DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

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FlyingPenguin
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Maybe to help absorb heat from the surrounding areas other than the chips?
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Executioner
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

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UPDATE:
I ordered some copper shims from Amazon. 20 of them for less than $5. They were pretty cheap, and took about 6 weeks for delivery, because they were coming from China. I had to use a very hard ceramic stone to remove any burrs etc.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EY ... UTF8&psc=1

So my temps are now 15 degrees C less.

Cleaning very thing and adding Arctic Silver to each pad, then adding the copper shim:
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The heat pipe is now pressed on the GPU and the CPU that has a very small dot of Arctic Silver:
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Err
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

Post by Err »

Nice. I'm glad to hear that you fixed it.
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

Post by Executioner »

Thanks. It now runs at 65°C instead of 80°C playing Half Life 2. I also ordered a backup heat pipe assembly that FP posted in a previous thread. It came with no thermal pad.
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

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Wanted to follow up on this issue with this laptop, and supply additional information for those that do a google search: "Dell E6540 too hot". It will find this thread on the issue.

I still was not happy with the slight mod to temperature cooling, and I would still get some power shutdowns, but now I have it fixed. Temperatures are hover around 130-140 Deg F. Below are the details.

1. If you notice in the previous picture, the stuff that looks like putty that sits around the GPU section of the heat pipe is actually thermal putty that will contact 4 small circuits that sit around the GPU. This is very important! If these pads are not cooled, the GPU will exceed 200 Deg F and shut the PC down.
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I felt that the putty that Dell used was not very good, and found a better replacement at Amazon in the link below.

2. I ordered some replacement thermal pad material from Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X8 ... UTF8&psc=1
Simply cut to size so it fits around the heat pipe in 2 places that touches the GPU as seen in this pic. Remember to remove both sides of the protective clear flap!!! Failure will result in overheating!
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3. The next was to find the correct copper shim thickness. That thickness is ~0.030". I purchased some copper shims from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E5 ... UTF8&psc=1
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The ones I ended up using measure 0.0315" which is close enough. As you can see by the picture, I placed a steel rule to show that there is no gap between the new thermal pads and the shim.

4. I then used some of this MX-4 thermal paste:
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In the pic with the ruler, I used a pea size amount then pressed the copper shim onto the heat pipe. As I did, the paste will spread out and you should see some leak out on the sides of the copper shim. This is the best way to insure overall coverage and no air pockets.

5. To finish it up, I then applied the same size pea of compound onto the other side of the copper shim and to the CPU shim which is using the same size copper shim as the GPU.

Slapped it all back together, and I could not believe the difference. Temps are around the 130 to 140 Deg F max while playing Black Mesa, but I did turn down some of the settings to make it playable due to the crappy GPU/CPU combo, but the game was playable. Other games like Half Life, the temperatures reach only 120 Deg F.
Last edited by Executioner on Thu Aug 20, 2020 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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FlyingPenguin
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Nice!
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

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Nicely done.
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

Post by Executioner »

LOL - when I checked it yesterday, the temps were lower. I played some Half Life 2 Episode 1 for 15 minutes again, and now the temps are higher BUT still tops out as shown on the picture below. I did tab out several times to checks the temperatures as I played and after 5 minutes they pretty much remain the same as in the picture, so at least the temperatures are now stable.

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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

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Forgot to mention that if you order a replacement heat pipe from Amazon or ebay, it will come with a crappy fan from China and rated at only 3.2 CFM (standard cubic feet per minute). I do mean crappy because the fan blade can easily be removed from the motor with zero effort. The only thing keeping it in place are the magnets. The original Sunon fan was made in Japan, and is rated at 4.2 CFM and is a higher quality fan with a better blade design. You can order one from this place:
https://www.laptop-coolers.com/laptop-f ... 69790.html for $21.74. In the comments, specify that you want the 4.2 CFM Sunon fan.
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Make sure to get the grey one as shown in the picture. There is really no need to order a replacement heat pipe, because the issue is the crappy thermal pads that were used. Get a Sunon replacement fan and follow the instructions above using better thermal materials such as: copper shims, thermal pads, and MX-4 thermal paste. To monitor your temperatures, you can download the free app: HWMonitor. You don't need the pro version. The free version works just fine: https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
Finally, get a laptop cooling pad which helps keep the it cool.
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

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Made another mod to this laptop. I added a i7-4800MQ 2.7 GHz CPU replacing the original i5. I've been playing Crysis 1 and Crysis 2, but the temps simply get too hot - 100+ Dec C. So what I did was to remove the copper shims and clean everything. I reassembled the heat pipe back in but this time without the copper shims. The biggest change was removing the bottom cover so the heat pipe and other components are all exposed to the Laptop Cooler Cooling Pad: https://www.amazon.com/HV-F2056-15-6-17 ... 873&sr=8-3

I also bought a spare bottom cover which I will cut out a portion of it to remain open to these 3 fans that hit the heat pipe directly. So after playing Crysis 2 for 15 minutes, my temperatures for the CPU and GPU was between 70-75 degrees C.
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

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This is how I fixed this laptop. I'm able now to play all 3 Crysis games with temperatures between 160-170 Deg F. I bought a spare bottom cover from Ebay for $10. I then cut out the area to expose the heat pipe, cpu, and gpu.

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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

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Another dremel job! :D
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

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Nice to see Penguin inspiring others to cut up their PCs. LOL
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Re: DELL E6540 temperature shutdown

Post by Executioner »

At least the bottom piece is separate and was only $10. Made for an easy fix.
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