Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Problem (Dell XPS m1530)

I have a Dell XPS m1530 and I could play COD4 fine until about 4 days ago. Now whenever I start playing it seems to be working until about 5 minutes into the game when my comp suddenly turns off. Just like when you hold the power button down for a few seconds.
I tried contacting Activision tech support but they didn't help at all. I can play BF2142 fine on the highest settings and I can play Crysis but it lags a lot on low settings while before the COD4 problem I could play without lag on medium/high settings.
This is what I've tried so far to fix it and it still dosn't work:
Contact tech support
Complete uninstall and reinstall of the game
System Restore to when I didn't have the problem (but system restore had an error and didn't work)
Hard drive reformat and clean install of vista
Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone know how to fix it?

Here are my comp specs:
Dell XPS m1530
2.2 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo
Nvidia GeForce 8600m GT GDDR3
3 GB 667 mhz RAM
160 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
and some other stuff that dosn't matter to much for gaming.

Thanks.

 

Notebook too hot, once it goes over the set temperature threshold it will shut down on its own. Occasionally BSOD might tell you why it shuts down. Time to clean out the fans and air vents.

 

wat driver version do you have?? i had the same problem... but wen i updated my driver to the latest version (from laptopvideo2go.com), it works great(multiplayer and single)!!

 

Given the OP's recent problems it might not be surprising if a new driver installation was at fault. What driver version magically fixed the COD4 problems arjunned?

 

I just tried to play BF2142 online and it did the same theng as COD4. Turned off after 5 min. My bro says it sounds like a GPU driver problem. Where could I get new drivers for a Nvidia GeForce 8600m GT? I don't know what driver version I have. Whatever Dell has on their website and then windows update downloaded something called "Nvidia - Video - NVIDIA GeForce 8600m GT". How do I find out what drivers I have installed?

 

Open control panel and then go to device manager. Look under the display tab and right-click on the 8600m GT entry. Click on properties and look under the driver tab. The last 5 numbers are your driver version.

Get drivers off Laptopvideo2Go instead, look under Chaz's sticky on updating video drivers for installation instructions. 169.04, 169.09 and 169.28 are recommended for a good mix of performance and stability.

 

Driver Software: 7.15.11.5669
If I'm going to update my driver from laptopvideo2go.com then do i just click on the top (latest) driver edition and download and install it?

 

How do I install the driver once I download it? It wants me to extract it to somewhere then that's all. Where do I extract the new driver to? I have vista home premium 32 bit.

 

@Harleyquin07: my driver version is 174.31.... i'm not sayin it IS the driver update that fixes the problem...i'm just saying it COULD be a fix.. coz well it works for me now... and i haven't had to reinstall cod4...

 

Oh sorry, I didn't see your little thing at the end on chaz's installation instructions. I'll look at that now.

 

Alright, I installed a new graphics card driver (169.09) and now I can play for 20 min before it crashes (on Half-Life 2). Are there any other drivers I should update? What's a good site for CPU drivers?

 

Seems like your GPU is overheating. Call Dell tech support and let them know. Or you could use RivaTuner or ATiTool to check your GPU temperatures.

 

I'll see if I can download one of those programs. What is normal GPU temperature? How hot can it get before I should get worried about it?

 

I have my gpu driver 169.09 and everything still says it needs to be updated. Is there a newer version out?

 

I downloaded RivaTuner. How do I find my GPU temperature?

 

It sounds like your GPU is really overheating.

In RivaTuner click on the little arrow thingy where a little horizontal pullout shows up, there should be two different sets.

One of them should have a system monitor readout thingy as the last option on the right, that'll tell you temps.

Your comp is definately overheating, make sure there is air coming out of the vents when the fans are on (put your hand back there and feel the temp of the air).

 

Alright. I found the GPU temperature in RivaTuner I'm just checking my email ad IMing and it's at 70 degrees Celsius. Is that to hot? I'll look at that tonight when I play Half-Life 2 again. I played it last night and, instead of putting my comp on a book like usually do because otherwise the cloth gets into the heating vents, i only put half of it on the book and raise the other half up so there was about 3 inches of room between the vents and anything and i had no problems at all. I downloaded speedfan yesterday and my CPU runs at 40 - 50 degrees while i'm gaming. Is that a good CPU temp or should i put the settings on my games down?

Thanks.

 

Is there any software that can tell me the temperature of both my cpu and my gpu? Right now I have SpeedFan for the CPU and RivaTuner for the GPU and have to open both of the programs any time I want to check the temps. I read somewhere the SpeedFan could read the GPU temp how do I set it to do that?

 

Try I8kfanGUI, I've used it to replace the extremely unstable NHC on my PC and it's been doing a good job keeping my fans on and my temperatures down.

 

Alright, I'll download that program.
I used RivaTuner to mniter my GPU temps (and framerates) during Half-Life 2 last night. My Gpu's max temp was about 92 degrees celsius while it's minimum was 70 and I didnt have any crashes . I just noticed that I left my comp on "Power Saver Mode" while I usually game on "High Performance" mode. I'll see if the temps change while i have it on high performance tonight.

 

I8kfanGUI won't work on my comp. It only shows the CPU temp and won't let me control the fan. I think it's because I have an XPS system.

 

I paedl-Life again today, but on High Performance mode. The GPU temp averaged aut 102 degrees C. How high can I let it get before I need to be worried? 102 seems really high. I can play Half-Life on power saver mode fine, but I'm going to want to play Crysis or COD4 again eventually even though I've beaten the singleplayer on both of them at least 5 times and played a lot of multiplayer.