NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Alienware Notebook Forums › Alienware Area-51 and Aurora Notebooks › Severe Overheating: Alienware Ignoring the Problem?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Severe Overheating: Alienware Ignoring the Problem? - Page 3

post #41 of 56
10/11/05 at 5:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by texankid
AW has no idea or record of some of the hardware they put in your machine. I know because when one of my RAM modules went out they had to send me 2 sticks to make sure one of them matched the timing. The guy told me on the phone that he had no clue what RAM i had.
eee, that's when you pull the cover, snap one of the sticks out and read the label sticker to him. I'm surprised they sent you two different types like that.
Reply
Reply
post #42 of 56
10/11/05 at 8:07pm
In my experience with fans...

They dont spin up when you turn on... they spin up depending on temp/usage/power drawn to device...

If the fan spins when you flick it then i actually dont think its broken champ.. i think the problem is elsewhere..

just my 2cents...

good luck to you either way... i would not like to be in your shoes... please keep us updated..
Reply
Reply
post #43 of 56
10/11/05 at 11:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by statikuz
Man that sucks... =( The only thing you might be able to try is to find a fan that would be the same size (I doubt you could find out who their supplier is) and see if you could "fix" the card yourself. That's total BS that they won't even SELL you a new card... so much for "award winning support". This is the response I got when I asked about temperature sensors.

...cut for the love of god...
This is just stupid.

AW didn't write the software, so why would they know what the program refers to as "Temp1"?

Read the documentation that came with the software, or contact the company that wrote it.

AW isn't Dell. Dell has their own limited line of proprietary motherboards. Alienware sells machines from Clevo, and previously Uniwill that have several revisions of hardware during the production run. If you want to know about the motherboard, read teh label on it and contact the manufacturer. AW doesn't keep info on features they don't incorporate.

If you liked Dell, and you want AW to be Dell, why didn't you buy a Dell?
Reply
Reply
post #44 of 56
10/11/05 at 11:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigDres04
Well people, i have just found out that I am officially screwed.

cut

so... where do i go from here.... any suggestions other than tossing my laptop out the balcony of my apartment and expressing to the world of my "love" for alienware...?
.... and please dont tell me: keep it as a picture viewer and jukebox.... a 3300 dollar jukebox....
There are several strings in this and Sager's forums dealing with aftermarket programs that allow you to adjust the fans. I don't think your fan is broken, just isn't getting enough juice to start up.

The search function is your friend.
Reply
Reply
post #45 of 56
10/11/05 at 11:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by texankid
AW has no idea or record of some of the hardware they put in your machine. I know because when one of my RAM modules went out they had to send me 2 sticks to make sure one of them matched the timing. The guy told me on the phone that he had no clue what RAM i had.
texankid,

I forgot to ask you on the other thread if you have a file on your Desktop named "System Info"? Here's an excerpt from "For Your Eyes Only" that Alienware left on my Predator's desktop...you are classified right?

II. Configuration

Processor(s)

Processor 1
Name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.80GHz
Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
Caption: x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1
Version: Model 4, Stepping 1
Processor Id: BFEBFBFF00000F41
Current Clock Speed: 3871MHz
Address Width: 32Bits
Data Width: 32Bits
Socket Designation: Socket 775
Processor 2
Name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.80GHz
Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
Caption: x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1
Version: Model 4, Stepping 1
Processor Id: BFEBFBFF00000F41
Current Clock Speed: 3871MHz
Address Width: 32Bits
Data Width: 32Bits
Socket Designation: Socket 775
Verified Hardware Device against Order: CPU-3.8JP4800S775

System Memory

Memory Module 1
Capacity: 512MB
Bank Label: Bank0/1
Data Width: 64Bits
Socket Designation: A0
Verified Hardware Device against Order: MEM-DDR2512PC4200PDP
Memory Module 2
Capacity: 512MB
Bank Label: Bank2/3
Data Width: 64Bits
Socket Designation: A1
Verified Hardware Device against Order: MEM-DDR2512PC4200PDP

BIOS Information

Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
Name: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Version: 6.00 PG
Version: IntelR - 42302e31

Motherboard Information

Manufacturer: http://www.abit.com.tw/
Product: AA8XE (Intel 925XE-ICH6R)
Serial Number:
Version: 1.x
Verified Hardware Device against Order: MB-ABITAA8XE

Video Adapter

Caption: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Series GPU
Adapter RAM: 256MB
DriverVersion: 6.14.10.6674
[b]Verified Hardware Device against Order: VID-BGFA6800U256PCIE
Connect Power Cable
Test Video Card

Hard Drive(s)

ST3160827AS
Model: ST3160827AS
Size: 160GB
Total Heads: 255
Total Cylinders: 19457
Total Tracks: 4961535
Tracks Per Cylinder: 255
Verified Hardware Device against Order: HD-SEA160GBSATANCQ
Model: ST3160827AS
Size: 160GB
Total Heads: 255
Total Cylinders: 19457
Total Tracks: 4961535
Tracks Per Cylinder: 255
Verified Hardware Device against Order: HD-SEA160GBSATANCQ
Killin' Me...

Zoid
Reply
Reply
post #46 of 56
10/12/05 at 2:39am
2 sticks of RAM can have the same model number and have different timings.
Reply
Reply
post #47 of 56
10/12/05 at 2:48am
I just typed out a whole bunch of stuff maybe 200 words...and then deleted.

"Killin' Me" texankid.

Zoid
Reply
Reply
post #48 of 56
10/12/05 at 9:07am
Thx hammer, but aside from just downloading a program to adjust speed, i really want to know why isnt it "getting enough juice" in the first place.. i mean if it was fine, then i would just download them to maybe make the fans run a bit more or faster.. but when it needs a flick to even start... i mean..... reminds me of a car having to be pushed to get it started.. you know something is definately wrong there..
Reply
Reply
post #49 of 56
10/12/05 at 10:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by texankid
2 sticks of RAM can have the same model number and have different timings.
That's where a software app comes in handy, to list these things. It still surprises me that they did that.
Reply
Reply
post #50 of 56
10/12/05 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigDres04
Thx hammer, but aside from just downloading a program to adjust speed, i really want to know why isnt it "getting enough juice" in the first place.. i mean if it was fine, then i would just download them to maybe make the fans run a bit more or faster.. but when it needs a flick to even start... i mean..... reminds me of a car having to be pushed to get it started.. you know something is definately wrong there..
I hear you BigDres04, but unfortunately this was a pretty common problem with the early clevo d900's. There were complaints about fan "chirping" which was the fans making a noise when they struggled but failed to start spinning up.

I recall people saying the Sager bios update, or a program like speedfan solved their issues.

I'd look for the strings, it may be the only solution for you at this point... I know it sucks.
Reply
Reply
post #51 of 56
10/12/05 at 11:54pm
Okies, thx again hammer, ill go ahead and download speedfan and see if that solves my problem. Now if ima have to download a bios, i might need some help with that.. havnt a clue how to and dont even know if i actually need it. I think the current bios is the correct one, but then again, i dont know that much about lappys.
Reply
Reply
post #52 of 56
10/19/05 at 3:14pm
Thread Starter 
Hey Hammer... been awhile since I read this thread. The first thing I did was read the docs that came with the program; they specified that the sensors are not labeled by the program, the name is just read from whatever the manufacturer decided to call it.

Quote:
Only a few hardware monitor chips do label their connectors with "CPU", "System" and the likes. Most of them use labels like "Temp1", "Local" or "Remote". The hardware manufacturers connect available pins to different temperature sensors basically according to the physical placement of components on the motherboard.
Here's what SpeedFan tells me:



Update: new video card didn't solve the problem; still overheats. Guess I'll have to survive until I can get a new computer... can't send this one in for repairs, not that that would fix the problem anyway. =)

BigDres04: The BIOS update is easy, you download a program from the AW site that generates you an ISO, which you burn to a CD and boot off of, it has to type "start" or "ready" or something and it flashes the BIOS... restart and you're done.
Reply
Reply
post #53 of 56
10/19/05 at 3:19pm
I run WoW on MAXIMUM settings and even after 4 hours of game play ont he original fan settings my laptop is only 60-65 degree's hott (using D900T to measure the heat). Without the Xpad its 63-67 degree's hot. Room temp is usualy 80-85.

BTW Sager Bios Update will void your warranty so don't use it. If you have, then your ****ed
Never run the fans on max speed for more than 5-10 mins, their's a good reason AW doesn't have a BIOS to make them run 100%
A cooling pad can actualy help your laptop overheat, most people use the one that sucks air from under the laptop. Get one that blows air under the laptop
Reply
Reply
post #54 of 56
10/19/05 at 3:39pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, the one I have blows air under the laptop, and I have it propped up on a couple of DVD cases so there's plenty of airflow. This morning I played for under 15 minutes and it shut off...
Reply
Reply
post #55 of 56
10/20/05 at 6:35am
yeah...looks like AW doesnt really mind in particular..

my 766 has same problem...alltough i contacted them many times,
no solution has been found yet.

i did all the things as you with your machines...

either aw doesnt care ..or they have no idea anyway...


donno what to do...ebay seems to be the only way... but who the f*** is willin to pay around 2000 for used aw???
Reply
Reply
post #56 of 56
10/26/05 at 2:21pm

I Solved The Problem

Quote:
Originally Posted by statikuz
I've been having severe overheating problems with my 1.5 year old Area-51m 766... mostly while playing World of Warcraft on relatively low settings (1024x768 with everything turned down). Sometimes I can play for up to an hour or so, other times it will shut down in less than 20 minutes. Most of the time it just abruptly powers off, screen goes black and I have to wait a minute or two before it will start again. The most recent shutdown involved the screen fading, going bright white, lines appearing, speakers squeaking, and I got scared and pulled the AC and the battery... waited a few minutes and it started up OK.

I've called AW twice regarding this, and they seem to ignore the fact that this is clearly a video overheating problem (or at least it seems to be to me). The first tech I talked to told me that the only reason for the problem would be that the video card wasn't seated properly. It was. The second guy told me to clean out the grill... it was already clean. I followed the online instructions on removing the back cover and cleaned out in there (it was already pretty clean), and checked to make sure the two fans were running (they were).

Called back again tonight and the guy said the best way to test it would be to run 3dmark03... which I did. He said that if it didn't overheat and shutdown within 3 passes, that the video card wasn't the problem. In my opinion, this isn't a very good stress test, sure, it stresses the card for periods of about 15-20s, which isn't a very good representation of real world conditions. Nevertheless, I followed his instructions and my computer survived the three passes and I called back. The next tech had me upgrade my BIOS (from 1.16 to 1.21) It overheated several times during this process (thankfully not during the actual flash), but while booting from the CD, while restarting, etc. All of these I informed the tech of, which she seemed to just ignore... telling me all the while that we needed to download Prime95 to stress test the CPU. I told her again that I was pretty sure the video card was overheating, the bottom of the computer was really hot, and the actual heatsink on the card was extremely hot too. She still ignored me. Her final instruction was to run the MS Windows Memory Diagnostic and see if it would overheat during that, "just to make sure that the overheat isn't software related." I highly doubt that running a memory test is going to diagnose a video card problem...?

Not sure where I should go with this... its definitely a problem and all the usual solutions aren't fixing it. Could it be a defective (or dying) graphics card (Radeon 9700)? Any help anyone might be able to give would be great, the AW guys seem to be playing blind to the fact that it IS (or again, from my observations) a video card overheating problem. I've read a ton of other threads about this and haven't been able to fix it myself.. any help?

EDIT: Forgot to mention that this is all while sitting on a running Vantec Lapcool 2.
I took apart a 300W car amp (PowerAcoustic) and using creative amounts of heat transfer paste I turned it into a kickass heat sink... unfortunatelly its still not totaly enough... on the positive when im done using it i have enough heat left over in the system to make toast
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Alienware Notebook Forums › Alienware Area-51 and Aurora Notebooks › Severe Overheating: Alienware Ignoring the Problem?