HP EliteBook 8560w possibly too hot

[Ritzerd]

Specifications of my HP EliteBook 8560w
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit SP1
Intel Core i7 2670QM @ 2.20GHz
8 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 664MHz (9-9-9-24)
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 6700M Series

Recently, my laptop starting having issues when playing League of Legends. Running normally, I have ~200 FPS. However, when there are many visual effects or a lot of action is happening on screen, it drops to below 10 FPS and after ~1 second it jumps up again to normal levels of ~200 FPS.

To try to combat this behavior, I have (1) updated my graphics card driver; (2) restored the factory defaults in the AMD FirePro Control Center; (3) ran CCleaner for both the temporary files and registry issues; and (4) restored the default settings for all power plans. Unfortunately, the issue persisted.

After some more searching, I think it is related to the temperatures of one of my components (not sure which one, I think the CPU). I did some tests using Speccy and Open Hardware Monitor with my charger plugged in. The ambient temperature is 21 degrees Celsius. The tests were done in three situations (with results in separate urls):

The laptop has been idle for 30 minutes with no programs active except for Speccy and Open Hardware Monitor;
Browsing some website, nothing special;
While playing League of Legends. I tried to time the screenshot with the moment the FPS dropped to below 10 FPS.

This raised a couple of questions with me: Is this definitely a heat issue? Is this a hardware related, or could the problem lie with some drivers? If it is a hardware issue, should I just clean out the fan using compressed air, or should I also reapply thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink (that is the component in the red box, correct?)?

 

[dudeman509]

You have a max of 100C in there in HW Monitor. Sandy Bridge laptops are set to throttle at 100C, and by the time you'd alt-tabbed and taken the screenshot, it had dropped back to 90 and upped the core speed again.

Try cleaning out the heat sink with compressed air, or possibly getting a chill pad. If that doesn't work, you will need to re-do thermal paste on the CPU heat sink.

 

[bliq]

I think it has more to do with the capabilities of the GPU to be honest. Turn down the eye candy and see if that improves the situation.

 

[Ritzerd]

You have a max of 100C in there in HW Monitor. Sandy Bridge laptops are set to throttle at 100C, and by the time you'd alt-tabbed and taken the screenshot, it had dropped back to 90 and upped the core speed again.

Try cleaning out the heat sink with compressed air, or possibly getting a chill pad. If that doesn't work, you will need to re-do thermal paste on the CPU heat sink.

I'll get the compressed air tomorrow morning. Do I need to open the laptop, or can I just blow the compressed air into both the intake and outtake vents from the outside?

 

[Ritzerd]

I think it has more to do with the capabilities of the GPU to be honest. Turn down the eye candy and see if that improves the situation.

I tried your solution: I set everything to the lowest possible value and still got (very?) high temperatures, see these results.

 

[dudeman509]

The bottom access panel might pop off through a latch on the bottom if it is like my Elitebook. Easy access to the fan, RAM, hard disk, Etc.

Otherwise, just blowing through the heat sink should be fine.