Is my processor overheating?

[Devin123]

I have an Intel Core i3 2310M (Sandy Bridge) processor and even with a cooling pad my cpu is reaching temps. of 85 degrees and without the cooling pad it's even worse. I've recently started overclocking my gpu which is a gt 525M and I'm wandering if that could be the problem. Thanks.

 

[SNGX1275]

85 sounds high to me for an i3, but I don't actually know, nor have I looked up, the max temp for it, I do know mobile processors tend to have a higher max temp than traditionals.

I think the real question here is why did you ask this? Were you having problems?

Temp problems manifest themselves a few ways:
Super sluggishness because the CPU throttles way down.
Windows or other OS errors, when things go bad, they don't compute well, which is why you see stability problems on high ends of overclocking.
Graphics corruption on GPU overclocks, or simply bad drivers on normal clocks.

I'm sure there are some I missed, but that is the gist of it.

If you aren't seeing any problems, I wouldn't worry about it. Fixing laptop overheating problems yourself is more involved than doing the same on desktops.

 

[Devin123]

The main problem is when I play BF3 I can play for half an hour or so, then it crashes and I have to manually shut it down with the power button. Btw I have an XPS 15

 

[SNGX1275]

Does this happen if you don't overclock your 525? Crashes are symptomatic of overheating. Until others jump in with thoughts, go to the Administrative Tools control panel and open your Event Viewer. Can you find any errors or warnings around the times of your crashes? Perhaps its something simple like a driver issue.

 

[Devin123]

I haven't found any warnings. :/

 

[Devin123]

and I haven't played bf3 without overclocking as it will run slowly and all the latest drivers are installed.

 

[Darth Shiv]

BF3 is a torture test for a XPS 15. Not surprising the temps go so high. Bit surprising the cooling pad does nothing though.

 

[Devin123]

the cooling pad is fairly cheep with one small fan in the center. It makes a small difference.

 

[slh28]

85C is high but pretty normal for a laptop. Your i3 is most likely under full load during BF3 so it will get very hot.

 

[Devin123]

my cpu is usually at 100% when I run BF3 with over 20 watts of power.