Question Laptop GPU overheating and crashing ?

[Ukraine1449]

I have a gaming laptop, that has recently started crashing while playing space engineers because of the GPU. If restarted immedieately, the GPU is not deteceted, however if given about 5-10 min the GPU comes back as normal. The system is about 2.5 years old.
I suspect this might be a cooling issue but never in the 2.5 years ive had it has this happened. Maybe thermal paste dried out/crumbled?

SPECS:
I7-9750H
RTX-2060
16GB DDR4 RAM
1x 512gb SSD
1x 1tb SSD
(external asus monitor)

 

[Rokinamerica]

Yes, replace the paste first, then test. If not successful, then we can try something else.

 

[Ukraine1449]

Yes, replace the paste first, then test. If not successful, then we can try something else.

Are there any other reasons this could be happening other then the paste?

 

[geofelt]

What might have changed recently?
Have there been any recent software updates that might be relevant?

I am not so hot about changing paste which seems to be a common suggestion.
Paste does not suddenly go bad.
Taking a laptop apart is not so simple, and it is easy to damage something in the process.

The most likely cause is clogged cooling airways or a failed cooling fan.


I see many complaints about gaming laptops not performing well.
Usually gaming while plugged in.
One common cause is thermal throttling.
Laptop coolers must, of necessity be small and light.
The coolers are also relatively underpowered.
If you run an app such as HWMonitor or HWinfo, you will get the current, minimum, and maximum cpu temperatures.
For intel processors, if you see a max of 100c. it means you have throttled.
The cpu will lower it's multiplier and power draw to protect itself
until the situation reverses.
At a lower multiplier, your cpu usage may well be at 100%
What can you do?
First, see that your cooler airways are clear and that the cooler fan is spinning.
Use a windows balanced power profile, not the performance profile.
Set a minimum cpu performance to something like 20%

It is counter-intuitive, but, try changing the windows balanced power profile advanced functions to a max of 90% instead of the default of 100%
You may not notice the reduced cpu performance.