Hi,
the past week or so when playing call of duty 4 and sims 3 on my laptop it dies, it lets me play for 5 or 10 minutes normally then suddenly the laptop just turns off. It turns on as soon as i press the button and asks if i want to start in safe mode etc.
This only happens when playing games, it's fine doing anything else.
Is there any way i can narrow down what is making this happen so i can maybe fix the problem?
Spec: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9500 @ 2.60GHz
4GB RAM, Vista Home Premium (64 bit)
Any help is greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
Dan

Is there any chance that the machine is overheating?? Speedfan is a free app that will tell you temperatures... worth trying that.

Also, I think that posting the same post in different sections is frowned upon here, just something you should be aware of.

But yeh, see what temps are while running games compared to idleing etc...

-Paul

thanks a lot for the reply Paul, i know it's not great to post in a couple of places but i wasn't getting replies and i also wasn't sure what the correct section to post it was.

i downloaded speedfan and got an idle reading and the last reading before it 'died'
idle: whilst playing sims 3:
GPU: 79C - 99C
HDO:43C - 44C
Core0:57C - 83C
Core1:57C - 83C

there's obviously a big difference, any idea what most systems shut down at? and what can i do to avoid this whilst playing games?
Thanks, Dan

Originally Posted by Gibbo

Core0:57C - 83C
Core1:57C - 83C

I find Speedfan's Core temps to be a bit higher than the actual CPU temps but 83C is too high. You should get a can of compressed air, open up the computer. and clean out all of the fans especially the CPU fan & heat sink. As a further test I recommend installing Prime95 & watching your temps very closely while running it (for at least 30 minutes - 1 hr). Do the torture test. That will max out your CPU so don't try to do anything else while running that. If your computer locks up or shuts off while running that you'll know that it is overheating.

thanks townsbg, i'll give that a try tomorrow when i have some spare time
Dan

You should run the torture test before you clean out your system just so that you'll know for sure that overheating is your problem.

I didn't realize that this is a laptop. Unless you feel like taking it apart, which for a laptop is no small ordeal, after running the torture test you might want to take it to a repair shop to have them clean it out.

As previously stated, the temperature is too high.

Just for the general idea, my laptop temp is usually

Idle - Gaming
HD: 39-45
RAM: 48-66
GPU: 46-76
CPU: 45-70
Chipset: 49-67

Also, if you're a frequent gamer or a person that keeps your laptop on 24/7 (as I do) you might wish to consider getting a laptop cooler. They're pretty inexpensive and I think they're a pretty good long term investment.

the torture test has been going for 9 hours now, at the minute the temps are:
GPU:88
HDO:47
Core0:83
Core1:83

the core's did get to 86.

Do i need to keep running this or does that show that the system's stable/overheating is the problem? :S

Buying a laptop cooler wouldn't be a problem (i do have my laptop on near enough 24/7) but would that fix the problem or just cover a problem up?
Cheers, Dan

Your computer is most certainly overheating. You can stop the test; you really didn't even need to run it this long. Buying a cooler will be good but it still needs to be cleaned out. However taking apart laptops are tricky so its up to you if you want to do it yourself or take it to a technician.

I wouldn't do anything else strenuous on the laptop, like playing a game, until it is cleaned out.