Laptop overheating

Ho there,

I have been away from game during the summer but will be back soon - like in 2-3 weeks.

The problem that I have with Guildwars is that my laptop had been shutting down without a source of outside cooling for 2-3 months. I had been using a desktop fan. It was a quickfix kind of a solution I know but it worked.

So I come to the most excellent GW forum around for some help.

Anyway I am wondering is there anything I can do on the software side before I actually give my laptop back to shop for them to check my internal fans to see if they are working at full performance or I am forced to concede that my laptop cannot cope with GW.

I am 99% sure that it is my graphics card that is causing the problem.

Here is the graphics card details.

Adapter

Chip Type: Ati Mobility Radeon 9700 AGP (0x4E50)
DAC Type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Memory: 64 MB
Adapter String: ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9600/9700 Series

Driver

Driver version: 6.14.10.6458
Driver Date: 10/07/2004

Other info that may be needed

Direct X version : 9.0c
Windowx Xp Home (5.1 Build 2600)
Memory: 512 MB
Processor: 3.2 GHz

Anyway see you all soon. And Thanks very much in advance

Sam

are you using the laptop over a hard surface, or over something soft, like carpet? Over something soft could be the probem, but what you describe, that doesnt seem th be the case

Probably not the battery - but with the Sony battery recalls lately for Dell and Apple - I'd check your manufactures website to see if your battery has been recalled.

This is a paroblem a lot of the high-ended laptops have. When you have so many items running hot, the heat has to go somewhere. And because of the cramped conditions, they simply overheat.

I would recommend a cooling pad. They are inexpensive, and can cool a laptop down drastically. They are simply a collection of 2-4 fans that sits under the laptop, and normally run from $20-40, depending on options. And they are powered from the USB port, so another power adaptor is not needed.

You can also try setting it into low-power mode. This will reduce the temp, but at the cost of performance.

Mine tends to do that as well. I have an HP ze5375, and one of the fan vents is on the bottom of the unit. To solve the problem, I got a "bed tray" from Walmart for $8. This is the type of thing you use to bring someone a meal when they are in bed. It fits right over my lap. As the vent is on the bottom of my computer, I stick a book, or a small block of wood under the back end to prop it up. The laptop stays quite cool this way, and it is actually a little easier to type with it propped up.

As one poster above suggested, get a laptop cooling pad. I have a MacBook Pro (I wish ArenaNet would release an OSX native version of GW...but that's a different thread entirely...) and they run notoriously hot. I picked up a laptop cooling pad for it, and it runs considerably cooler now.

If it's the intel version of the macbook pro then you can run gw on it! Get yourself a free copy of boot camp (on apple.com), follow the instructions for a dual boot machine that boots right into windows xp on your mac, then install gw. It's a very simple process, works great and boots faster then most high end pc's on the market!

For the OP. I would take it in, have it cleaned out and fans checked. It's really a very typical problem with laptops is dust build-up and overheating. Many suppliers even have step-by-step guides on how to do this yourself on their websites. GL!