GT 330M heating up really fast

[dnazer]

Hello, I recently began experiencing a problem with my Nvidia GPU (GT 330M). Before we go any further I'll give you the system specs:
Sony Vaio VPFC1290s
Geforce GT330 M
6 GB DDR3 RAM
Intel Core i7 740 qm (1st gen)
500 GB HDD

My gpu usually idles around 45 C and tops out at 80-90 C on heavy games. The CPU idles around 55 C and goes till mid 70s under high loads. (measured using speedfan on windows 7 and Im_Sensors (ring sensor screenlet) in ubuntu 10.10)

I was on Ubuntu 10.10 (maverick) yesterday and an update came up so I installed it. My fan started going louder than usual given the load (VPCF 1290s are known to have a loud fan but this was unusual even for me; ive had this computer for over a year). I shrugged it off as nothing and booted into windows 7. Now windows 7 wanted to update so i updated that as well. I noticed that the fan is going louder than usual under the load so I decided to look into it. My gpu was running at 70 C. There were no graphic heavy applications, and my usually hot cpu was running at 55 C (idle). On windows 7 my gpu began to idle around 60 C, which isn't bad given that it can reach 90 C without shutting my system down. However, at any given moment, it would jump up to 72 or 75 in 1 second and then jump back down to 60 again. Luckily the fan would respond accordingly. On ubuntu, the problem seems to be much worst. I open chrome, the gpu jumps up to 90C. That's a bit high for chrome (even though compiz is very demanding, my gpu handles it no problem until now)...

So here I am asking for help because I have no idea what's going on. On one hand I was thinking that the updates perhaps made my gpu fan idle at a higher clock rate but that still doesn't explain the jumps in temperature under small loads. I thought about a faulty sensor but I have no way of checking that. And since the 90C jumps last for about 5-10 seconds each time, the laptop's exterior doesn't get hot. I'm confused as to what's going on and I hope that you guys will be able to help me out. I work under a hardware technician (I'm a student trying to learn a bit from him and am currently in 2nd year computer eng.) I may require things to be "dumbed down" a bit or preferably explained in detail. Whatever I don't understand I'll relay over to him. I am planning on opening the laptop up next week when I work with him. Any help would be much obliged.

UPDATE:
Restored windows 7 to before the update, the gpu still runs hotter than usual. But I did notice that the some of the CPU cores jump in temperature with the gpu.

In ubuntu, things are much worst. A single right click will run the gpu up to 80 C. However I've noticed that the air it's pumping out isn't as hot as it should be. In fact its as hot as it was when it was idle, just coming out at a higher speed. Could this mean that it's a problem with my bios? (the bios is up to date). I can't restore ubuntu because I didn't backup before the update .

 

[king smp]

did you check your power plan options?

In win7 under conrol panel-poer options

I cant recall how in Ubuntu
(havent used it awhile)

also go into BIOS and check your power/performance options

and just on the safe side blow out the grilled areas with canned air
even better open her up and clean and blow out around HSF area

 

[dnazer]

My power options are set to keep cpu at 5% when idle. Everything is set have heat dissipation as number 1 priority.

I ran RealTemp tests with prime 95 and at 100% load the cpu went up to 80 C which is rather decent. It still jumps every once in a while to mid 70s even tho there's no apparent load (but it could be doing something im not aware of).

My problem with the GPU still remains. It's doing its own thing.

The BIOS was never modified before the problem began so I'm not sure if I should modify anything. I will be opening it up sometime this week probably with my technician boss. But I still have no idea what the problem is :S and it seems no one else does either.

Thanks for your reply I really appreciate it.

 

[king smp]

Well to let you know there are Cool N Quiet (AMD) and Intel Speedstep
for controlling power usage (you will see CPU ghz go from a minimal number
to full speed under load)

also there is different power plans (C1 C3) which I am still learning about
available in the BIOS

also check you Nvidia control panel
sometimes it will let you control fan speed of GPU
also dont trust your temp monitor program
try a few different ones
I like HWinfo
there is two versions HWinfo64 and HWinfo32
for 64bit and 32bit OSes respectively
HWmonitor isnt bad also

some temp monitors will falsely read sensors

Speedfan for example is getting a little old
so is Everest

Try also GPU-Z

these are all freeware and easily Googled

 

[dnazer]

The temp monitors I use are right (I use 4 different ones just to cross reference, one being on another OS all together) I'm just not sure if the sensors themselves are correct. The rise in temperature is met by a equal rise in fan speed so the monitors have to be showing what the sensors are telling them.

Fan speed is not an issue because my fan will cool down the GPU and CPU. What I'm confused about is why all of a sudden, when I do something as simple as "right click" on the screen, will the GPU temperature hit 80 C. It never did this until yesterday (this happens in ubuntu only). I will upgrade to Natty Narwhal and see if that fixes the problem.