Alienware Area 51 Overheat Repair
This week we had an Alienware Area 51 laptop come in. This laptop was very impressive. A couple of the technicians played Quake 3 on it for hours making sure that the overheat problem was fixed... =)
The customer had been fed up with the laptop shutting off. It would run Win32 apps just fine but when you went to play a game such a Q3 the laptop would go zap and just shut right off. Alienware had sent the user a new video card and tried to help him but the unit continued to shut off. Then it came here.
Right off the bat it appeared to be a bad motherboard or an overheat problem. We cleaned the unit out and made sure everything was correctly seated. Between the CPU and the heatsink there was a little metal sheet to xfer heat that had become "bad." It was very dry and we could instantly tell that it was not doing its job. Often in laptops, a piece is there for a reason. In this case, the sheet was removed and a very thin layer of heat xfer paste was applied and the heatsink was firmly put back into place.
After a cople of hours of playing Quake 3, we determined the problem was heat related and that the laptop was totally repaired.
It sounds easy enough but this unit did exhibit problems similar to a bad motherboard.
An accurate diagnosis is essential here.
The customer had been fed up with the laptop shutting off. It would run Win32 apps just fine but when you went to play a game such a Q3 the laptop would go zap and just shut right off. Alienware had sent the user a new video card and tried to help him but the unit continued to shut off. Then it came here.
Right off the bat it appeared to be a bad motherboard or an overheat problem. We cleaned the unit out and made sure everything was correctly seated. Between the CPU and the heatsink there was a little metal sheet to xfer heat that had become "bad." It was very dry and we could instantly tell that it was not doing its job. Often in laptops, a piece is there for a reason. In this case, the sheet was removed and a very thin layer of heat xfer paste was applied and the heatsink was firmly put back into place.
After a cople of hours of playing Quake 3, we determined the problem was heat related and that the laptop was totally repaired.
It sounds easy enough but this unit did exhibit problems similar to a bad motherboard.
An accurate diagnosis is essential here.
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh at
9:46 AM
2 Comments:
hey i have been having the same problem when i play games the laptop lags and its impossible to play the game but then sometimes it plays very well. and sometimes it gets soo hot that it turns off. Alienware has changed my video card for me 2 times and my cooling hardware (not sure what it called) 2 times and i still have the same problem,could it be the same issue as you have described? this my email address i would REALLY appreciate it if you could help me. kavehahmadi@hotmail.com
THANKS!
By
Life Guard of Humanity, at 4:39 PM
Hello,
It really depends on which model it is. If you'd like to send it in we;d be happy to check it out.
Also, once they worked on the machine, did it fix it for a while?
Some of the models seem to need an annual service...
Stufing all that high end gear into a laptop is just, well, let's just say that computers and heat don't go well together..
By
AbsoluteRaleigh, at 12:01 PM
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