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Laptop GPU overheating

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System Name Rubnitron
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I got my hands on an old Sony Vaio VGN-SZ71XN laptop, and i think it's GPU (Nvidia 8400M GS) is overheating on idle.On boot it's about 55 C, and 10 minutes after or so it stabilizes around 70 C, crashing after a few minutes of Youtube videos.
I opened it up, replaced the CPU thermal paste (cpu temps are a lot better now), cleaned the fan with pressured air, but i didnt manage to reveal the GPU heatsink to replace the thermal paste.
The CPU can be accesed from the bottom of the laptop, while the GPU seems to be under a small metallic plate under the keyboard, and I can't access it.

Any ideas on how to improve GPU temps or if i can access the GPU and replace the thermal paste?

Some additional info : This laptop was working great until some months ago, when blue lines started appearing on boot, and eventually it would crash, some times it didn't even get to boot into Windows.That is with Vista, installed from Sony's HDD partition and all the drivers it came with.
Later i installed Win 7 and 8.Blue lines and artifacts would appear every now and then but the pc would not crash.The GPU btw showed up as "Standard VGA Graphics adapter" and i couldn't monitor the temperature.

Last night I installed Win 8.1 x64, and with some INI file changes managed to install the latest (v337.88) Nvidia driver (without changing the INI file, the error "The Installer Cannot Continue The Graphics Driver Could Not Find Compatible Graphics Hardware Installer" appears). Is it possible that the driver alters the GPUs behavior causing the crash instead of just artifacts?
 

stinger608

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I would imagine that the thermal paste on the GPU is baked and needs replaced as you indicated. Your most likely going to have to disassemble the laptop in order to get to the heat sink for the GPU.

Here is an excellent "walk through" on how to disassemble that series of Vaio's:

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/how-take-apart-sony-vaio-vgn-sz-series-laptop/

I would imagine once you do change the thermal paste the temps will be just fine.
 
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System Name Rubnitron
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Cooling Corsair H100i
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This was actually the guide I used, but (unless I missed it) it doesn't go as far as removing the GPU.
Anyway, I managed to take it all apart,had to take the whole mobo out to reach the GPU, replaced the thermal paste, but the screen does not work now^^. Hopefully I just forgot to plug something in and didn't damage any connections.I'll open it up tommorow again.
 
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System Name Rubnitron
Processor i5 4670k @ 4.3 GHz
Motherboard MSI Z87 G45
Cooling Corsair H100i
Memory Corsair Vengeance 2x4Gb @ 2133Mhz
Video Card(s) MSI 770 2Gb OC Gaming
Storage Samsung EVO 250Gb , OCZ Vertex 128 Gb , Toshiba 2Tb HDD
Display(s) Asus VG248qe
Case NZXT Phantom 410
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Corsair TX 650m
Software Windows 8.1 x62
Benchmark Scores 7480 3DMark Firestrike
I opened it up again, seems I forgot to plug a cable. Strangely temps are still the same, same crashes occur and the fan on the heatsink is working. Any ideas?
Strangely I think I found 2 Nvidia chips (apart from the CPU of course). Both have heatsinks on them, and i changed the thermal paste on both, I can't find anything relative on the specs though.
 
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A defective GeForce 8000/9000 GPU like everyone else, this was a big thing 6 years ago with most of NVIDIA's product lines being affected, including chipsets. The GPU eventually degrades (due to cracked solder bumps) to where you have no display or installing the drivers causes the system to crash or they don't work at all, and things like PCIe slots stop working with their chipsets (happened recently to my ASUS A8N32-SLI). My Toshiba X205-SLI4 went through four pairs of GeForce 8600m GT GPUs and two motherboards within two years. http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/31/figuring-out-which-nvidia-gpus-are-defective-its-a-lot/
 
Joined
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System Name Rubnitron
Processor i5 4670k @ 4.3 GHz
Motherboard MSI Z87 G45
Cooling Corsair H100i
Memory Corsair Vengeance 2x4Gb @ 2133Mhz
Video Card(s) MSI 770 2Gb OC Gaming
Storage Samsung EVO 250Gb , OCZ Vertex 128 Gb , Toshiba 2Tb HDD
Display(s) Asus VG248qe
Case NZXT Phantom 410
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Corsair TX 650m
Software Windows 8.1 x62
Benchmark Scores 7480 3DMark Firestrike
Yeah, but on the other side,
That heatpipe on the left should be over the GPU.

If you see here, after he flips the mobo over to the CPU side, next to the empty CPU socket is a metal plate, under which is an Nvidia chip with thermal paste etc. Sadly I did not take any pictures, and the chip isnt very visible in the video, but Im just a bit curious.


A defective GeForce 8000/9000 GPU like everyone else, this was a big thing 6 years ago with most of NVIDIA's product lines being affected, including chipsets. The GPU eventually degrades (due to cracked solder bumps) to where you have no display or installing the drivers causes the system to crash or they don't work at all, and things like PCIe slots stop working with their chipsets (happened recently to my ASUS A8N32-SLI). My Toshiba X205-SLI4 went through four pairs of GeForce 8600m GT GPUs and two motherboards within two years. http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/31/figuring-out-which-nvidia-gpus-are-defective-its-a-lot/

Oh well then, I'l just keep it for some web browsing and hopefully some video playback. Wasn't hoping for much more to be honest. Without installing Nvidia drivers, it doesn't seem to crash. I'll just use a laptop stand to help with cooling and hopefully it lasts till winter to keep me warm:laugh:

Is there any way to monitor GPU temps without drivers installed? As I said it shows up as Microsoft VGA Adapter, and GPU Z and Openhardware Monitor don't finde any GPU Temp sensors.
 
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The one on the CPU side is probably the MCH/northbridge
 
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