Toshiba Satellite L755 - CPU and GPU overheating

Question

I'm at a little bit of a loss and wanted to try asking a question here :)

I own a Satellite L755, the model which includes Blu ray player, Nvidia 525m, 6GB RAM and a few more bells and whistles.

Currently its been showing erratic readouts for temperature even when idle.

I've used Toshiba's built in Health monitor and another program via third party named Speccy by piriform. Both show the following -

Idle state and basic usage - CPU 55*C up to 70*C and GPU 58*C to 60*C

Videos/Gaming/Heavier Programs - CPU 70*C to 90*C and GPU 70*C to 80*C

Obviously Temp's like these are something to be concerned about and more so because i cant splash out for expensive replacements should any of the hardware burn out and fail.

Prior to any of this happening i had the laptop running at a much cooler rate running high end programs and games at consistent heat levels, it was after i decided to reformat from scratch and personalise windows 7 my way that things started to creep up.

I've tried this so far -

Updated the Graphics card from default factory to 285.65 WHQL,296.10 WHQL and the latest 301.42 WHQL. All three updates made no difference,and stressed the GPU even further. I now believe a close friend of mine when he mentioned that default notebook drivers are tweaked for a reason and although nvidia recommend updating, they can cause graphics cards to over work. Since then I've completely removed new nvidia drivers and stuck with factory default which was written specifically for the laptop.

3 days ago i also took apart the main casing and lifted the keyboard and under cover to get at the motherboard to see if i could spot any dust clogging the insides. there was a good deal in the fan and i managed to clear out as much as i could. i didn't dare touch the CPU because i don't trust myself to fiddle with sensitive parts and i don't have any thermal paste to replace the existing layer which is already there. the base of the laptop is also kept propped up on a desk to get as much ventilation as possible but even that seems to make no change.

So I'm after any advice and possibly cost effective ways to prevent my laptop fizzling out!

Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

Fixing laptop heating up to 90+ Celsius under heavy usage or 3D gaming:

The most common reasons that a PC or Laptop heats up while used in moderate environment (Placed on flat surface with acceptable room temperature < 37 C):

1. Fan is weak or malfunctioned, Solution replace the fan.
2. Ventilation vents are dusty or blocked, Solution Clean blow the vents.
3. PC or Laptop is more than 3 years old, Solution Clean the cooling surface of the CPU and GPU after removing all the old thermal paste with a very smooth rug or medical cotton without using any chemical ingredients, then apply new thermal paste to both CPU and GPU Surfaces attached to the cooler heat sink.
4. Last thing is to adjust Power Options to Balanced and change plan settings in Advanced Power Options for system cooling policy set both on battery and plugged in to passive.

This will make your laptop or desktop CPU within normal operating temperature (52 C to 85 C), and temperature should not surge above 90 C.

Answer 2

I had a similar issue, it took me many weeks to figure out, but I had turned on hardware GPU acceleration for Edge on the Nvidia control panel, and this caused big overheating when Edge was open, even if not used.

I turned off most GPU acceleration wherever I could and that has stabilised my Toshiba laptop finally.

Answer 3

My periodic laptop fixerupper in mainly focused on making sure I don't have any heating issues, as my laptop has a beast of a GPU compared to its cooling.

What I do is screw it open and: - Clean out all filters with compressed air - Take out the fan, and give it the same treatment (be sure to disconnect its power first, so that you don't induce power feeding into the mainboard) - Take out the keyboard and blow it clean with compressed air - General cleanup inside with compressed air - Replace the thermal paste, as it dries up with time

Once I started doing this, my laptop started running a lot cooler, with the fan not having to work as hard.

I do this a couple of times a year. One thing that is often overlooked is the thermal paste - It doesn't last forever, even though you're not taking off any heatsinks. I replace the thermal paste maybe once a year, by cleaning it out with isopropane alcohol and applying a new layer.

Whether this applies to you, I cannot say, but I find it worth mentioning while on the topic of laptop cooling. However, I find it odd that the issues started with a reformat. Any chance the timing is a coincidence?