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.
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!
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
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:
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.