temps Crazy High Temps! [SOLVED]

[irpotatodonut]

Hello! I have been using an Inspiron 15 7559 Signature Edition since 2016 and it had been an amazing device. I repasted the thermals using Cooler Mastter's MasterGel Regular because the temps started getting a bit high recently, however it didn't seem to help. I did repaste the device using generic thermal paste before, and that brought temperatures down a fair bit. The odd thing is that I played Mafia 2 Definitive Edition on this laptop a month back (I didn't have a better system to run it on), and temps didn't exceed 70 degrees, so it's stable while gaming but hits up to 100 degrees under regular usage (YouTube on Chrome with no other background applications).

 

Any idea what I should do? Here's some additional information:

 

• Both fans are running normally (and super loud!)
• The CPU is an i7 6th gen 6700HQ with integrated graphics.
• Dedicated GPU is a 960m.
• Changing the power profile results in a lot of thermal throttling.
• CPU load is usually under 60%.
• I am using the laptop without a battery since the original one got puffy and I can't find a replacement that isn't super shady.
• All drivers and my BIOS is updated.

Any help would be much appreciated because I need to use this laptop till I can save up to upgrade to a new one. There are no Dell service centers or skilled technicians where I live (I had a technician past mine the last time and it made no difference in temps).

 

 

UPDATE:

For some reason a clean install of Windows fixed the problem. I'm reaching max temps of 78° C with 4K streaming + background applications and 34-37° idle. I thought that initially it might have been malware, but I didn't notice any weird resource utilization. 

[Nathanpete]

Is CPU utilization of 60% across all cores combined, like what gets read in task manager, or every core is being loaded to about 60% during web browsing? 

[Bombastinator]

Wondering if maybe it’s a different cooling problem than the thermal connection.  Have you cleaned the cooling fins?  Could be dust bunnies in there maybe.

[irpotatodonut]

48 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

Is CPU utilization of 60% across all cores combined, like what gets read in task manager, or every core is being loaded to about 60% during web browsing? 

So the CPU load it currently at 26% in task manager with 3 tabs and a few background apps open. I swiched over to the power saver profile and I'm getting temps around 45 max across ass 4 cores

[irpotatodonut]

32 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Wondering if maybe it’s a different cooling problem than the thermal connection.  Have you cleaned the cooling fins?  Could be dust bunnies in there maybe.

Yes, I cleaned out everything. Fans, exhausts and the vents too. Also using a cooling pad to keep things a bit cooler and my ambient temperatures never exceed 26 degrees Celsius