Acer Aspire 8943g Overheating Problems

[chriscshunter]

So I got this laptop December of 2010. First started having temp problems a couple months back (laptop freezing in game). Opened it up, cleaned it up, replaced the old crusty thermal paste with antec thermal paste. Worked for a couple months, and now the freezing is back. Found other owners of the 8943g were having similar problems. On my laptop my fan intake was a 3rd the size of this later model:
http://instagram.com/p/Im3uHvKsFl/

So I made holes to try and increase fan intake similar to this:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/338/airpa.jpg/

While I was at it I went ahead and cleaned out the inside again and replaced the thermal paste with antec again. The holes actually relieved quite a bit of the heat my keyboard was conducting and now my fingers dont burn on the W key in game, but my laptop continues to freeze in game. Idle temp 60c-65c. After a few minutes in almost any game it loves 90c-96c.

I went ahead and bought a different thermal paste arctic mx-4 on newegg in hope that antec just sucks. My laptop is in great condition, but I don't know how to fix this heating problem. Would replacing the fan and heat sink make a difference? Will applying a little more thermal paste be a bad idea? I've even tried sitting my laptop on a box fan running full blast while in game and it still froze. What the hell do I got to do to get this thing to cool down?

 

[FinneousPJ]

Well, first I would contact the manufacturer about the problem. Then, I would despair and realize laptops aren't for gaming and buy a desktop for the purpose 😛

 

[chriscshunter]

First off the laptop is over 2 years old and way out of warranty and there isn't anything that waiting hours on the phone for crappy customer service is going to do for me that someone here cant do. Second off I'm in the military and don't have the luxury of having a place for a desktop or a monitor, or any of that bullshit. But no you are incorrect on your point... this laptop has served me very well for over 2 years, and can continue to do so if I could get some reasonable advice without smug unhelpful comments please!

 

[FinneousPJ]

Take it easy, private. Do you have the possibility of taking it to a professional? If not, I'd wait for poster Brett-something, he's a laptop professional.

 

[chriscshunter]

I will take it to a professional as a last resort. I don't want to get charged for something I can probably do myself, plus its a good learning experience. I guess I'll wait... just been so frustrating spending my down time trying everything to fix this with little results so far.

 

[FinneousPJ]

I can relate to that. BTW, your second link doesn't work, I guess it requires login to view.

 

[chriscshunter]

I fixed the link in my first post. You can notice the top part was only covering 1/4th the area of the intake so I expanded it in hope to improve temp. I'm about to take a look inside very carefully today and check if the heat sink is maybe slightly bent and not making contact... other than that though I will be pretty lost, and probably dig into my wallet to pay someone else to fix this... 🙁

 

[chriscshunter]

1 Quick question. When I take off my heat sink there are 4 other squares around the processor where there is a blue softer looking thermal paste that I have never removed because it was blue instead of the grey that was on my processor and gpu, and because it wasnt hard and dried up, it was more of a soft molded paste so I wasnt sure if that was different. Should I try replacing that?

 

[popatim]

Definitely, the chip the 'other' heatpipe goes to is the GPU. Remember only to use a bb sized drop of thermal paste. Less for the smaller chips. Metal to chip is the best contact. Theremal paste is there just to fill any gaps.

 

[chriscshunter]

I think I got it... idle at 40c-45 and maxing at 70c-75c... placed thermal paste on all chips, but didn't spread it. I placed and expanded my holes to increase air intake. But the biggest thing I did that I believe made the difference is I took my fan and heatsink and ran water all through it. I think I had a few dust balls lodged in the heatsink... I hope this lasts.

 

[popatim]

Well Done!

 

[chriscshunter]

Thanks so much! So relieved this worked. It drops to as low as 35c now... im starting to worry my processor is too cold 😛

 

[chriscshunter]

Best answer selected by chriscshunter.

 

[omsbenq]

First off the laptop is over 2 years old and way out of warranty and there isn't anything that waiting hours on the phone for crappy customer service is going to do for me that someone here cant do. Second off I'm in the military and don't have the luxury of having a place for a desktop or a monitor, or any of that bullshit. But no you are incorrect on your point... this laptop has served me very well for over 2 years, and can continue to do so if I could get some reasonable advice without smug unhelpful comments please!

I am facing to the same issue but my laptop turns off when it reach 40°. I think i must apply a performant thermal paste on the CPU.
Please could u post a video on how to unmount this 8583g acer, I removed the keyboard, but cant access further.
Anyway, applying the past seems to ba a workaround, i guess that there is another component near the proc which suffers of the high temp and turn in a short cut (may be due to the dilatation or it becomes conductible) .

 

[arkid77]

So I got this laptop December of 2010. First started having temp problems a couple months back (laptop freezing in game). Opened it up, cleaned it up, replaced the old crusty thermal paste with antec thermal paste. Worked for a couple months, and now the freezing is back. Found other owners of the 8943g were having similar problems. On my laptop my fan intake was a 3rd the size of this later model:
http://instagram.com/p/Im3uHvKsFl/

So I made holes to try and increase fan intake similar to this:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/338/airpa.jpg/

While I was at it I went ahead and cleaned out the inside again and replaced the thermal paste with antec again. The holes actually relieved quite a bit of the heat my keyboard was conducting and now my fingers dont burn on the W key in game, but my laptop continues to freeze in game. Idle temp 60c-65c. After a few minutes in almost any game it loves 90c-96c.

I went ahead and bought a different thermal paste arctic mx-4 on newegg in hope that antec just sucks. My laptop is in great condition, but I don't know how to fix this heating problem. Would replacing the fan and heat sink make a difference? Will applying a little more thermal paste be a bad idea? I've even tried sitting my laptop on a box fan running full blast while in game and it still froze. What the hell do I got to do to get this thing to cool down?

chriscshunter, how is it going with the mx-4 thermal paste? By total chance i was just given some of this by a friend who had a tube spare. So yesterday after a year and a half (at least) of putting up with running the laptop at a lower clock rate to stop it powering off I decided to open it up and take the plunge.

So I just about managed to disassemble and reassemble the thing all in one piece initial results are fantastic. idle temperatures of around 60, normal working 65/68 and for very intense work around 80/85. Thats still 10 degrees lower than the fatal 95+ that will cause it to power off if sustained.

I will be back here in a few months if the paste stops working I guess, but fingers crossed for now!

 

[natedogger]

Thanks so much for the info. My 8943g was in the mid 90s and basically worthless. Took it apart, cleaned the old paste off. Put on some Artic- MX$ and drilled 2 rows of holes to improve the intake. Worked great!!! Now I'm consistently in the mid 50s.

 

[chriscshunter]

Glad I could help guide some other people through similar issues. Once I did everything I did and placed the thermal paste I haven't had a heating issue since. My laptop is still running better than ever, however I am now out of the military and made my own desktop so I am rarely using it other than to play movies on my tv in my bed room. I also used the same thermal paste on this new rig I have and this thing runs barely warmer than room temp.

My laptop served me well for almost 3 years and is still going strong.

 

[teubner]

Read on the online fixes and took mine apart to replace the thermal compound.
While apart, I opened the fan (5 tiny screws) and found about 1/8" of accumulated debris blocking the entire fan exit across the heat sink fins.
I suspect that blocking all the air flow had more badness than the heat sink compound.
Found good disassembly instructions here: http://www.manualslib.com/
http://www.manualslib.com/manual/379093/Acer-Aspire-8943.html
pages 50-70, 84-87 of the document, 60-80, 94-97 of the pdf counter.
Except there are two screws above the ODD that hold the keyboard on, and 6 screws to remove the LDC module hinges they don't mention.