Extremely High Temperatures with Acer Aspire 5552G-7641

[jbl351]

Hey everyone,

I own the Acer Aspire 5552G-7641 and I've had it for a little over two years now. One of the main problems I have with it is its temperature. Right now, when all I have open is Firefox and iTunes, the temperature according to Speedfan is as follows:

HD0: 43C
Temp1: 85C
GPU: 79C
Core:86C

I have the rear of my laptop suspended about 2cm in the air by putting two bottle caps in the rear corners. This is an attempt to promote better cooling. When I play video games, it overheats to the point that the laptop shuts off automatically.

I understand that the majority of overheating issues is not cleaning enough. And indeed I have never cleaned my laptop before. However, opening the laptop or bringing it to a tech-guy is not really an option at the moment. I have read on many forums that using compressed air is efficient, but I have also read that it can be extremely dangerous on laptops because of water moisture. Also, they seem to only pertain to desktops.

With that said, I am here to ask for advice as to what to do with this thing. The only ventilation hole is on the left of the laptop and takes up about 1/3 of the side. If any additional information is needed, I will gladly provide it. Thank you.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Speedfan is not accurate 95% of the time. Tell me the readings using Realtemp: http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/.

 

[jbl351]

Dumb question but, how do I use it? Both RealTemp.exe and RealTempGT.exe say my processor is not supported. i7TurboGT starts up but all values are 0. My processor is the AMD Phenom II X4 N970.

 

[GhostRyder]

Holy hot heck (keeping it g rated lol)

If that's your idle temps, I would say there is something more than just a bit of dust in the machine. It sounds like either you have a fan issue, the heatsinks have separated, or the thermal paste burned off.

As for real temp, a phenom is supported but ill look up your specific model and double check but it should give a good value. If not try here:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

If the values stay that high on there, that's a sign of a serious issue because that processor and gpu should not be running that hot.

 

[jbl351]

This was while streaming a video on Netflix.

 

[GhostRyder]

I'm going to repeat myself, holy hot heck.

Is your fan spinning up????

 

[jbl351]

What does that mean?

 

[GhostRyder]

I mean does your fan start spinning faster as the temps go up, or does it change speed at all.

 

[jbl351]

I'm not sure. Is there a definitive way to check? I'm fairly certain that I've heard my laptop get louder and make whirling noises as it got hotter, but, again, I'm not sure. I can run it through a 'stress test' if you want by opening up a bunch of video games that usually make my laptop overheat, and see if the fans change.

 

[GhostRyder]

It sounds like either one of two things has happened then if the fan is spinning.

Either the Heatsink has gone bad(meaning it needs new thermal paste), or there has been some separation in the Heatsink from the processor and gpu. Those temps are way to high and that can potentially start damaging your laptop if your not careful.

I know you said opening it or bringing it to a tech guy is not possible, but I worry if something is not done that could do some damage (especially if it shutting down from heat). Maybe find a friend who can do that it something?

 

[jbl351]

The only reason I ruled out opening up the laptop is because I have no experience doing so. I have some very important files on my laptop and not being able to use the laptop would be very bad. With that said, I'd be inclined to open the laptop if this is a problem that absolutely needs to be taken care of. What would I have to do to this thing anyway? I'm just afraid I'm going to break something in the process.

 

[GhostRyder]

If you don't know how, I wouldn't because each laptop is different and it could have a lot of things like snaps and wires in odd places. I would suggest seeing if a friend who knows this pretty well can help. If you are worried about data/the laptop in general, I can say some temporary measures to possibly at least keep it a little cooler.

1:avoid gaming for the time being on it
2: can of air blow it out on the fan, be gentle though when blasting the fan.
3: buy a air pad (a laptop cooler) that has some fans pushing air near your fans area.

 

[jbl351]

How long would a tech guy take, and how much would it cost? Lastly, are you certain that this is a hardware not a software problem?

 

[GhostRyder]

I dunno on time, but a few days at most it should be depending on if you go to someone or a friend could in a few hours at most depending.

As for hardware vs software, I'm about 99.9% sure because the fans are handled by the bios and not an on board software so if that was the problem it would e a widespread issue.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Wow that is hot. You may need to replace the CPU cooler.

 

[mente1985]

I had this same Issue with this laptop I have had this model for a little over 3yrs after replacing the cooling fan that burned out my laptop would still get too hot to run the simplest of things. I took the laptop apart again along with heatsink etc to learn that all the thermal compound had hardened. removed all the old bs put some new thermal paste and now cooling is no issue even when running battlefield 3 or World of Warcraft.

 

[Verity]

I have had this problem for a long time, since my computer was new.. Initially the fan was noisy then it made a racket then nothing. Even when it worked I started to have to raise the computer up on the edges to help cool it or it shut down every time I used it for more then 10 mins. Icey therapy pad helps too, just keep your hands or anything else away from the left fan vent to prevent a burn. 6 months ago I took it to a computer repair place and was told it would cost about$165-$185 to repair because the fan was expensive and hard to get at. This was too much in my limited experience. It still works with the adaptions I've mentioned but definitely not as a laptop as it burns my legs. Did I get a fair appraisal or not.