Installed new RAM, now the laptop overheats...

Edd

Hi guys,

So I've installed some new RAM, and I think I may have overdone it. I upgraded my two year old Toshiba Satellite A665 from 4GB of DDR3 to 8GB of DDR3, and ever since I've experienced increased heat and forced shut downs during high-performance applications (ie, any gaming really). What I've found is that the idle speed my intel I7 1.60 ghz is below that of the NB frequency of the RAM, as depicted below, and I've heard that performance issues can result from that conflict, though I'm not sure exactly what. Could this be what's causing the overheating, and if so, is there a way to reduce the speed at which my RAM is moving while still benefiting from the upgrade in capacity?

I'm running Windows 7, 64-bit Home.

Tofystedeth

RAM timing's the kind of thing you can usually adjust in the BIOS but that's not something I really ever mess with, so beyond that I can't offer much help.

Edd

My laptop's bios is pretty conservative. It will let me do no more than see how much RAM happens to be there.

Nfinity

Tofystedeth wrote: »

RAM timing's the kind of thing you can usually adjust in the BIOS but that's not something I really ever mess with, so beyond that I can't offer much help.

Unfortunately most stock BIOS for laptops don't allow this.

What I've found is that the idle speed my intel I7 1.60 ghz is below that of the NB frequency of the RAM

I'm pretty sure this won't cause overheating, at least not directly. Usually it would result in sluggish performance or system errors.

Some questions:
What exactly are you running that results in the heat and shutdowns? Were you able to run these applications before the RAM upgrade with no problem?
Does the computer function fine under normal conditions, or even somewhat stressful situations like streaming an HD movie or watching a BlueRay?
Is the fan spinning?

Download a program called SpeedFan and run it. It should tell you CPU temps and fan speeds. That will help determine if the forced shutdowns are actually a result of overheating (though I'm pretty sure it is).


If I had to guess with just the information I have now, I think you are taxing your system beyond what it can handle. Those laptops aren't meant to do anything truly high-end, and even though your CPU has the ability to run whatever game you are playing the heat dispersion on ANY laptop is very piss-poor. You may be forcing the CPU to generate heat that the heatsink and fan in the machine can't adequately deal with.

The thermal paste that Toshiba uses is garbage, and your laptop is a couple years old, which is right about the time that it seems to fail on MOST laptops with normal to heavy use, so it's possible you could benefit from a re-paste. This is sort of a hail-mary if your machine was working fine before the RAM upgrade and it involves completely disassembling your laptop. While a Toshiba is by far one of the easiest brands of laptops to take apart, I would reserve this as a last resort option, and probably get a professional to do it.

Edd

Thanks for the insight so far. To add a little more information, this laptop has been a fairly successful gaming machine in the past. It would heat, certainly, but never to the point of a shut-down. Extended Team Fortress 2 sessions were never an issue prior to the new RAM. Right now, I can definitely hear the whir of a fan, and all shutdowns have occurred during game play. From the feel of things, it seems as if it runs a bit hotter than usual even under very normal, non-stressful circumstances, but that change is pretty subtle.

Any thoughts?

Bendery It Like Beckham

Did you just add a 4gb dimm or did you replace 2 2gb dimms?

Lilnoobs

If the new RAM had a voltage increase, then it will increase the heat of the ram. Also maybe adding the new stick prevented some airflow that occurred naturally before.

In the BIOS, is there a way to see temps and/or tell the CPU to shutdown when it reaches X degree? Or perhaps something that tells the CPU to throttle back once it reaches X degree?

Nfinity

It would heat, certainly, but never to the point of a shut-down. Extended Team Fortress 2 sessions were never an issue prior to the new RAM. Right now, I can definitely hear the whir of a fan, and all shutdowns have occurred during game play.

Changes things a bit. It's more likely that this is just it could just be that the paste has broken down. Try removing the RAM and reconstruct the conditions of a shutdown. If it happens then that's the most likely cause and a simple repaste and cleaning of the heatsink/fan should fix the issue.

AgentBryant

You should verify that your laptop is actually overheating, first. You should try OCCT to run CPU and GPU tests for awhile and monitor the temperatures while it runs. If your laptop is having heat issues, you'll notice within 20 minutes of running this (maybe less) that the temperatures are climbing too high. If heat is the issue, make sure you clean the vents in the laptop and apply new thermal paste to the cpu/gpu.

If heat is not the issue, OCCT will probably crash fairly quickly. You didn't specify the changed you've made exactly. Whether you've replaced all the RAM, or simply added a stick. It's likely that the new RAM is causing instability in the system, and causes it to eventually crash. Without more information, it's tough to say.

sh4rkbyt31

Way late to this posting but also keep this in mind. The speed of your RAM WILL directly effect the temps especially if it's faster speed than the original. I just found this out through an old HP Mini 110-1006TU netbook. The user had upgraded the RAM to 2Gb DDR2-533 PC2-6400. What is required is 2 Gb DDR2-533 PC2- 4200.
The additional speed of the RAM (6400) wasn't causing a BSOD yet (after 4 yrs of use) but it WAS getting extremely hot to the point of anywhere it was sitting on was HOT to the touch, not just warm.
Make sure your numbers are the same except for the Gb size. It does matter!

sh4rkbyt31

Ugh also just had another look at the upgraded RAM. The bus speed on the 6400 RAM is actually 800 mghz not 533 mghz as was the originally installed oem 1Gb RAM.
Proving it won't BSOD your system but it will definitely run Uber HOT.