Question My Old M17x R4 suddenly superheating and lagging horribly yet feeling cold? Please help!

[supercrab]

Afternoon.

I've been real perplexed lately by whats happening.

Starting up HWmonitor tells me my CPU and GPU gets ludicrously hot (100c) Yet when i touch atleast the keyboard and fan area it feels rather cold.
Unfortunately this seems to affect any game i try play, occasionally causing massive audio and visual stuttering due to the heating.

I've already replaced the fans completely yet nothing has changed.

I have never replaced the thermal paste but should probably learn to do that eventually (Still pretty new to all this stuff)

I really hope to get this fixed, i've had no luck so far and would deeply appreciate any help i can get.

Thank you.

 

[COLGeek]

Changing the thermal compound and thermal pads may help. Those Alienwares are quite serviceable.

https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_alienware_laptops/alienware-m17x-r4_owner's manual_en-us.pdf

If getting that hot, the system will automatically throttle itself back to prevent damage to itself. This could explain the relative coolness.

 

[supercrab]

Changing the thermal compound and thermal pads may help. Those Alienwares are quite serviceable.

https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_alienware_laptops/alienware-m17x-r4_owner's manual_en-us.pdf

If getting that hot, the system will automatically throttle itself back to prevent damage to itself. This could explain the relative coolness.

Well this event seemed to come out of nowhere, i'm no expert but wouldn't weakening thermal paste or whatever happenss to it be an overtime thing rather then an immediate doubling of temperature?

I'll try buy some, Never applied any before but it doesn't seem to be very difficult.

 

[supercrab]

So while i go and buy thermal paste, is there anything else i should do in the mean-time or perhaps something i missed?

 

[COLGeek]

Bad temp sensors could cause these issues. However, please expand on this statement "I've already replaced the fans completely yet nothing has changed". From where did you get your replacement fans?

 

[supercrab]

Bad temp sensors could cause these issues. However, please expand on this statement "I've already replaced the fans completely yet nothing has changed". From where did you get your replacement fans?

My brother owned the same model of laptop a while back which he no longer used, so i asked him if i could use the fans from that one, i knew they worked and used them instead.

Didn't change a thing.

Also another issue has popped up, the screen sometimes distorts in color - flickering red lines across some portions of the screen, they are pretty small and become fainter the longer the computer is on so its a minor issue but i figured i'd mention it if it helped at all.

 

[COLGeek]

This could be a defective/failing motherboard and/or temp sensors. If the GPU is getting as hot as you indicated, I am not surprised by the screen issues.

 

[supercrab]

This could be a defective/failing motherboard and/or temp sensors. If the GPU is getting as hot as you indicated, I am not surprised by the screen issues.

A failing motherboard? I'll admit to having no idea what to do about that.

Would i just have to message DELL and get a replacement?

To be honest i'm not entirely surprised, the two USB ports on the left of the laptop are screwy, putting anything in them causes the entire machine to shutdown.

Would Dell even have spare parts to use at any reasonable price considering the laptops age?

 

[COLGeek]

If still under warranty, Dell is obligated to repair and they will (or they will replace the system). Is it still under warranty?