Arctic Silver on my 8890... how?

Think about the specs on your system for a minute. You have a 3GHz P4. The P4 is a desktop CPU, designed to be cooled with a fairly substantial heatsink and a (relatively speaking) high-flow fan. Clevo has crammed it into a laptop with a relatively small heatsink and low-flow fan. And you're surprised that the fan runs when the CPU isn't under any significant load?

Even my 2.4GHz NP5620 runs its fan occasionally at idle. This is normal.

Arctic silver is a gimmick. I use their stuff, but not Arctic Silver- I use the Ceramique. It's dirt cheap, and the performance is the same. In point of fact, though, I could get the exact same performance out of regular thermal grease.

No valid test has ever shown any kind of performance difference with Arctic Silver versus regular compounds. The key word in that statement is valid. The vast majority of heatsink, fan, case, power supply, thermal compound, etc. reviews are totally worthless, as they are not conducted in anything even vaguely resembling a scientific manner.

Any review that uses a computer, or any components of a computer, such as a CPU, as a heat load or as a resistive load for power supply testing, is automatically worthless from a standpoint of providing meaningful data.

But I digress; the bottom line is that Arctic Silver is NOT going to give you the results you seem to think it is. The largest difference I've ever heard of anyone achieving is 5*C, and that was in an uncontrolled test.

There are much better ways to cool down your 8890.

The pics are back. You will probably find that where Hanko is hosting his pics they cap the traffic. If you go back and check you may find you can see them.

This may not be a good idea for a newbee to accomplish. I think that it would be like trusting your 5 year old cousin or grandmother to do it.. if they screw it up .. well same result, it's money down the drain..

Consider getting a laptop stand, fan or heatpipe equipped, to contribute to your cooling. I use the two fan Bytecc NC-500 and love it, but the more fans the better that blow ONTO the bottom of your laptop.

EDIT: P.S. Mine is totally QUIET, FYI.
EDIT2: NOT totally quiet I meant to say. (!!!)

Sager 8890 Overheating Problem

Hey everyone, I just signed up for an account here so I am new. As much as I wanted to start my own thread, I figure, this is a good place to put my questions as it would be proper BB etiquite.

I have a Sager 8890, and I've had it since last September. I was one of the first... yada yada yada. I wish http://www.sagernotebooks.com would have more updated drivers. I've been on BIOS 1.00.01 until today when I saw that many people had 1.00.06 T1.

Now, I'm not new to system building and overclocking or anything, and I've worked on many a few laptops. The thing about these Sager 8890s is that they are so dang hot. In fact, I just ran Henrik's WinTemp, and I'm idling at 78 degrees Celsious. That's insane!! But it makes sense, considering the powerful processor and style of cooling.

Now, a big problem I have with this notebook is that it shuts itself down on my about three times a day. Obviously you can see why. I never realized that I was hitting such high temperatures before. I'm glad I now know that my idle is 78, because I was worried that I was having problems because of faulty hardware.

So I guess the reason I'm here is that I was wondering what is the best way for me to get my system temperature down? I just put in an order for some Arctic Silver 5 (ran out on a prior computer) so I'll be doing that. I also ordered a "laptop cooler" that has fans in it to blow upwards like a cold air intake. Any other ideas? I hate the fact that this computer is so loud I can't take it anywhere. I suppose I made a mistake in getting it. I should have got a quick Centrino. But that was a long time ago. It just that I've always had fast desktops...i miss water cooling and neon lights. Is there any way for me to change the case fans on this rig? Perhaps stick some larger ones with more CFM and less dbs?

Thanks guys for this great forum. Also, thanks Henrik for enlightening me.

Denny Metcalf
dennymet@bu.edu

[EDIT] Since writing this message (and doing nothing else), my temperature according to Henrik's WinTemp is now fluxuating between 81 and 82. I'm about to get shut off for the 4th time today. OMFGWTF!!

Clean out the heatsink.

You shouldn't be running anywhere near that hot. Yes the 8890 gets warm but not what you are describing. I have mine on virtually 24 x 7 and never gets shut down. My exit temps are about 39-45 deg C even with heavy load. I haven't run Henrik's app but even so yours still seems very hot.

As to noise, check out the fan quieting tutorial here. My 8890 is nice and quiet now .

Sager 8890 Overheating Problem

Yes Aussie, I realize that. But what can I do about it?

How do you know that you aren't having a problem because of faulty hardware? That is exactly what it sounds like to me! I would send Sager an email and get the unit RMA'd quickly, before the warranty runs out. Restarts several times a day are NOT normal!! I have the same machine you do and it is totally rock solid. Yes, it does get warm when 3D gaming, but it never, ever, never crashes because of it. Please - do yourself a favor and get that thing fixed..

Alright, I'll let them know about this.
I just can't afford to not have a computer for a week of so.
We'll see what their solution is.

I guess I should let them know before I so some AS5.

Denny Metcalf
dennymet@bu.edu

Den, If you feel comfortable doing the AS thing, I wouldn't hesitate. I did it to mine, just because I didn't like the look of the thermal pad they were using. Somebody posted some pictures of one that had been removed and it was all burnt and ikky. Putting the AS on didn't really make it run that much cooler. Subjectively, a degree or 2 less. Maybe your problem is a poorly applied thermal pad. In which case, the AS could solve your problem, but you never know. It's your call, as far as that goes. If your heat sink isn't getting warm, that might be your problem.

Well, the exhaust is very very hot.
It is often uncomfortable with my hand on the right side of the lappy.

I am comfortable with AS, I've changed notebook motherboards before. I'm just wondering about the waranty questions that may arise. I just put in a request to be contacted by Sager. Hopefully they'll do something. Thanks.

Denny Metcalf
dennymet@bu.edu

Sager 8890 Overheating Problem [Solved]

Alright guys, I figured it out.

About 10 minutes ago, I said screw the warranty and i opened up the case to get to the processor/heatsink. The Heatsink popped right out, and there was nothing between it and the processor. I don't know how I managed to not blow my processor after so many months of use with a bare heatsink. Now I can't wait until I get my Arctic Silver 5 from newegg. Poor processor... Stupid Sager... The notebook rocks, but I think someone skipped over the quality control on mine. Thanks guys!



Denny Metcalf
dennymet@bu.edu

[EDIT] I'm still running at hot temperatures. But when I get my thermal paste I should be good.

The CPU didn't cook itself because the P4 has integrated clock throttling thermal protection. It will dynamically underclock itself to keep from overheating, if necessary. If that is insufficient, the BIOS should kick in and shut it off, which is what was happening with yours.

OMFG! THat really is bad.. glad the thermal protection kicked in, lol!

Glad you figured it out.. I'm sure you'll be ok after putting the grease on.

/edit - just ignore my post, I didn't notice the thread had passed on in the night . Damn earth rotational effects . Glad to see you found the problem Denmicster.

That is definitely not normal Denmicster. I can put my hand next to my fans and it is just about body temperature. I hate to say it but it sounds like an RMA. eludwig could be right about the poor thermal pad installation, on the other hand there maybe something else like broken temp probes causing the system to overheat.

I don't understand what you mean by "resistive load for power supply testing". Does that mean testing power supplies rather than thermal greas heat conductance?

I usually go over to overclockers.com as Joe has (what I consider to be as a layman) a pretty decent testing bench. But to back up your claims (excepting generics such as Radio Shack thermal paste), most top-end thermal grease competitors are fighting for fractions of C at this point (ref. this article.)