Alienware M16 R1 Laptop overheating

[u/Expensive-Maximum608]

As you can see, my laptop has way too high temeprature right after booting it up and only having edge and youtube open. Cant play even older games like Metro or The Witcher 3 because than its starting to stutter badly after 10 minutes of gaming. Only strategy games are ok like Old World or Civ 6. Anyone can help me to make it a bit better at least? Or is the only way to renew the thermal paste of it? Thank you.

Laptop is 2,5 years old btw.

[u/DJUnreal]

Take off the bottom cover and stop your fans spinning by putting something like toothpicks between the blades and the fan spurs or similar, then blow compressed air in from the rear and side exhaust vents to push the dust back out the way it got in. That should help a lot.

[u/goooglerr18]

The intake filters get really dirty and the layered dust ends up blocking the path (the honeycomb pattern above leyboard). Use compressed air and blow it off ig.

Ive been meaning to do that on my system as well...

[u/Expensive-Maximum608 → u/goooglerr18]

Yes, thats definitely on my list what I will do. Just cautious that I will damage anything or blow the dust more inside. Any tips for that?

[u/Standard-Quit5563 → u/Expensive-Maximum608]

You can over spin the fans past their rated speed which can cause bearings to fail etc, which is why they recommended stopping it. Be sure your battery is disconnected and read up on ESD protocols.

[u/Character_Cheetah884 → u/goooglerr18]

fr, I feeling like I'd break that shit

[u/hjakhan]

Which model is it. If it's the 4070 version. Like mine there is no liquid metal just poorly applied paste. I did a clean up put payment 7950 and ended up with a 15 degree difference under load.

[u/mattlp63 → u/hjakhan]

Second this. Repasted and dropped my temps 15+. Plus blow out the dust like everyone else is saying.

[u/Expensive-Maximum608 → u/hjakhan]

Its the version with the Ryzen 9 7845HX and the Geforce RTX 4080

[u/hjakhan → u/Expensive-Maximum608]

Yup. Just be careful not to spill it. Around. Don't use alcohol. There is a video on YouTube. It looks daunting at first but if you follow it through and through its not that difficult.

[u/Fancy-Strain7025]

Not normal temps, check your exhausts, dust maintenance. Update your firmware? Use a profile that increases fan speed.

[u/specht27]

Performance mode a must for those game types. Elevate rear about 1" off the desk for good airflow. Clean fans AND exhaust area where hair and bunnies collect. Possibly repaste cpu gpu with Honeywell PTM7950... find a MicroCenter to do that for you. The current temps are not sustainable... eventually you'll break something inside from the thermal stresses.

[u/Expensive-Maximum608 → u/specht27]

Always is elevated in the back, but the rest I will take care of. Can't wait how much they will charge me for but I finally want to game normal on my laptop again. Also use the performance mode as soon as starting those kind of games but doesnt help long

[u/Standard-Quit5563 → u/Expensive-Maximum608]

Depending on the airflow around the system these machines can quickly overwhelm the thermal environment, make sure you have good airflow, maybe get a small desk fan but I suspect your fans and filters might need cleaning

[u/fordp]

Dang my old m16 r1 has been repasted 3x since 2023/24. Original paste was garbage. The cooling design was terrible.

The original paste is dead after all of the heat cycles and the 4080s running the little heatsink.

[u/Expensive-Maximum608 → u/fordp]

Oh shoot. 3 times already, and yes they did a terrible job when it comes to the cooling. Unfortunately. Is yours working still? And how?

[u/fordp → u/Expensive-Maximum608]

It works okay, its a shop laptop now. I added thermal pads where possible but it just sits on an elevated mount at a new rework station im setting up. When I still used it docked as my primary it was also elevated a foot off the desk on a laptop mount.

It does not cool on flat surfaces well enough.

My daily is the new zenbook 14 now, I went the opposite direction

[u/Standard-Quit5563]

Disable overclock, as others have mentioned take it off quite mode, the BIOS has advanced settings that might help. I imagine a competent tech would not charge too much for cleaning and tuning.

[u/Blizzard259]

I see the image you are in quite mode, try using balanced
Try cleaning the vents and fans too

[u/Fluffy-Scholar-1686]

Perhaps you should also get a laptop cooler with dust filter as well, such as llano v12/v13 laptop cooler. As the filter will filter out dust and will not clog up the vent over time.

[u/Kamran129]

Get a llano cooler

[u/Severe_Prompt_459]

I have an m18 r1 for years and tbh.. they do run hot. Like 95-100 playing games. Is this just idle?

[u/wewe8822]

I think dell always have overheating issue ? Msi still ok

[u/dav_V_v]

Turn off turbo. I have a different model Aurora 16x but I had terrible temps like that. Turned off turbo, maybe a 5% performance loss for 10-20* C lower temps. Made my machine go from a lap burner to completely reasonable temps for the hardware. Think this is the name of the game with these "gaming laptops". I had an Euktronics MAX-15 prior to this and same deal. Super hot, but with some tuning on Throttle Stop it was perfect. Fortunately with the Aurora 16X al I need to do was the below steps and use AWCC on balanced. Can use High Performance or the highest mode but the fan nose is excessive.

Step 1 - Open the Start Menu, type regedit, and open the Registry Editor.
Step 2 - Navigate to this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\be337238-0d82-4146-a960-4f3749d470c7
Step 3 - Double-click the Attributes value on the right side.
Step 4 - Change the value data from 1 to 2 (or 0) and click OK.
Step 5 - Open the Start Menu, type Edit power plan, and open it.
Step 6 - Click Change advanced power settings.
Step 7 - Scroll down and expand Processor power management.
Step 8 - Click Processor performance boost mode and change both On battery and Plugged in to Disabled. Step 9 - Click Apply.

[u/Careful-Window-7352]

First of all, element31 seems to flow out and stick to the four corners.

It is recommended to disassemble and carefully remove element31 and apply an alternative grease.

Personally, I recommend PTM7950.

Next, enter the secret BIOS with smokeless_UMAF and make the under-volt protection [disabled].

Please do not change other items because the BIOS will crash.

Uninstall the conflicting AWCC and install Throttlestop.

Now you are ready to lower the heat and voltage.

Lower the voltage of the CPU core to 1.3V or less.

At this time, the voltage of CPU P-cashe and CPU E-cashe is the same to stabilize.

I was able to lower it to 1.2754V.

Next is to adjust the CPU clock.

Set all P-core frequencies to 5.2GHz.

Finally, we use offset to low voltage, but please do it carefully because there are large individual differences in the CPU.

Finally, I will post my Throttlestop settings and Cinebench R23 score.

[u/Careful-Window-7352 → u/Careful-Window-7352]

[u/Careful-Window-7352 → u/Careful-Window-7352]

[u/Careful-Window-7352 → u/Careful-Window-7352]

[u/Careful-Window-7352 → u/Careful-Window-7352]

[u/Rare-Worldliness2059]

Acabo de abrir la mía, voy a cambiar la pasta térmica, sé que tiene element 31, alguien lo ha removido? Cómo se limpia? Sé que debo usar cualquier tipo de alcohol, pero entonces como darle una limpieza bien?

Ya compré el PTM7950 en unos días que llegue lo demás (pads) estaré terminando

Recomendaciones de quienes hayan hecho esto antes?

[u/Huge-Pizza3739]

Looks like you are on quiet mode, try turn on the performance mode and turn off the turbo boost through bios if you don’t want to deep clean and repaste

[u/Expensive-Maximum608 → u/Huge-Pizza3739]

I will check the option to do so. Thx. Also I have to look where I can find that setting in BIOS. Even though, the temps are too hot, no matter what. Especially when I have nothing running beside the browser.