So, even though my blog readers are close to none, I'm wondering if someone has an idea why my laptop (a rebadged MSI GX620) is having thermal issues:
Fan is working well
Heatsink is unclogged
Thermal plates/pipes are in place and driving the heat to the heat-sink
CPU is idling
GPU is idling
Currently I've underclocked the entire system to the maximum possible, CPU is running as a at 800Mhz (from 2.4GHz), GPU is running at 125Mhz/200Mhz/312Mhz (for Core, Memory and Shader clocks and from 500Mhz/800Mhz/1250Mhz)
Hardrive has power saving policies applied
Temperature is currently 43ºC for CPU, 41ºC for Hardrive and 54ºC for GPU...
GPU heat pipe passes through the CPU heat plate, then the 2 heat-pipes go into the heat-sink.
In the past I would have an hard time to make it go past 30ºC (basically it would require me to push everything to the max in a hot day of summer) and the top I've reached before was around 40ºC (with the heat-sink clogged and pushing it a bit) ... Recently it started doing this, where the temperature never goes under 40ºC and it reaches 70ºC if I set it to normal clock speeds (and just idle).
The heatsink is really hot and the fan is working properly, the air flow seems right as well, so I'm puzzled why it is doing this as it all seems to work as it should but it not near of what it was in the past, it is running way too hot to be safe, if I push it, graphics card will probably reach the shutdown temperature (105ºC) before CPU reaching the thermal shutdown, I really don't want to try it...
I've tried to use a cooling station base, it has no effect whatsoever, ironically having it on the bed seems to be as effective as having it on the cooling station...
Oh well... soon I'll have no need for a laptop, so it really doesn't matter, though it is puzzling why this is happening...
EDIT:
To further test my system I ran stress tests on my system, it is holding under 75ºC for CPU and 85ºC for GPU, my guess is that the thermal grease as lost some of its conductivity, if I overclock my GPU to (700Mhz/800Mhz/1600Mhz - crazy improvement, but very stable) it never goes past 85ºC under heavy load.
I'm not that worried as it seems the cooling system is still working fine, just the efficiency got reduced with the age. I won't need a new laptop, nor I'll be selling this one.
PS:
If you're looking for a new laptop the old Asus N53 with a quad core i7 CPU, full HD matte (high brightness, contrast and color reproduction) and another remarkable points is being sold for 700€ (but it is very hard to find on stores), above that, with a faster CPU/RAM/GPU configuration, the latest model, the Asus N56VM is available for 800~850€ (a bit more if you want retro-illuminated keyboard, bluetooth, hybrid hardrive or some extra RAM), add a bit more (+50~100€) and N56VZ has some extra GPU power on it.
