New Dell XPS 13 Overheating?

[Goose Legs]

I recently bought a brand new Dell XPS 13 laptop (with the i5-5200U CPU). Idling in a relatively cool room (20-25C room) the CPU idles around 50 degrees Celsius, but more worryingly under a heavy load (installing Windows updates, watching HD YouTube, or any other CPU intensive activity) the temperature quickly climbs to 90+ degrees, even touching at over 100 at times. (The highest I have observed was around 103C). 

 

After witnessing this behavior, I decided to clean off the stock thermal compound and apply IC diamond. I made sure to clean the CPU heatsink, as well as the CPU/GPU dies very well with 99% isopropyl alcohol, and reattached the CPU cooler. So far, zero difference. The temperatures still skyrocket despite the CPU cooler being properly leveled and screws being properly (and evenly) torqued. 

 

I figured a 14nm CPU would get better temperatures...so either the cooler is total crap (it is kind of thin...) but the air coming from the vent still seems quite cool. It's only at the base of the CPU cooler that really seems to heat up. 

 

What do you think? Would it be worth exchanging for a replacement (I'm at Day 5/21 for my return policy) or should I just ignore it?

 

Also, the CPU fan seems to be running fairly loudly, constantly, despite the exhaust air being not being any noticeably warmer than room temperature. The constant noise is a little annoying.  

[Fluxx]

What are you using to measure the temps?

 

My laptop would automatically turn off if it hit 100C

[Goose Legs]

What are you using to measure the temps?

 

My laptop would automatically turn off if it hit 100C

 

I am using HWMonitor. RealTemp has confirmed HWMonitor's results. After looking at the spec sheet for the 5200U on Intel's site, it seems that 105C is the highest allowable temperature for the CPU. It's higher than the traditional 100, but a part of me still can't shake the feeling that the temps shouldn't be that high in the first place especially on a low clocked, ultra low voltage dual core.

[Fluxx]

No you're right, it shouldn't be anywhere near 100C. You might want to call dell because either the sensor is broken or something is faulty causing the temps to be really high.

[Goose Legs]

No you're right, it shouldn't be anywhere near 100C. You might want to call dell because either the sensor is broken or something is faulty causing the temps to be really high.

 

Alright, I'll give them a call in the morning. Thanks!

[eysinn]

Just bought my girlfriend a XPS 13 with the same type of cpu, it has the same issue idling around 50°C and just installing updates or uninstalling stuff it skyrockets to around 90°C.
Been reading alot about the loud fan troubles and other problems and usually the solution was to update the bios which i did and uninstalled the bloatware from dell along with mcafee. But still the CPU temp is really high, i just shut it off when it hit 95°c at the highest.

So i talked to the dell support and they took it in for repairs, and they said it had a faulty fan which they replaced. Then when i got the computer back it had the same problems and the same temperatures, and i used HwMonitor,realtemp and speccy and they all had the same cpu temp. So i contact them again and they are saying it is a software issue  since they just repaired it and they couldn't use the numbers from the temperature software since it isn't approved by Dell, so i sent them a photo from the dell diagnostics showing the same numbers as the other temperature software. And now it's in for round 2 of repairs and they are saying there isn't anything wrong with it.

Would love to hear if/how this is solved for you since i am dealing with dell japan so there are small language difficulties between me and dell support in japan.  
But from how this is going for me i think i will return it 

[Goose Legs]

Just bought my girlfriend a XPS 13 with the same type of cpu, it has the same issue idling around 50°C and just installing updates or uninstalling stuff it skyrockets to around 90°C.

Been reading alot about the loud fan troubles and other problems and usually the solution was to update the bios which i did and uninstalled the bloatware from dell along with mcafee. But still the CPU temp is really high, i just shut it off when it hit 95°c at the highest.

So i talked to the dell support and they took it in for repairs, and they said it had a faulty fan which they replaced. Then when i got the computer back it had the same problems and the same temperatures, and i used HwMonitor,realtemp and speccy and they all had the same cpu temp. So i contact them again and they are saying it is a software issue  since they just repaired it and they couldn't use the numbers from the temperature software since it isn't approved by Dell, so i sent them a photo from the dell diagnostics showing the same numbers as the other temperature software. And now it's in for round 2 of repairs and they are saying there isn't anything wrong with it.

Would love to hear if/how this is solved for you since i am dealing with dell japan so there are small language difficulties between me and dell support in japan.  

But from how this is going for me i think i will return it 

 

Good to know. I used to have an XPS 13 earlier on before I got this one. I didn't measure the thermal temperatures at the time, but the fan would rarely ever kick on and the computer always seemed quite cool to the touch so I never looked into it. The only real reason I looked into this one was due to the fan constantly spinning. 

 

I called up Dell and explained exactly what I did and there were two possible solutions: 1) Send the unit in (or have them dispatch a new heat sink assembly) but there's about a 3 week back order on the part. Or, 2) Return this computer and order a new one. I ended up choosing option 2 on the basis to try and work on a clean slate and eliminate the (albeit small) possibility of a bad thermal sensor.