Predator Helios 300 PH317-51 - Why are my temperatures so high?

Destroya1221

I have a Predator Helios 300 PH317-51 laptop. My temperatures are literally terrible. This is a picture of the PredatorSense temperature chart after around 15 mins of playing Apex Legends. It was the first time I've ever played it, so its graphics settings were pre-set to high. I manually set everything in the graphics tab to low (and overclocked the GPU as well, which is something I rarely do,) but as you can see, temperatures were still maddening. They went as high as 91C even though I maxed out the fans and had coolboost on.) I have an active undervolt of -0.140 and it seems like it's still of no use. A lot of things could be the cause of this problem, especially because I didn't have this problem until a few weeks ago. The laptop is around 8 months old, but I have been always using my baby very carefully and treating it how it wants to be treated, so I don't suppose it would be something like dust buildup or misuse. I don't think its thermal paste was misplaced, either. That's because, as I said, it used to handle temperatures pretty well until a few weeks ago, but now, even a normal chrome browsing experience with 2-4 tabs of light-moderate use makes the parts run at questionable temperatures. 50 - 53 as shown below. Even when I play Fortnite on Low, temperatures are still high.

The culprit that I suspect here is the OS itself, Windows. I've previously read a Reddit post on how severely Windows' version and build number affect temperatures, and then when I came to think about it, I remembered that I had upgraded my Windows build from 1803 to 1809 to enable having my file explorer background as black. I then said that I should revert it to 1803 and see if the build was actually what caused the temps to become noticeably higher even when idle. I felt a bit relieved about it because I recalled that the temps actually started increasing around the time I installed that new 1809 build so I thought that reverting it to the previous build would somewhat solve the problem, but that relief came to an end when I found out that I couldn't revert it anymore because more than 10 days have passed since the upgrade. No words could describe the desperateness I felt. I was hoping for the laptop to last me 4-5 years if I used it right, but turns out it's starting to give in real  quick. I now can't use my gaming laptop for gaming. I am truly saddened. If you could help me with my problem with anything, please let me know, and thanks in advance!

Destroya1221

Small follow up : 
Could reverting the system to factory default without deleting my personal files and apps help? Would it void the compatibility of some of my apps or games because of the change of the OS version? My knowledge of builds and system versions is limited, so please excuse me.

ven98

The high temperature you are observing can't be related to windows update, unless it is causing higher CPU usage. The GPU's temperature is fine and the CPU's temperature isn't bad either, because the system begins throttling at around 95C. 

If the temperatures weren't this high before, then the issue could be the thermal paste and dust accumulation affects temperatures too, but not as much. No matter how you treat the laptop the thermal paste doesn't have infinite life, so after time it gets dry, which reduces its thermal conductivity and the paste that Acer uses is known for its bad durability. Again no matter how treat the laptop there will always be dust accumulation, which will prevent airflow, as dust is everywhere and most of it can't be seen with naked eye.

sahith2k3

I THINK THE OS IS THE CULPRIT TOO. DUDE THE GPU IS BLAZING HOT MAN.THIS ONLY STARTED AFTER THE FEATURE UPDATE (1809 BUILD). I TRIED VARIOUS THINGS LIKE UNDERVOLTING (BOTH CPU AND GPU) REPASTING DUSTING, FACTORY RESET,DRIVER CHANGES EXTERNAL COOLING. NONE OF THEM GAVE SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN TEMPS. EVEN FIFA 19 STARTS TO THROTTLE IN 5-10 MINS.

BUT I CAN NOTICE SEE  DECREASE IN TEMPERATURE AFTER I TURNED POWER OFF. THE PERFORMANCE IS WAY BETTER COMPARED TO THE THROTTLING CPU.

tobimaru

80-90C temps during/after gaming on AC power is normal for a gaming laptop! The hardware/components in the laptop are designed to run at higher temperatures for an extended amount of time. You will not see desktop level temperatures out of a gaming laptop while in use.

Your laptop is 8 months old and within the last few weeks has started overheating. This would indicate to me it is time to clean and re-paste with a new thermal paste. It is not uncommon for the factory paste to lose it's thermal conductivity as it dries out within 6-12 months of use. Even with an undervolt, OS tweaks, increased fan RPM; if the paste is not effective you will see a rise in temperatures.

It's also worth noting that how the laptop is treated will not effect the dust build-up. ALL laptops accumulate dust and debri in the fans and heatsink. If it's never been opened in 8 months, there is likely some airflow restriction furthering the temperature increase.

When it comes to overheating, things like driver updates, Windows Updates, OS tweaks, etc are mostly worthless. There are rare scenarios a software fix can cause/fix an overheating issue. No software change is going to rejuvenate your old thermal paste, or blow out the dust from the fans. The steps that need to be taken involve opening and cleaning the laptop. If they aren't taken, everything else is just a band-aid.