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[Azerty]

Yeah, I get a similar issue when connecting my laptop to a certain network. Disabling and reenabling wireless usually does the trick.

Yeah, removing and putting back my WLan device does the trick, but it last only for 15-30 minutes; after this, the OS (Windows 7) first says no networks are detected and then print other networks ecept the mine, wjhich I can access from another computer.

I would like to have a definitive, final solution to this problem.

[Sappho]

God fucking damn it. My overheating computer from hell has reached a new level of pissing me off. Starting yesterday, it is now shutting down without warning. I assume this is due to overheating (the top of the computer is definitely very hot when this happens and it's always while trying to play Minecraft, albeit with the graphics options turned all the way down). In the past, when it started to overheat, it would start to freeze up. Everything would sort of choke and lag while I frantically shut everything down to keep it from getting too hot.

I no longer get any warning. It goes from everything functioning perfectly fine, to OFF. Instant shutdown. No beeps, no freezing, no slowing down, nothing.

It's going to be a few months before I can save up enough for a new computer. Until then I don't want to spend any more money trying to salvage this pile of horse shit, but I have JUST bought Minecraft after ages of wanting it, and now I can't play it at all. It's not even hot in my apartment (about 26 C). Obviously something inside this thing has gotten worse. I'm just at a total loss.

The laptop is already propped up several inches above a USB-powered fan on a cooling pad, with even more air space under that. The bottom of the computer is ironically quite cool, even when it's overheating. The heat is on the top. (See the thread I linked in the beginning for images of the inside of the computer to understand why). I obviously need a way to keep the top of the computer cool, as a temporary measure so I can play my new game. For the first few days I had it, it ran just fine (once I turned the graphics options all the way down). Now it's suddenly only letting me play about 10 minutes before shutting down without warning. I'm starting to wonder if my 7-year-old cheap laptop might be able to run Minecraft at all... That one doesn't get hot...

I'm considering going out and buying a small fan today, to try to blow the air over the top of the keyboard and keep it cool. However, I'm flat broke for at least another week or two and I can't afford much. I also have extremely little space where I could put a fan. And no available power outlets nearby. So I'd have to buy a power strip as well, I guess. This is going to be problematic.

Does anyone else have any other suggestions? I'm starting work again, these are my last days of freedom, and if I can't use them to play Minecraft I might murder someone.

Just a reminder: this computer cost $1500. ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

EDIT: Just to review, in case anyone is not up to date: the computer is designed not to be opened. I have managed to get it open a few times, trying to clean out dust. There was NO dust inside. NONE. Because the air doesn't circulate inside at all, the dust can't even get inside. So please don't suggest cleaning the dust out. Not going to work, I'm afraid.

[LordSlowpoke]

sounds like thermal paste, i'm afraid

rule of thumb is it should be replaced every two years, and i browsed over to that thread you made, it's from july 2013 and says you bought it last year

please don't use your computer if it overheats to the point of automated shutdown you are already damaging something

[Sappho]

I just got a program to monitor the temperature of the processor. At idle it's around 50-60 C. I turned on Minecraft (no mods, all graphic options at absolute minimum) and it went up to 80. I turned off Minecraft after about a minute, nothing bad happened. The times it shut down were once while I was trying to play on a multiplayer server, and twice while I was playing with the Millenaire mod. Maybe if I stick to vanilla single player it will survive...

The thing that really confuses me is that there is no lag in the game. The computer has *always* lagged when it's overheating in the past. Horribly.

If I took this machine to someone who fixes computers (I have no idea where I'd find someone like that, I'll have to ask around, there are no big chain computer repair shops or anything like that here), and asked them to replace the thermal paste, about how much should that cost? Bearing in mind that the machine is designed never to be opened. I've already broken off one or two of the little clips that hold it together, trying to get it open the first time.

The thing is, this machine absolutely has to last me at least another 2-3 months. I'm about to hook up my decrepit old machine and see if I can get it to run Minecraft...

[LordSlowpoke]

well, if you already popped it open you shouldn't really need to take it to anyone, it'll take just a bit of disassembling and reassembling

which is as difficult as remembering which screws go where more or less

unless they fucked up the interior too in which case WHY

you literally need to take off the old paste and apply the new one, with a razor or something of that nature preferably then put the whole thing back together

thermal paste is dirt cheap by itself, something ten bucks per 4 gram for silver-based stuff? which i recommend you use, although people might have objections to that (which i'm itching to hear out, i never really had explained to me why silver is bad)

if the screws are all "special tool" bullshit you might need to take it to someone who has such tools which most of the time defaults to the manufacturer or people with their certificates

[Sappho]

I'm not going to do it myself. No way. Opening the computer the first time was nerve-wracking, and I was only checking for dust. No way in hell am I going to take anything apart. Not to mention that in order to do it myself, I'd have to go to an electronics store, try to figure out (in Czech) what kind of thing I need, hope to Armok that I get the right thing, take it home, open the computer, try to figure out how to unscrew everything and pray I don't fuck up putting it back together...

I tried to build a computer once. I'm so clumsy that I bent one of the pins on something or other, and the first time I started the machine, the motherboard fried. There was a big black mark in the middle of it. I'm not doing this myself.

I'm sending messages to friends asking if anyone knows anyone who can fix it. I just need to know how much it should cost so I don't get totally ripped off.

[LordSlowpoke]

i have no idea how expensive things in czechia should be sorry

[Sappho]

How much would it cost in the USA, or wherever else? I can figure out what the equivalent would be in the Czech Republic.

By the way, my old laptop is willing to run Minecraft if the settings are all at their absolute lowest, though it does lag and jerk slightly from time to time. Amazing that a 7-year-old machine that only cost $200 when it was new can run the game, but my very expensive and only 2-year-old machine can't handle it on the same settings...

[MaximumZero]

When you popped it open, did you clean out the heatsink on the processor? A can of compressed air is cheap and may fix some of the problem.

[Sappho]

There was no dust of any kind anywhere inside the computer. I'd had it for a year, and the inside was dust-free, because the air literally can not circulate in there. There's one tiny vent in the back of the computer where warm air is just barely detectable coming out.

I'm asking around now, trying to find someone trustworthy who could open it up and figure out what can be done. So far no luck... All my meatspace friends are mostly hippies and almost none of them know anything about computers. They don't even use them very much, except for *shudder* Facebook. But I'll keep looking... Maybe I'll take the computer to work with me on Monday. There must be someone in the office who's good with hardware... They've got a few big computer machines of some sort with big fans mounted on them to keep them cool, so presumably that's a server, which means there has to be a hardware person somewhere to look after it.

Worst case scenario, I did find an ad on the local expats web site for a computer expert who speaks fluent English and has mostly very good reviews for his service, so if I have to, I'll call him and see what he can do.

I'm afraid there's not much that *can* be done, though. As I've said before, this computer has had overheating problems literally since the day I bought it. Sure, some things might have gotten worse with time, but it's not like it's possible to make the computer *not* run hot.

Oh how I look forward to my new high-powered desktop gaming rig... I hope I can save up enough soon...

[Sinistar]

And I'm back again. For those of you interested, here are my past two posts about my current problems:

In this past few days, things have been running so-so. I have yet to run those additional test, but I started to run Process Hacker instead of Task Manager. I'll come back to that later. Anyways, I installed Sims 2 (on SSHD) thanks to that Origin giveaway and first thing that happened when running it for the first time was a massive freeze-up first on the very starting loading screen and then on main menu when scrolling through available neighborhoods. So I though maybe my GPU is the cause after all, seeing how in the past few months I successfully overheated it for quite a few times due to fan problems (but that's a story for another time). But after that and during when playing Sims in the next few days, troubles are more or less gone. Still occasional long lag and from time to time inability to run both a web browser and Sims at the same time (despite being able to do that just fine for the most of the time). I'm blaming either RAM, GPU, CPU, mobo or even corrupted Windows install at this point. I ignore that SSHD for now ESPECIALLY since occasionally that lag was present even when running stuff that's JUST on my main SSD (but SSHD still connected).

However, just this evening, I switch to my other Vista account and try to run Sims from there. Same lag as the first time when I run it on another account. What's more, one or two dreaded clicks from SSHD. But eventually it comes through. I switch accounts again and decide to check some stuff on SSHD just because. Guess what, freeze again. And again, one or two clicks. So I'm running PH during that time and I'm checking the graphs. CPU and I/O are particularly noteworthy, I think. Here's a snapshot of I/O:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The CPU one looks kinda similar but basically the extreme spikes you see is the moment when the system "wakes up", and during the freeze I/O and to some extent CPU are basically zero. And after that few spikes, I can browse SSHD more or less normally again.

SO I might be reading this stuff wrong and chasing ghosts here but my guess is it IS the SSHD problem after all. The reason why it works ok for most of the time is because of it's SSD part - I played Sims ok for few days as the loaded in SSD part but the HDD really is faulty. But that's my guess.

I'll be running those other test tomorrow for sure, but I'd still like to hear if anyone has an opinion on this.



Sappho: from the information you've given, I'd go as far as to say your computer seems overheat-prone by default. If you say the insides are so cramped the air can't even circulate there... sounds to me lake a design fault. I hope I'm wrong though, this is just a wild guess I have. I know it doesn't help much. 
A fan cooling the upside sounds like a most plausible plan at that point indeed. Though a crazy idea I have is to make a (few) hole(s) at left and right side and then put a fan on one side so it hopefully forces a circulation inside... but yeah, that's a bit crazy.

[MaximumZero]

@Sappho: Hm. Sounds like one of your fans isn't firing up properly, and is probably defective. Defects happen...frequently with Dell. If you have an IT department at work, definitely see them first and let them know that your computer issues are hindering your ability to work for your company (even if they're not.) Give them puppy dog eyes if you have to. If you decide to go to the freelance tech, see if you can get him to run a diagnostic check/estimate for either very little or free (if he figures out the problem, it's likely you'll come back to him. I always ran basic diagnostics for free.)

[Sappho]

@Sappho: Hm. Sounds like one of your fans isn't firing up properly, and is probably defective. Defects happen...frequently with Dell. If you have an IT department at work, definitely see them first and let them know that your computer issues are hindering your ability to work for your company (even if they're not.) Give them puppy dog eyes if you have to. If you decide to go to the freelance tech, see if you can get him to run a diagnostic check/estimate for either very little or free (if he figures out the problem, it's likely you'll come back to him. I always ran basic diagnostics for free.)

Believe me, I am now well aware of Dell's issue with defective parts. I wish I had known before. I'll never buy another Dell again under any circumstances. Worst computer I've ever had by far. But I think we determined (the last time I brought this topic up, about a year ago) that it's not a failure so much as horrible design/engineering. I got it when it was new, and there weren't any reviews out for it yet, but now there are many, many, many reports of people who have had overheating problems with the XPS right out of the box. (Those fortunate enough to live in the country where it was bought usually say they returned it, lucky bastards.) This machine has a beautiful Intel i7 processor (the main reason I bought it), but that sort of thing produces a lot of heat, and there's no way for the heat to really get out of the case. There seems to be one single rinky-dink little fan inside, not exactly ideally placed to keep anything cool. The heatsink is also apparently just stupidly placed (though I don't know anything about that, people's response to the pictures I posted in the old thread was pretty unanimous). So the heatsink isn't really designed to work in any significant way.

It seems the most I can hope for is to keep it from actually shutting down while I play a little Minecraft, possibly by having someone who knows what they're doing do a proper clean-out and maybe replace the thermal paste if that helps at all. I'm quite upset that I can't seem to play multiplayer. By the time I can afford a new computer, I won't have the time to play anymore, because I'll be working all the time to pay for the new computer. : (

My company definitely doesn't have a "department" for anything. There are about 8 people in the office at a time. But I figure one of them probably is in charge of the computers and might possibly know something about hardware. If not, I'll see about the freelance guy. I'll definitely get an estimate up front before letting him touch the computer. Here's hoping I can find someone else first, since that guy apparently has quite high prices (hard to do anything about that, since he's offering English service in a non-English country).

Were there any other possible ways to reduce the heat? I remember someone saying something about underclocking, but I never followed up on that. Is that a thing? What is it, how is it done? And is an external fan likely to actually make a difference? Should I invest in that, with my dwindling summer funds?

Also, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has tried to help me with this problem. I know I've been ranting about it for over a year now, in various parts of the forums, and I'm sure everyone is sick of hearing about it. As a teacher, I just don't get enough money to deal with this kind of issue, and I spent nearly 2 months' salary on this thing.

[MaximumZero]

Over/underclocking (same process, different numbers) is definitely a thing, but it looks like you'll probably need to install a custom BIOS to get there, which is...well...a pretty advanced task.

Another way to achieve a pseudo-underclock is to go into your control panel>power>advanced>processor power management>maximum processor rate, and set it to something like 80%. Here's a video. It's not 100% effective, but it should help a little bit.

[Sappho]

Thanks for the tip. I'm not going to deal with BIOS, but I did the max processor rate change. Hopefully it will at least help to prevent some of the shutdowns... Of course, it doesn't change the resting temperature though. I could heat my apartment all winter just by running the computer...