As it turns out, it seems like it really had nothing to do with the video card. He showed me the CPU’s exhaust/heatsink which had a thick layer of dust which was preventing the entry/escape of hot air. I was amazed at how much dust it collected. It fully looked like a bit of fur coating or something.

Anyways, after he showed me, he said that though that’s was the most likely cause of the overheating problem, he would still replace the parts since he had them here anyways. I was like, “Yeah sure, go ahead!” I mean why not, right?

I actually wish I’d brought my camera to work so I could’ve taken some happy snaps of my lappy all spread out over the desk, and the dust-burger on the heatsink, but alas, I left my camera at home since I’m waiting for the case I purchased to arrive.

So anyways, he went about his task of installing the new components and putting everything back together again, then once it was all solid again went on to test it by turning it on and running it for about 15-20 minutes. He then made me sign the receipt and went on about his day.

All in all I think it went fairly well. I’ve yet to encounter any CPU slowdowns like the type I encountered earlier, and the keyboard is still a little bit hotter than I’d like it, but it doesn’t seem to be causing any major problems.

There’s a lot to be said about Dell tech support for their professionalism and prompt resolution of the problem. About 10 minutes after the tech left, I received a call from the Dell helpdesk asking if all had gone satisfactorily. I replied that I was still making sure that everything was a-ok and the lady politely stated that if all was ok she would be closing the support ticket but that I could call again if anything else happened. That’s great service.
It should be stated that if I hadn’t had a current warranty on this baby, my wallet would be in a whole world of hurt right now.

For all the negative press and horror stories I’ve read about Dell, I’ve never had a bad support experience with them and because of that I always recommend to anyone considering purchasing any kind of equipment from them to pay a little extra and get an extended warranty. It’s definitely well worth it.

Good on you Dell. Another satisfied customer.

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A few days later things started going south. After a few hours of normal use, the CPU use jumped up to 100% and didn’t show any signs of subsiding.

I fiddled around as best I could on a system running at top speed (which ironically slows it down to a crawl), killing processes and frantically trying to ascertain what could possibly be causing such slowdown but alas, I could find no reason or rhyme.
Looking through the Task Manager I could find no process using anywhere near 100% of the CPU so I figured it must have been something else. I even downloaded Process Explorer from Microsoft TechNet, which provides detailed information on processes and other information, but could still find no culprit!

After several days of this kind of behaviour from my computer and hours spent on troubleshooting, I remembered that I upped the refresh rate on the monitor and figured that could be a possible cause.
Turning down the refresh rate helped, but the PC continued to experience slowdowns. I got the bright idea to turn off the dual monitor support and that stopped the CPU drain completely. So I’m left to conclude that the video card on my little beast is dying.

Luckily, a quick review of my Dell warranty plan revealed that I still have over 6 months warranty left! So I emailed them today telling them about my problem. Hopefully, they’ll come around and get it fixed this week so I can do some actual work.

UPDATE: So I called Dell Tech Support today since they hadn’t gotten back to me yet and explained the problem in more detail to the thickly-accented, presumably Indian lady at the other end of a very crackly and degraded line.
After several long alternating periods of explaining and waiting on hold she returned with the news that a technician would be contacting me to arrange an appropriate time to install a new CPU fan on the lappy.

While I found it a little strange at the time that a CPU fan could be to blame, on hindsight it makes some sense but I really hope that’s actually it. She said to make sure the problem was fixed before I let the technician leave, so I’m going to have to try it out for a while with some CPU intensive tasks. I’ll have to see what I can come up with.

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