Predator Helios 300 PH-315-53 Frame Drops/Throttling

So, for a while now my Predator Helios 300 PH-315-53, has been having really bad frame drops while playing. I would log onto a game like Apex Legends, Rainbow 6, or Halo Infinite, and after 10-20 minutes, my frames would drop to around 10-30, making the game unplayable. I included an example below of PredatorSense, logging my GPU/CPU/System temperatures while playing apex, at the beginning of the graph, I was playing Apex, and the big dip is when apex was closed and I was using Opera GX. Note: running laptop intense games can get up to 85-95C on my CPU, while normal use without any games running it goes around 50-60C. Idling, it goes down to 40-50C. Is anyone else experiencing those problems, and is there a known fix?

{Thread was edited to add model name to the title}

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Accepted answers

JackE

You can reduce the maximum processor states in Control Panel's advance power plan processor power management. It's probably set to 100%, Reducing it to 90% may cool things down without sacrificing too much performance.

You can also help air flow by raising laptop about an inch above a hard surface taking care not the block air vents on the bottom

You can also alternately vacuum the intake vents directly over the fan blades and blow air into the air exhaust vents to help clear any debris & dust accumulated since you last open it to clean the fans.

These however should be considered temporary workarounds to what really needs to be done. The thermal paste between the heatsinks and the two processors need to be changed annually. Delaying this maintenance risks overheating the processors again even with temporary workarounds. Repasting is not difficult and should not take too much time. If you're reluctant, I suggest that you take it to a local laptop repair shop and ask them to do it for you. Should not be more than about a hour's labor time plus the cost of the thermal paste like Kryonaut or ArcticMX4 .

All comments

JackE

95*C under heavy load is too hot esp for GPU. When was the last thermal module and heatsink maintenance done?

FroshWinter

JackE said:

95*C under heavy load is too hot esp for GPU. When was the last thermal module and heatsink maintenance done?

No clue what any of that is, so I likely haven't, I sometimes take the bottom off to get some dust out of the fans.

JackE

Yes, that's part of the maintainence routine that should be done at least yearly if you're a heavy gamer. The other part is removing the fans and thermal module from the mainboard to re-paste the heatsinks to the CPU and GPU. The factory thermal paste tends to dry out and become less effective after about a year of heavy use. The CPU and GPU then will overheat and start throttling sooner and sooner after heavy gaming starts. It may be hardly noticeable at first. But as time goes on throttling will become more frequent until the game becomes virtually unplayable after only a minute or two.

FroshWinter

I'll look futher into this, by chance do you know a setting that can help me in the meantime?

JackE

You can reduce the maximum processor states in Control Panel's advance power plan processor power management. It's probably set to 100%, Reducing it to 90% may cool things down without sacrificing too much performance.

You can also help air flow by raising laptop about an inch above a hard surface taking care not the block air vents on the bottom

You can also alternately vacuum the intake vents directly over the fan blades and blow air into the air exhaust vents to help clear any debris & dust accumulated since you last open it to clean the fans.

These however should be considered temporary workarounds to what really needs to be done. The thermal paste between the heatsinks and the two processors need to be changed annually. Delaying this maintenance risks overheating the processors again even with temporary workarounds. Repasting is not difficult and should not take too much time. If you're reluctant, I suggest that you take it to a local laptop repair shop and ask them to do it for you. Should not be more than about a hour's labor time plus the cost of the thermal paste like Kryonaut or ArcticMX4 .