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High idle temp? (thin/light laptop 11400h)

4

4evrplan

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Sep 7, 2024
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I just re-pasted my old thin/light laptop for the first time ever (an MSI GF63, i5-11400h, GTX 1650 max-q) and cleaned out the dust. I had just finished undervolting the CPU core and cache (-41 mV) and the GPU (-143 mV), and I noticed my temps were still high (mid 60s C) at idle. After the re-paste, the idle temps are still between 50 to 60 C. I know the cooling solution on this laptop isn't the greatest, but is this normal? I searched online for typical idle temps for the 11400h, and people are saying mid 30s.

One of the screws that holds down the CPU heat sink seemed to have messed up threads, but I think I was still able to crank it down pretty well, so maybe that's the issue, but maybe not. I spread the thermal paste thin with one of those little plastic spatulas, because I wanted to make sure I had complete coverage, but maybe it was too thin? Or maybe the cooling on this laptop just really sucks. IDK.
 
What paste? Some take a few heat cycles to set up. Ultimately laptops just run hot because of the small space and there's not a lot you can do besides the procedures you've already done.
 
ShrimpBrime said:
What paste? Some take a few heat cycles to set up. Ultimately laptops just run hot because of the small space and there's not a lot you can do besides the procedures you've already done.
Click to expand...
Thermalright TF4. It came with a cooler I put in a different computer. I also have some Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, but I heard it breaks down quickly under high heat, so I chose the TF4 instead.

But, just now I came back to the laptop after it sat for hours and checked the temps again, and it was at 38. It very quickly rose a few degrees, but it mostly hovered around 44. I'm testing what I thought was an unrelated issue (maybe). I have it set to sleep after 5 minutes, but something is preventing it from going completely to sleep. The screen turns off, but the keyboard is still lit, and the fan is running (at a low speed). I've been turning off background programs one by one to see if it would fix the sleep issue (first RivaTuner, then MSI Afterburner, then ThrottleStop). After closing both RTSS and MSI Afterburner, I got busy and came back a few hours later, and that's when I found it running in the lower temps.

EDIT: The sleep issue ended up being completely unrelated. I did however, find that the Epic Games launcher was spiking my temps up to 80 C, even though it was only using 7-8 % CPU.
 
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4evrplan said:
Thermalright TF4. It came with a cooler I put in a different computer. I also have some Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, but I heard it breaks down quickly under high heat, so I chose the TF4 instead.

But, just now I came back to the laptop after it sat for hours and checked the temps again, and it was at 38. It very quickly rose a few degrees, but it mostly hovered around 44. I'm testing what I thought was an unrelated issue (maybe). I have it set to sleep after 5 minutes, but something is preventing it from going completely to sleep. The screen turns off, but the keyboard is still lit, and the fan is running (at a low speed). I've been turning off background programs one by one to see if it would fix the sleep issue (first RivaTuner, then MSI Afterburner, then ThrottleStop). After closing both RTSS and MSI Afterburner, I got busy and came back a few hours later, and that's when I found it running in the lower temps.
Click to expand...
Cool. Sounds like the paste just needed to settle in from the mounting pressure, maybe a heat cycle or two. Sounds like it's good to go.
 
If MSI Afterburner is running, it raises the temp 3-7 degrees, even with the stock voltage/clock curve. My custom curve should have helped, since it applied an undervolt, but it did not. Epic Games Launcher running raised the temp as much as 25 degrees. That definitely doesn't seem normal.
 
4evrplan said:
If MSI Afterburner is running, it raises the temp 3-7 degrees, even with the stock voltage/clock curve. My custom curve should have helped, since it applied an undervolt, but it did not. Epic Games Launcher running raised the temp as much as 25 degrees. That definitely doesn't seem normal.
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I'm not sure if these numbers mean something without knowing how much the cpu is being used. You mean while the launcher is loading, the Cpu temp goes up from 38c to 62c?

That doesn't seem abnormal really. I think the limit for laptops range from 85c to 100c before it throttles. And in a lot of cases, full loads throttle either from power limits or temps. whichever comes first.
 
I only saw it dip to 38C once, for less than a second. Most of the time it was idling in the mid to high 50s. I think it must have had voids in the thermal paste. I guess that's why they tell you to put a bead in the center instead of spreading it thin, so it pushes the air out while you tighten down the heat sink. I just re-re-pasted it, and now it's idling in the mid to high 40s.

EDIT: I'm happy with that result. I only posted this last reply as a follow-up, mostly to say I think the problem was voids in the paste and that it's fixed now. I didn't see a way to mark a thread as resolved, or I would have done that. In any case, if you think you have information to share that would be useful to other people having a similar issue, feel free to share it, but there's really no need. Thank you all for your help.
 
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4evrplan said:
I had just finished undervolting the CPU core and cache (-41 mV) and the GPU (-143 mV), and I noticed my temps were still high (mid 60s C) at idle. After the re-paste, the idle temps are still between 50 to 60 C.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if I read your post correctly.

My personal long term example. Asus G75VW gaming laptop second hand which I owned for a very, very, very long time. After a repaste the temperature was a bit smaller. But there are no wonders.
I suppose you wrote the temperatures where around 5°C or more lower? Than you did it correct.

I also had to repaste that notebook with my noctua termal paste every 6 months. really long term experience. I bought it second hand and I think i had that notebook nearly 6 years in use what I remember. So several different packages of thermal paste were used on the same hardware.

You may also compare the cooling solutions of that asus g75vw with your current one. Most laptop cooling solutions are just bad.

No offense - your notebook has a very poor - cheap cooling solution.

I was wondering why I did not saw internal pictures on the msi site a few minutes ago.
Source for reference: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Disassembling+MSI+GF63/168513

Same cheap build like msi quite often has. You see on the teardown picture. CPU and gpu on the same cooler with only one fan. There used to be builds with 3 fans.
 
I would suggest ignore thermal pastes and using thermal pads like PTM7950, Thermalright Heilos and TG PhaseSheet - Whichever is available in your region. Heilos tends to be the cheaper of the two but it still performs extremely well compared to the more premium products.
 
I'm happy with that result. I only posted this last reply as a follow-up, mostly to say I think the problem was voids in the paste and that it's fixed now. I didn't see a way to mark a thread as resolved, or I would have done that. In any case, if you think you have information to share that would be useful to other people having a similar issue, feel free to share it, but there's really no need. Thank you all for your help.
 
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