E420 Heating Problem

[parkjy11]

Hello everyone. (Disclaimer: Not very knowledgeable about computers ) I recently purchased the E420 about a week ago and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. However, I do have a problem with heating whenever I do certain things such as playing games. Obviously the laptop will generate more heat when it's working harder, but the amount of heat that it's generating becomes near unbearable on the left side of the laptop after about 10 minutes or so. I considered purchasing a cooling pad but I wanted to get some informed advice about whether this is an issue with the laptop (poor engineering), a setting I should have adjusted, or something I just have to deal with. I also added 4gb of RAM to the standard 2gb RAM that came with the laptop, if that makes any difference. I don't recall if the laptop was generating this much heat when I was only using 2gb of RAM. Thanks.

[ColonelONeill]

Install HWMonitor, run HWMonitor, and do whatever it is that causes it to heat up. After that, post your Max temperatures for the devices HWMonitor lists.

[parkjy11]

I've left it on for a few minutes and for "LENOVO1141CTO," max is 41.0 degrees Celsius. Intel Core i5 max temperatures are 76.0 for core #0 and 82.0 for core #1. Temperature for "WDC WD25 00BEVT-08..." is 35.0 degrees Celsius.

[edit] It's now 45, 80, 89, and 38, respectively.

[ColonelONeill]

What program are you using to load the CPU?

[parkjy11]

Er, I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium, if that's what you're asking.

[ColonelONeill]

I meant: Which program do you use that causes the CPU to heat up?

[parkjy11]

Oh sorry, wasn't quite sure what you meant.

I'm playing World of Warcraft at the moment, it'll heat up to max temperature in about 10-20 minutes.

[ColonelONeill]

Is the fan spinning up accordingly and pushing hot air? If it spins up but pushes less-hot-than-expected air, then the heatsink might be loose.

[parkjy11]

Well 99% of the time when I'm not playing the fan will be completely silent. The only time I've noticed the fan being audible is when the game is loaded. The fan also doesn't push out as much hot air as I expect (although it is quite hot). I had a Lenovo laptop from a few years back that I also played WoW on but it never had a problem with the case being hot.

The heatsink may have become loose when I added RAM. Is there a way I can verify if that's the case?

[I2Y]

I would like to join to the topic. I have same problem with my new E420 (Core i3 2310M) one week after purchase. After few minutes of gaming temperature reach around 80 C. I want to mention I didn't do any upgrades.

I owned Edge 14 model with Core i3 370M CPU before E420 model. The max temperature I had was 70 C caused by stress tests. In normal usage temperature was around 60 on load and 40 on office work. Also cooling system of Edge 14 was much more silent and pleasant.

One last question. Core i3 2310M Tjunction is 85 C... Does it mean I have a huge risk of killing my CPU by few more minutes of gaming?