VN7-591G (70RT version) Overheating, My experience and Review

Elixio
Elixio Member Posts: 15

Tinkerer
edited March 2023 in 2015 Archives

!!!!#####***Note PLEASE READ***#####!!!!  Opening your notebook may and probably will void your warranty and if you are inexperienced with electronics and laptop repair in general you may cause serious damage or even potentially ruin your device.  IF you decide to attempt this method to deal with overheating in your device you assume ALL liability or responsibility for any negative results or harm to your device.  You proceed at your own risk should you attempt this procedure.  

 

 

This is my experience with overheating in the VN7-591G.  The first few paragraphs are how I got to the point of reapplying Thermal Compound.  The latter part is more factual data.  If you wish to avoid the fluff and my venting you may skip to the results and my joyful celebrating to the first paragraph marked with ***.

 

Regards,

Eli

 

Hello fellow VN owners, specifically hello to my brothers and sisters that own a VN7-591G.  I recently purchased my Nitro with high expectations and moderate concerns.  When I received my Nitro in the mail it was like Christmas.  I tore it open (not really I carefully opened the package) and coudn't wait to take a test drive.  I downloaded the benchmark for FFXIV and ran it with a smile and results in the 10k range (Extremely well performance).  Now I had done a ton of research and was well aware of the core running at 90+C and thought to myself I sure hope mine won't do that...  To my dismay immediately the machine was running extremely hot and thermal throttling was kicking in anywhere from 1-50% on a consistent basis every few seconds...  I thought "OH NO, now I have a return waiting to happen..)  And I don't mean RMA, I mean return!  Why have a machine that is not able to run it's full potential.

 

My experience in dealing with and solving the overheating/thermal throttling.

 

I tried Intel XTU, first undervolting, then underclocking, then both... Same results, but not as bad but still thermal throttling.

Next I tried RW Everywhere... that was a joke at best (IMO) because it was ridiculously loud and still didn't make that much of an improvement...

Finally I broke down and decided I was going to try to repaste the CPU and GPU with some good paste.  After much research and debate I decided on GC Extreme.  At the last minute a good friend of mine with a ton of experience with high end laptops told me he ALWAYS uses AS Ceramique 2 for his notebooks.  I asked him why and he told me that the consistency of the paste seems to always work better for him in notebook application than any other compound.  So I got the ASC2.  Since I have to access the bottom of the board I decided I might as well upgrade RAM as well.  

 

The process...

While getting into the machine was not the easiest notebook I have worked on, it also wasn't the worst.  The best part IMO was the minimal screw downs.  Acer did an EXCELLENT job putting this machine together in a straight forward easy to remember assembly process.  I remove the heatsink and fans to quite a surprise.

 

At this point I wished I had taken pictures, but I just wanted my machine to work right..., but this had to have been the WORST application of thermal compound I have ever seen!  It was a HUGE MESS, with paste all over the place, it was as much as 3/4 of the way across all the board the chip is soldered to and not only that but the paste was VERY SPOTTY on the chips themselves.  With the CPU being the worst.  So I spend about an hour cleaning the boards because the paste was smothered onto the nodes that surround the chips and I didn't want to leave it there.  After I am satisfied the chips are clean enough they are ready to go back together I reapply the Ceramique 2.  Carefully put the machine back together, turn it on, fire up Intel XTU to run preliminary benchmark and monitor difference in temps.

 

*** Temps before with stock thermal compound.

      Running at Stock Speeds with Fan Speed Auto No Undervolting

     CPU Idle:                      1-2%CPU Usage =  60-70C

     CPU Full Load (No GPU) 99%  CPU Usage = 90-100+C Minor Thermal Throttling 1-10%

     CPU + GPU "Full Load"    25+% CPU Usage 80+% GPU = 95-100+C Major Therml Throttling 50% VERY FREQUNTLY

 

     Temps AFTER reapplication with new Artic Silver Ceramique 2

      Running at Stock Speeds with Fan Speed Auto No Undervolting

     CPU Idle:                      1-2%CPU Usage =  45 - 50C

     CPU Full Load (No GPU) 99%  CPU Usage = 70 - 75 C No Thermal Throttling

     CPU + GPU "Full Load"    25-80+% CPU Usage 80+% GPU = 85-90C No Thermal Throttling

 

Now I have to make one very important note before I leave this for now.  Ceramique 2 calls for a BREAK IN period of 25 Thermal Cycles ( CPU/GPU idles up to warm, then full load to hot, idle back to warm, then cool fully to ambient temps).

At 0 Thermal Cycles My unit only ran about 5C cooler than before.  I was extremely disappointed I listened to my friend.  He failed to mention to me the break in period and laughed when I mentioned it to him.  xD

Anyways I am now at 15 Thermal Cycles and very happy with the results so far.  I am seeing a 10C drop under full load without using a cooler underneath.  It's even better with one.  I expect to see another 2-7C drop in max temp under full load (consistent testing conditions)by the time the compound has fully broken in.  I think a 10-15C drop to make load temps in the 75-80C range are more than acceptable.  Further temp drops can be achieved through undervolting and underclocking as well.  Plus with the temp drops you can overclock your GPU and try to pull more out of it since it seems to have it's resources pooled to 100% frequently.

 

I am now very happy with my purchase.  Ive also upgraded to 16GB RAM and added an evo 850 SSD.  Extremely snappy even with mulitple CPU hungry apps open simultaneously.  I will write a more formal review as I have time, probably this weekend.

 

If your VN7-591G is overheating this may be a cause to investigate further with technical support or an Acer authorized repair facility.  I think undervolting and underclocking alone show marginal results at best with stock Thermal Compound and poor application from the factory.  I really hope this can help someone else!  If you have any questions feel free to shout!  

 

My last words.  I want to clarify that while I think Acer did do a horrible job with the application of the thermal compound I really think the overall design and efficiency of this machine is marvelous.  And the biggest pro for me was the price.  With similar comparing competitors models around 25-50% more.  No doubt this is probably the most value per dollar in a gaming capable notebook.  

 

Regards,

Eli

 

Answers

  • Bozzy
    Bozzy Member Posts: 44

    Tinkerer

    Nice post!

     

    Mines not throttling but does run quite hot.

     

    I have done this on every PCa nd laptop I have owned and I would love to do the same as you but I don't want to invalidate my warrannty!

     

    Going to have to wait for a while....

  • Pie
    Pie Member Posts: 27 New User

    Give that man some kudos!

    Well done on finding the problem, it's a slight shame you didn't get the photos like you said but good job nonetheless.

  • pjenoy
    pjenoy Member Posts: 42 New User

    Very helpful and informative review bro, anyhow i would like to ask for your opinion, i just recently bought my vn7 black edition its about a month old or so, and in gaming i was able to experience the said throttling and overheating, even though i used a cooling pad ( which wasn't of any help or what so ever ), i even play it inside my room which is airconiditoned, and still it goes upto 100 celsius, so i began my investagtion, as of late i used the undervolting and ramping up the speed of the fans, usually when i play and i was able to see "passable results ", my question is should i follow your method? And my main problem is that there is no service center in my location, i have to ship it in order to get it to an authorized service center. I have a neighbour who is a computer technician and he is very experienced and reliable for the said matter. 

  • Bozzy
    Bozzy Member Posts: 44

    Tinkerer

    I have been busy tinkering with mine recently.

     

    The latest drive update from Nvidia caused me a load of issues (blue screens galore for VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR and VIDEO_MEMORY_MANAGEMENT_INTERNAL)

     

    I ended up getting quite annoyed with it so I flattened the drive and put windows 10 on fresh, using the know last stable driver for the 860M / 960M 355.98. (see notebookreview new-acer-aspire-v-nitro-series)

     

    After it installed, I thoug what the hell, might as well see how well ACER had added there thermal pase, and cracked tha laptop open. They use pre-installed patches of paste that completly cover the copper heatsink that touches the CPU and GPU. it was literally everywhere, the whole of the chip was in contact with the cooloer, rather than just the polished surace making it a big thermal lump. Not good (wish I had photographed it now).

     

    Spent an hour cleaning it off, then added Arctic Cooling MX-4 (peas sized for the GPU, cpu has twice as much for surface area).

     

    Cleaned the fans and general look over. not too fiddley to do, worked on worse but also worked on easier.

     

    At the same time I saw there is a BIOS update to 1.15, so I did that too. Not sure what that's fixed, although numberlock seems to stay on when you resume now, which used to bug me!

     

    In general, the GPU has dropped around 10 deg C from 80 to 70, and will clock to 135 n the core, 280 on the memory with the same temperatures. The CPU is still high at 80, with a max of 89. this doesn't seem to have changed much TBH. 

     

    Gaming seems a lot smoother, no big lag spikes of 2-3 seconds, but there are still small ones, and again, this seems to be linked to when audio files are requred and loaded.

     

    The CPUU has the onboard graphics processor that's adding heat into the cpu, and I'm starting to think there may be some milage in either turning it off, or underclocking it to reduce the heat generated, and just using the 860M card. Need to look into that over the next few eveinings.....

     

     

  • pjenoy
    pjenoy Member Posts: 42 New User

    well, i wasn't able to experience this said freezes, but the temperature for the cpu's truly alarmed me and that made me investigate in regards to this matter, should i put thermal paste on it and clean the said unit? or shall i follow the saying " if it aint broken don't fix it ".. hoping for advice in regards to this matter.

  • Bozzy
    Bozzy Member Posts: 44

    Tinkerer

    Well, if it aint broke, don't fix it!

     

    Seriously though, I think I have finally cracked it......

     

    1) Strip down and clean up thermal paste and replace with something better (MX-4 that I used, arctic silver etc). This significantly reduces heat build up. I can't get the GPU over 75 deg C even clocked at +135mhz on the core, and +375mhz on the memory (equates to 4~5fps on Knombustor)!

     

    2) Download XTU (Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility), and create profile with the CPU dynamic voltage underclocked by -80mV. -100 and -90 blue screened for me, but even -80 reduced CPU temp by 5 deg C. As long as your PC is stable, it will automatically set the new voltages on startup.

     

    3) Download CrystalDiskInfo, and go to Functions, advanced features, AAM/APM control and dissable the Advanced Power Managment. This was the big one for me. It seems the WD Blue 1TB data drive has an inbuilt powersaving feature that spins down the drive after 15-20 seconds. If you have an SSD, and use this drive for games, they load fine, but after 20 seconds the drive spins down. When you are moving round a game and dynamically loading, it causes a freeze for 2-3 seconds while it spins up and is bloomin annoying. Downside is more power use, and case uder your right palm will be warm as the drive is generating heat.

     

    I'm going to experiment on the settings to see if there is a better setting, but for now, I can play Tomb Raider in Ultimate with TressFX hair, at 1080p, 40fps with the GPU at 70-80 deg and the CPU between 80 and 90 deg.

     

    No throttling, no lag spike, nothing.

     

    Done.

  • Bozzy
    Bozzy Member Posts: 44

    Tinkerer

    Proof of the pudding....laptop is a Aspire Nitro Black VN7-591G-56JG

     

    Stress test. This is HeavyLoad runnig 100% on all cores and the integrated graphics, and Kombustor stressing the GPU.

    Beyond worst case senario, forcing the CPU uo 92 degress, but still no throttle after more than 5 min. Even games don't do this.

     

    Stress

     

    Full stress.png

     

    Overclock via Afterburner.

     

    Overclock

     

    Overclock.png

  • vn7591g
    vn7591g Member Posts: 1 New User

    True, had same issue - real bad job on the thermal paste. I noticed that a lot of the thermal paste has probably flowed out with the heating and cooling cycles over the 2 years I've had the laptop. I think that once you start noticing the laptop getting hotter you should reapply the paste. In my case I opened it up to explore what's going on and saw that the top of the cpu and part where cpu touches the heatshield didn't have any paste on it at all - it was if as the paste was put on the sides instead of the top of the cpu. I reapplied the same paste from the sides of the CPU to the top and am planning to go at it with the arctic silver in a short while since I'll be needing my laptop quite often in the next few weeks. 

     

    In my case the re-application of the thermal paste has improoved the temperature at 100% burn in test from 97-98 celsius to 83-84. Idling is now running between 45-50 celsius instead of 50-60...

  • MoazZahid
    MoazZahid Member Posts: 3 New User
    I have the same laptop model.... i believe that the top three ic are power ics on motherboard...two of these ics on my acer have fried.... could anyone tell me the name/model of these ocs so that i could get it working again

Categories