95 ºC on CPU & Throttling for apparent reason

[thepedrobl]

95 ºC on CPU & Throttling for *no apparent reason

So this is a Samsung laptop, i5-2450M @2.5 GHz - stock - with up to 3.2 on turbo boost, or something.

I have had this laptop for close to 3 years, and in the last 1-2 months, game performance started to get real bad, horrible FPS drops and whatnot.

Turns out my CPU is running at ~70ºC AT IDLE and when I fire up a game (CS:GO, for example), the temperatures go up to 95 ºC, which causes it to throttle the max freq to 31% every few seconds, until it cools enough to go back to normal, heats up instantly, repeat (throttling happens at the same time as FPS drops, naturally).

On Payday 2 it's even worse, the max frequency just locks at 31%.

Worth noting:
-The heatsink on the laptop was replaced a few months back (my guess would be 6 months) because of a malfunctioning fan
-2 days ago, I went to my local PC shop to get the dust off and change the thermal paste (the pc man said it wasn't dusty and the old paste was still good, still cleaned it and changed the paste)
-And I still get these crazy temperatures.
-I even opened it up and unscrewed the heatsink a bit, and then re-tightened it, just to be sure. Still no change.
-When I opened it up, I loaded CS:GO with the laptop still open, and indeed, the copper heatsink was incredibly hot (this means the heatink is seated properly and transferring heat!), and the fan is blowing hot air at full speed.
-I even use a laptop platform with 2 fans

 

My suspicions:

-CPU is not working properly and is producing too much heat for some reason

-GPU [GTX 520MX] is doing it instead (shared heatsink) MOST LIKELY SINCE IT IS HITTING ~97ºC, even higher than CPU

I have literally no idea why this is happening and would really appreciate any input.

 

Green = Edit

[SkywardKkalox]

I would re-apply new thermal compound.

[79 Potatoes]

I would re-apply new thermal compound.

This, but not cheap one. It must be good, mandatory MX-2 or better for mid range laptops that share heatsink with GPU

[Guest Generallee]

This, but not cheap one. It must be good, mandatory MX-2 or better for mid range laptops that share heatsink with GPU

 

You can even use toothpaste it would make a 2°c difference

[SkixAces]

You can even use toothpaste it would make a 2°c difference

they dont mean the thermal paste! they mean the thermal COMPOUND. Those are 2 completely different things!

[Guest Generallee]

they dont mean the thermal paste! they mean the thermal COMPOUND. Those are 2 completely different things!

 

Thermal grease (also called thermal gel, thermal compound, thermal paste, heat paste, heat sink paste, thermal interface material, grey goo ..

[79 Potatoes]

You can even use toothpaste it would make a 2°c difference

2 ºC? Then explain why in my laptop (i5-4200U + R7M260) It made a difference of 28 ºC between Phasak White 50 Gr and NT-H1?

[Guest Generallee]

2 ºC? Then explain why in my laptop (i5-4200U + R7M260) It made a difference of 28 ºC between Phasak White 50 Gr and NT-H1?

 

Because your old thermal paste was bacon in disguise

[79 Potatoes]

Because your old thermal paste was bacon in disguise

You don't know how to read or what?, between two new thermal pastes not the old one. The Phasak White barely made any difference compared to dry stock paste 

[Guest Generallee]

You don't know how to read or what?, between two new thermal pastes not the old one. The Phasak White barely made any difference compared to dry stock paste 

 

If you are trying to tell me that thermal paste can make a 28°C difference on it's own like it isn't your fault for not mounting your cooler properly, i have to call bullshit on that and I will ask you again to put some toothpaste on your cpu so that you finally understand that the only difference between stock grease, MX5 and Colgate is that Colgate dries in 2 days.

 

Or you know what, the MX5 is actually made of magic and it transfers heat at 1000 heats per second or whatever m8

[pablopg69]

Or you know what, the MX5 is actually made of magic and it transfers heat at 1000 heats per second or whatever m8

Actually it's 998.78 heats per second depending on which part of the world are you.

[thepedrobl]

This has gone a bit off-topic, but please note that my old thermal compound was still in good condition, and the new one has a few days, so I kinda doubt it's worth changing it for the 3rd time to see if it makes any difference?

Edit: Also, even if my CPU did have crappy thermal paste, it would still transfer heat... Reaching 95ºC makes me think the problem comes from some malfunctioning in the CPU which makes it release a stupidly high amount of heat

[SlowMixit]

Do the fans spin at all? Since fans have been replaced due original ones malfunctioned it could also be that mainboards fan controller it self is malfunctioning if fans arent spinning at normal speeds.

 

@Generallee

I have tested this toothpaste myth my self and figured out toothpaste lost with about 10 degrees of celcius higer temps compared to MX-4.

[thepedrobl]

Do the fans spin at all? Since fans have been replaced due original ones malfunctioned it could also be that mainboards fan controller it self is malfunctioning if fans arent spinning at normal speeds.

 

Yes, as I stated in the topic, the fan is spinning at full speed when under load and blowing out hot air

[TDP_Equinox]

Install water cooling.


JK (Maybe).


Check the BIOS and reset it to default/double check that your CPU Voltage is set to stock or auto.
 

[thepedrobl]

Check the BIOS and reset it to default/double check that your CPU Voltage is set to stock or auto.

 

Reset the BIOS and there aren't any voltage options on it, just basic stuff like CPU power savings mode (which was enabled by default) and still no change. Also tried to disable the power savings -- didn't affect anything

 

On a side note, I have noted that the GPU is hitting even higher temperatures than the CPU (~97 ºC) maybe the heat is coming from there?

[TDP_Equinox]

Reset the BIOS and there aren't any voltage options on it, just basic stuff like CPU power savings mode (which was enabled by default) and still no change. Also tried to disable the power savings -- didn't affect anything

 

On a side note, I have noted that the GPU is hitting even higher temperatures than the CPU (~97 ºC) maybe the heat is coming from there?

It could be, as the CPU and GPU share a heatsink plate.

Try running aida64 for just the CPU, and then letting it cool down and running aida64 for just the GPU while watching temps.

[thepedrobl]

It could be, as the CPU and GPU share a heatsink plate.

Try running aida64 for just the CPU, and then letting it cool down and running aida64 for just the GPU while watching temps.

 

I did 4 tests with AIDA64 running - CPU, GPU, Both, CS:GO - and the CPU throttled on all of them, except on CPU-only stress test, which confirms my suspicions I guess... 

 

Images:

CPU stress test - http://i.imgur.com/kMeKXnE.png & http://i.imgur.com/1C80HdB.png

GPU stress test - http://i.imgur.com/2OOUCtR.png & http://i.imgur.com/k1CvHdJ.png

CPU+GPU stress test - http://i.imgur.com/3guvkBM.png & http://i.imgur.com/zNr4Trq.png

CS:GO - http://i.imgur.com/aJqKNIr.png

[atrash]

What gpu is in that laptop? can you do a clean install of the graphics driver and update to the latest vesion?

[thepedrobl]

What gpu is in that laptop? can you do a clean install of the graphics driver and update to the latest vesion?

 

GTX 520MX

The drivers were updated, but I still uninstalled them and did a fresh install -- nothing changed

[atrash]

GTX 520MX

The drivers were updated, but I still uninstalled them and did a fresh install -- nothing changed

 

Does it overheat when both cpu+gpu on idle? Also is the gpu truly idle when not doing anything? The only think could think of to do right now is to reapply the thermal paste (I know you said you already did that) but just to be sure. Sometimes older laptop uses thermal pad instead of thermal paste and also could be the fan+heatsink that you replaced are faulty/not within the original specs and hence performing worse than it should. 

 

Also another possibility is there are some background processes running and utilising the gpu unnecessarily. Might wanna do a quick scan.

[thepedrobl]

Does it overheat when both cpu+gpu on idle? Also is the gpu truly idle when not doing anything? The only think could think of to do right now is to reapply the thermal paste (I know you said you already did that) but just to be sure. Sometimes older laptop uses thermal pad instead of thermal paste and also could be the fan+heatsink that you replaced are faulty/not within the original specs and hence performing worse than it should. 

 

Also another possibility is there are some background processes running and utilising the gpu unnecessarily. Might wanna do a quick scan.

 

I'm not sure if you can have everyday stuff running in the background on idle tests, but here's an image showing you the temps while not doing anything: http://i.imgur.com/Cp8kEMo.jpg?1

Based on the temperatures I usually get, I wouldn't call this overheating, but SpeedFan does show some flame icons

 

I'll see about replacing the thermal paste sometime this week.

And how do I check if something is using the GPU? The temperatures on Speedfan suggest it isn't being used too much (although I must admit pattern is weird)

[TDP_Equinox]

I'm not sure if you can have everyday stuff running in the background on idle tests, but here's an image showing you the temps while not doing anything: http://i.imgur.com/Cp8kEMo.jpg?1

Based on the temperatures I usually get, I wouldn't call this overheating, but SpeedFan does show some flame icons

 

I'll see about replacing the thermal paste sometime this week.

And how do I check if something is using the GPU? The temperatures on Speedfan suggest it isn't being used too much (although I must admit pattern is weird)

Can you have the MSI Afterburner monitor running in that screenshot as well? 

[thepedrobl]

Can you have the MSI Afterburner monitor running in that screenshot as well? 

And which one of the 23 graphs should I look at, on MSI Afterburner? >.>

[TDP_Equinox]

And which one of the 23 graphs should I look at, on MSI Afterburner? >.>

Turn off all the CPU usage, memory usage, and all that useless junk, and focus on GPU Temps and GPU Usage (Usage the most.).