Dell Inspiron 600m overheating problem

[RedCt]

Right now, I have a Dell Inspiron 600m that has one hell of an overheating problem. It idles at 58C, which is way too hot for a Pentium M. When I play games like WoW, the thing goes up near 100C! Plus, once the temperature goes over 80C, it's hardcoded into the BIOS that the processor speed scales down to 600Mhz, making this laptop slow as heck.

Since I have about 1 year left on my warranty, I've sent it back to be repaired. It came back with the same problem. The only thing Dell's "repairs" did was lower the idle from 58C to 56C. I've been considering opening up the laptop and dusting out the heatsink and applying some Arctic Silver, but that would void the warranty. What should I do? I've tried almost everything except opening the computer up (notebook cooler, dusting with compressed air...)

Specs:
Dell Inspiron 600m
1.8Ghz Pentium M 745 (Dothan)
Mobility Radeon 9000 (AGP 4X)
512MB RAM
60GB HD
Dell custom mobo w/i855PM chipset
Cooler Master Notepal notebook cooler

 

[syntx]

I would think this is not normal. Even my Pentium 4 prescott used in my HP ZD8000 notebook never gets over 78C at full load for hours compiling Gentoo packages.

I think it's Dell fault and they should be able to resolve the issue to your satisfactory or if it is a design flaw give you options like exchanging products. Don't they have a guaranteed satisfaction policy?

 

[RedCt]

It's definitely a design flaw - a lot of Inspiron 600m users on the Dell Forums say they are plagued with overheating problems. Time to go bitch at Dell again >.<

 

[swatbat]

It's definitely a design flaw - a lot of Inspiron 600m users on the Dell Forums say they are plagued with overheating problems. Time to go bitch at Dell again >.<

Yep. Dell messed with the bios after a06 to try to fix it too. Ended up really screwing them up in games. That model just has real issues with 3d work(I've had one now like 3 years). Bitch at dell untill they fix it or replace it with a different model.

 

[LoStMaTt]

I work at an authorized Dell reseller and have seen this a couple times before. Cleaning out the fans, and applying your own thermal paste won't void the warranty. There is no special seal that can be broken anywhere inside. How are you getting temps by the way?

 

[RedCt]

I work at an authorized Dell reseller and have seen this a couple times before. Cleaning out the fans, and applying your own thermal paste won't void the warranty. There is no special seal that can be broken anywhere inside. How are you getting temps by the way?

Really? I've heard from several people that it'll void the warranty. I guess that was just BS...
Anyways, I'm getting the temperatures from I8KFanGUI and I confirmed it with this little nifty program called NHC (or Notebook Hardware Control). Plus you can just feel the bottom and it feels like I'm touching something metal after it's been out in the Texas summer sun for a few hours (read: HOLY %&#! THAT'S HOT!!!)