll lock lights flash in tandem with the beeps.

Ciano35

Ok there's nothing in the manual for troubleshooting the beeping. I'll try finding some more in depth manual online

imitation

Can you reassemble the laptop and return it ? Surely its still under warranty. I would be fairly suspect of it being more than an overheating issue if the laptop wont even turn on, mobile cpus have fairly good temperature control now and would be able to at least make it to windows for a few minutes before having issues.

Cuddlesworth

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/sager-np7338-clevo-w230ss-beeping-and-shutting-down.767797

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/w230ss-random-bios-warning-beeps-during-normal-use.757220/

Seems like a great error process.

Ciano35

imitation wrote: »

Can you reassemble the laptop and return it ? Surely its still under warranty. I would be fairly suspect of it being more than an overheating issue if the laptop wont even turn on, mobile cpus have fairly good temperature control now and would be able to at least make it to windows for a few minutes before having issues.

Yeah it's still under warranty alright, if the new thermal paste doesn't work then I'm definitely contacting the reseller about returning it.

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/sager-np7338-clevo-w230ss-beeping-and-shutting-down.767797

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/w230ss-random-bios-warning-beeps-during-normal-use.757220/

Seems like a great error process.

Hmm interesting links there. I see one guys ram was actually broken and caused this problem, I'll try a stick from a different laptop once I get the thermal paste sorted.

freelancerTax

Ciano35 wrote: »

Yeah it's still under warranty alright, if the new thermal paste doesn't work then I'm definitely contacting the reseller about returning it.

ciano35 are you trying to start the laptop without having all the heatsinks in place with thermal paste applied? the above sentence makes it sound like you are.. if you are stop turning on the laptop .. you will be damaging it by overheating the chips - they should never be run without the heatsinks and thermal paste properly applied.

freelancerTax

Ciano35 wrote: »

Yeah it's still under warranty alright, if the new thermal paste doesn't work then I'm definitely contacting the reseller about returning it.

ciano35 are you trying to start the laptop without having all the heatsinks in place with thermal paste applied? the above sentence makes it sound like you are.. if you are stop turning on the laptop .. you will be damaging it by overheating the chips - they should never be run without the heatsinks and thermal paste properly applied.

Ciano35

freelancerTax wrote: »

ciano35 are you trying to start the laptop without having all the heatsinks in place with thermal paste applied? the above sentence makes it sound like you are.. if you are stop turning on the laptop .. you will be damaging it by overheating the chips - they should never be run without the heatsinks and thermal paste properly applied.

No Jesus no haven't started it since removing them

Ciano35

No good, the new thermal paste didn't do anything looks like I'm going to have to return it

Ciano35

Just a quick update on this, the laptop is with Clevo in Germany and they have ordered and will install a new motherboard, so hopefully I'll have it back soon.

JackHeuston

And everything's covered by the warranty I presume? All's well that ends well.

That was clearly a manufacturing issue, but in any case to avoid incurring in it again, I can suggest you use one of those laptop stands. Something like this: http://zdnet1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2015/04/26/6d2a49fc-0b7d-4f50-9197-3cc70121b826/resize/1170x878/38befd69364c088a3c131c772c0be8c7/04-uncaged-ergonomics-swivel-laptop-stand.jpg

Lifting the laptop up a cm or two from the desk doesn't seem much, but it really helps cooling it down especially while gaming. Plus, typing on the keyboard is much easier and healthier.

Ciano35

JackHeuston wrote: »

And everything's covered by the warranty I presume? All's well that ends well.

That was clearly a manufacturing issue, but in any case to avoid incurring in it again, I can suggest you use one of those laptop stands. Something like this: http://zdnet1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2015/04/26/6d2a49fc-0b7d-4f50-9197-3cc70121b826/resize/1170x878/38befd69364c088a3c131c772c0be8c7/04-uncaged-ergonomics-swivel-laptop-stand.jpg

Lifting the laptop up a cm or two from the desk doesn't seem much, but it really helps cooling it down especially while gaming. Plus, typing on the keyboard is much easier and healthier.

Definitely considering investing in one now.

Clevo still don't have the part. It's coming from China and apparently there's delays because of the Chinese New Year, so still without my laptop