Hello all. I am praying you can help me resolve this problem I have been dragging around until today when I have finally decided to do something about it!

The problem is my laptop keeps on shutting down when I play (supposedly) CPU intensive games (Champ Mang 4, STW, Soldier of Fortune, Heroes of Might and Magic III).

I believe this is due to my CPU overheating, indeed I have noticed that the case nearest the CPU area is warm. I believe the fan could be the problem since it no longer blows out air like before, but I am not so sure about how to go about sorting the fan or even replacing it (I opened up the laptop once before and needless to say there wasn't much room to work in). Basically, Im worried about breaking the thing.

Also, I recently ran a CPU test and it deduced that my the FBU and the CPU are both overclocked and should put back to the normal settings (note: i didnt change anything cos i lack the know-how), and that my CPU is 4 C above the maximum allowable CPU temperature. I figure that the extra heating could also be attributed to this overclocking too, but I have no idea about how to change these settings and yet again, I don't want to screw up an already screwed up system.

My basic system is: 998Mhz Intel Celeron, 128MB, 10GB Ram, with SiS video and sound drivers.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated!

Adriano

I have recently checked the CPU temperatures:

with no major applications running CPU Temp = 43-46C
with the browser running CPU Temp = 47-51C
with one of the aforementioned games running, CPU Temp = 59-63C!!

Which I assume is why the laptop shutsdown. Can anyone offer any assistance here or will I be better off moving this to the cooling forum?

Cheers

First thing to try is to set your BIOS back to the correct settings. An easy way to do that is to go into your BIOS and then select "Load failsafe defaults". This will set your clock and vcor back to "Default". The "Load optimized defaults" should do the same thing but give you better performance. Otherwise you will have to go in and set them manually. I have heard that the bottom of a laptop will get quit hot even under normal use. I believe the fan only turns on at a certain temp, this is to save battery power. You may not feel any air coming out when you first turn it on but it should work when things get hot.

What model laptop are you running?

Often times software will incorrectly detect the appropriate cpu settings of laptops, because they are specifically designed to "throttle down" when running off the battery. This does not mean your laptop is overclocked, most laptops do not have clocking options in their BIOS.

A CPU fan failure is definitely a major issue with any computer and should be corrected ASAP. This will cause overheating and subsequent system shutdowns. If you laptop is under warrantee, contact your manufacturor. If not, you may want to consult a certified repair facility, unless you are confident enough to do a repair yourself.

As far as I can tell from the air coming out, the fan is working fine. My laptop is a 2-year old (and warrantee expired) Gericom T-4. It has no space for RAM expansion (never knew this when i bought it) and I've had some monitor flickering problems due to a loose connection (that when sent away to get fixed, came back worse than before).

What am I getting at with this? Basically, if any further expensive was to spared on this laptop, I'd rather leave it as it is and go and buy a new one from a more reputable dealer. Doing the repair would be a possibility if it was a desktop PC.. Im afraid ive looked inside my laptop a few times and there is no space to work or for error. That is why I'm hoping I'll be able to change the CPU settings in the BIOS (if possible) and resolve the problem that way.

Btw, how would you compare builiding a laptop from scratch to buying from a manufacturer?

Cheers for the help ladz,


Adriano

You cannot easily build a laptop from scratch due to the limited availablity of laptop chassis, motherboards etc. and the prohibitively expensive price of such components.

That is not to say that it cannot be done, just that it would be cheaper to buy any off-the-shelf laptop.

Even Alienware Gaming Laptops would probably work out cheaper