Shall i continue gaming?

I was playing Halo 2 vista and suddenly the the colours started to all mess up and when i exited to desktop it was still there, then i turnt off and restarted and to my relief if was ok again. But now im worried if my graphic card might be getting to heated up and if i should continue to game at the risk blowing it up and i dont have the money to buy myself a new gaming laptop and i cant say i wasnt warned already.
I have a Toshiba 2ghz core2duo, 3g ram and a 2600hd videocard.
Was the problem caused by extensive hours of gaming? Should i stop and buy a 360 instead? Im thinking playing on a laptop is not so smart after all.

 

Did you monitor/do you monitor any temperature levels? If you havn't already, you could try undervolting the processor (search threads) and then get a notebook cooler, if it is infact temperatures.

 

Just buy a cooling pad. It'll cool the card down.

 

There are many possibilities to graphical glitches...exhaust blocked, full of dust, corrupted drivers, corrupted game data, fan motor worn out, etc, etc.

FWIW, any modern non-overclocked GPU will NOT be destroyed by gaming. It was specifically made for that task. Should you never watch a DVD again if your player freezes?

 

My laptop is fairly new and couple years ago my 9800 pro was blown up after extensive hours of playing a fps so im sure this could happed as well to a laptop card but in which case the damage financially would be much higher.
BTW nothing is overclocked in my laptop.

 

Like i said, start monitoring idle, and load temperatures. read up on "Undervolting" the cpu, which will reduce overall temperatures, and look into cooling solutions. Even things as simple as making sure your fans have alot of space around them make a difference. Goodluck

 

The 9800s were dogs. My 9800 XT only lasted 6 months before failing. That was also around the time things like thermal sensors became standard......

If you fan is moving air properly and it's not overclocked (i.e. the temperature is with specs,) how do you expect it to "blow up"?

 

Mine crashes similar to that as well.... I monitor the temps at all time, and it never goes above 70c. It must be a software issue. when mine crashes, the card throttles back until i restart, even though me temps are not high.

 

whats your gamertag?

 

Never never stop gaming.

 

First sign of GPU dying is when artifacts starts showing on your computer. If you can get access to your GPU, replacing thermal compound may help. You said don't have money to replace the laptop now then suggest stop gaming on your laptop and buy a desktop or 360.

 

Yes im seriously considering buying a 360 since i really love playing fps's, but im afraid the getting used to the controlling thing of the console might take a long time for me.

 

He speaketh the truth...

 

i like pc gaming better because the updates are much more frequent, and not to mention many mods come from it. i suggest you just get a cooling pad for your notebook as that will really help cool down the notebook and prolong its life for a while. if the card is overheating then don't run it on settings that are putting a very hard strain on your gpu. perhaps you have dust in your vents and need to blow out your computer. that will help reduce temperatures. also, don't play video games for so long. xbox 360's aren't any better at running games than laptops. they overheat, break down, and sometimes the parts inside fry. your laptop is much more versitile than a 360.

 

that's exactly what I've been thinking about and maybe you are right on this.
any Graphics more powerful than the NVIDIA8400 M GS might damage your laptop very fast, I was interested in the LG P300 but my friend 's LG getting really hot and I think it is easy to figure out that putting that kind of power into that kind of space might generate very annoying heat and noise , it is important to blance out the power of what you want in a small lappy and the size of it.

the Toshiba you are talking about sounds like the A200? if so it is not at all small, so I think the HD2600 might be ok. but if it is a 14.1 like M200(some of M200 come with HD2400) , then maybe better not playing games at all.

also any kind of discrete graphic in mobile PC decrease battery life significantly , I am thinking of getting a desktop for more serious stuff like manipulating RAW files and games.

I think this is why HP never puts any more powerful GPU than the NV8400GS in 14.1 pavillions.

 

buy a desk top better idea, since you can upgrade it easily as you like.

Xbox and PS3 are not upgradable AFAIK.