Laptop Crashing.

[Vociferate]

For one reason or another, my laptop completely freezes when playing any games.

It's just even more frequently when playing WoW.

Here are the specs:
http://i35.tinypic.com/afhu2p.jpg

Sometimes I can play for a couple hours, other times it happens in minutes.

The laptop is simply, just freezing. No BSoD's or long term hitches.

Is there something that I can do, without having to reinstall windows? It's very frustrating tanking in an instance and then randomly freeze creating an all out war and get the group killed.

[Oswyn]

Have you always had this problem or did it just start happening? If it just started happening, did you recently install any applications or drivers?

If you've had this problem from the beginning, did you install the OS yourself or did it come pre-installed with the laptop?

[Vociferate]

Have you always had this problem or did it just start happening? If it just started happening, did you recently install any applications or drivers?

If you've had this problem from the beginning, did you install the OS yourself or did it come pre-installed with the laptop?

I'd never done any gaming on it until recently. So I really don't have a definitive answer for that. Prior, I just used my desktop.

As far as the OS, it was pre-installed.

Is there a diagnostics test I can run to see if anything needs to remedied?

[Vociferate]

So I think I have isolated the problem.

I believe it is the cooling system with the fans.
However, Speed Fan, doesn't recognize the fans amongst my laptops.

Are there any alternatives to Speedfan?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

So I think I have isolated the problem.

I believe it is the cooling system with the fans.
However, Speed Fan, doesn't recognize the fans amongst my laptops.

Are there any alternatives to Speedfan?
An excellent question. I believe that most chipset manufacturers ship monitoring utilities that watch fan speeds, temperatures, etc. Fan speed really isn't the best measure. Go grab Core Temp (http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/)and note what your temps are at idle and while playing. You can minimize it to the system tray so you can keep an eye on it. 35-75C are fairly common operating temps for Core2Duo/quad machines, with the higher temp ranges usually showing up on earlier versions (steppings) of the CPUs and the lower temps on more recent variants. I'd really not start worrying overmuch until you started seeing regular core temps of over 80C. The Intel CPUs are rated up to 100C but realistically you're shortening the life of the processor significantly when running over 80C for extended periods.

Graphics card temps are another possible culprit (especially if your GPU heatsink isn't properly bonded to the GPU). Getting a temperature monitor for those is entirely dependent on the model. Send us some more details on your config and we may have some better pointers to diagnostic utilities for ya. ;)

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers,
Ugh

[Vociferate]

Gateway M-6864

Is the laptop I am using.

Here are some of the specs:

Processor Intel Core2 Duo Processor T5750 (2.00GHz, 667MHz,
2MB L2 cache)
Operating System Genuine Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
(64-bit) SP1
Memory 4096MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2-2048MB modules)
Hard Drive 200GB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive w/ 16MB Cache
Chassis Intel PM965 Chipset and ATI Mobility Radeon HD
2600 Graphics with 512MB GDDR3 Dedicated Memory
Memory Capacity Maximum 4GB
Optical Drive 8x Multi-Format Dual Layer DVD/RW with DVD-RAM
featuring Labelflash Technology

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Hmm. According to the HD 2600 Mobility specs (http://ati.amd.com/products/MobilityRadeonhd2600/specs.html), it has a thermal sensor on it. Lemme see if I can find something that should work.

Well, the only thing I could easily find is possibly this tool: http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

You may have temperature readings in your Catalyst control center. You check there yet?

[edit] Ah, here ya go. See if this will show you the graphics temps: http://downloads.guru3d.com/ATI-Tray-Tools-1.3.6.1042-download-733.html

[Drommon]

When I started playing WoW on my laptop it would overheat and die. This is going to sound really odd. Since there was nothing I could do about the ATI GPU chip overheating with wow running I simply put the laptop on a aluminum or copper cookie sheet. Having the laptop sitting on a cookie sheet allowed the heat to dissipate away from the bottom of the laptop where the gpu chip was located. Doing this allowed me to play wow without any heat issues.

Drommon

[Ughmahedhurtz]

When I started playing WoW on my laptop it would overheat and die. This is going to sound really odd. Since there was nothing I could do about the ATI GPU chip overheating with wow running I simply put the laptop on a aluminum or copper cookie sheet. Having the laptop sitting on a cookie sheet allowed the heat to dissipate away from the bottom of the laptop where the gpu chip was located. Doing this allowed me to play wow without any heat issues.

Drommon
A possibly obvious caveat: DO NOT do this if you have any exhaust or intake ports on the bottom of your laptop.

[Drommon]

A possibly obvious caveat: DO NOT do this if you have any exhaust or intake ports on the bottom of your laptop.

Of course :) My intake and exhaust ports are on the side.

Drommon

[boxblizzard]

my immediately thought of crashing with laptops ually boils down to temp too high. maybe get some software on the web and moniter the temps. and ensure laptop gets enough air.

if it is a problem with the heat not read above yet then buy a laptop stand with built in air flow/air management. should act as an exhaust and help.

or buy a desktop :P

[Bettysue]

The 6864 is the same comp my brother has, the vents on that thing clog with dust pretty easily if you blow them out pretty often it seems to run just fine while gaming. If you use a can type air duster thing make sure you don't get close and spray the liquid into the laptop. Something about liquid and electricity doesn't sit well with computers :P

[Emil]

i don't see this? i've had a comp since 2003, laptop, can't play wow without lagg etc

but when i do play wow (used to) it never got warm or anything, no shutdowns.. like yours :S?

[Vociferate]

Cheers everyone, I'll get a compressed can of air sometime today.

I was looking at a few of those laptop cooling systems, and I think those are right in my alley.

The temperatures on my CPU/GPU are running relatively high; Ranging from 72-83C, so with some cleaning and external cooling hopefully that'll do the trick.