Laptop shuts down during games

Hey, I've been having this problem with my laptop randomly shutting down during games for the past few months. When I first got my laptop this never happened, I could run games for hours upon hours and it would work fine. Now when I play a game after 20-30 minutes it just shuts down. I know it's not overheating, I even put a fan underneath and the same thing happened. My specs are in my signature, can anyone tell me why my laptop is just randomly shutting down while I'm playing a game?

 

over heating

 

probably overheating. use HWMonitor and Rivatuner to find the cause of the overheating, and then act according to your results. a notebook cooler might do it, or you might have to replace the thermal grease.

 

i don't mean to beat a dead horse, but do you know what your temps are while gaming? could be dust inside you computer, impeding the cooling system.

 

That's typically a sign of overheating. In your case, I'd try to rule that out first. What temps are you running at? Try cleaning your vents then check again.

 

Which should I download HDMonitor or Rivatuner? Also how do I replace my thermal grease and/or clean my vents? Thanks in advance.

Also, like I said when I first bought my laptop it never had any overheating problems. I had it running games for hours with no shutdown.

 

Could be bad cleaning, but did performance decline alot suddenly? I mean WHILE youre gaming? You can check out other thread bout bad 8600GT gpu's. If thats the case, and you still have warranty, RMA!

 

Could you please link me to that thread?

 

please go to the NBR Cooling Central for more info.

And I explain the procedure to clean out the vents and fans all of this forum.
_____________________________

If you are overheating... usually any temp over 90C degrees is bad.

when was the last time that you cleaned out the fans and vents thoroughly...?

if never, then thats why.

1) remove battery
2) remove/unscrew the panels on the bottom of the notebook to get to fans and vents ( if possible, if not its okay.. skip step 5)
3) use flashlight to look through vents for the dust (if you cant see the light on the other end, then the vents are clogged up)
4) go outside, get some compressed air (cans or compressor @ 50 PSI) and give the vents a good airing out all directions ( concentrating on the vents)
.... you might want to brace the fan blade(s) when airing it out (with a toothpick or paperclip to prevent it from spinning out too much)
.... or use short bursts (1-2 secs) of air instead of bracing the fans.
5) go get some Q-tips and swab the fan blades and the area around it
6) then go do a second airing with compressed air (all directions again focusing on the fans and vents) to push out the dust that was dislodged from the Q-tips

7*) Now go use the flashlight again and look through the vents (shine the flashlight from the fan, you look through the other end) for anymore dust clogs.

8) Then start up the notebook... and let the fans cycle up (use the Fan Toggle at max speed if your system has it) to push out any other dust that might have been stuck.

If all goes well you should be able to close up the notebook and...

you're done.

*repeat this step until its cleaned out.

Thats pretty much it.

Just make sure to do this every two-three months... it should take about 15-20min per cleaning if you want to be thorough.

________________________

Gaming notebooks are a new thing, you must realize that you have to take some extra care of them over typical use notebooks:

1) Battery: to maintain the longevity of any rechargeable battery
- you must NEVER overcharge it [especially for long durations of time] by keeping it plugged into AC
- when it reaches 100% you should unplug it and let it discharge to 5-15%, then plug it back to power
- OR you can just charge it to 50%+ and remove the battery and store in cool place.. not the fridge [remember to use it occasionally 3-4 time a year to charge and discharge it].

2.) Heat: to prevent a healthy notebook from overheating
- ALWAYS use the notebook on a clean, hard & flat surface
- NEVER use on soft surfaces (laps, beds, couch, etc.) that can block the fans on the bottom
- RECOMMENDED to be used on a notebook cooler... namely the Zalman ZM-NC1000 or ZM-NC2000
- check your fans underneath occasionally (at least once a month or two) for any dust clogs [clean them out with Q-tips and air cans/compressors]
- ALWAYS monitor the temps (CPU, GPU, HDD, etc..) to watch for fluctuations, which would indicate overheating by dust usually

By doing these simple things, your entire system will easily last for more than 3 years.

 

sorry guys, i think its an easier fix than that.
Go to task manager.
How many background processes is your system using at idle, and what is the cpu usage.
If you have more than 40 processes running, and over 10% cpu usage, than its the background processes which are causing your cpu to be stressed, resulting in more heat, and thus could cause overheating.

you can shut off these background processes with MSCONFIG

K-TRON

 

but if the problem of shutting down happens during gaming... then the GPU temp is reaching threshold which would cause that.

 

yes an no
if the cpu and gpu share the same cooling system, the cpu load will definitely increase the graphics temperature.
This happened on my friends XPS1710. His T7600 would run 70% cpu load before loading WOW and soon his system would run very hot, and cause gpu temps to rise over 100C.
His framerate also dropped to like 10fps, which is terrible for a 7950GTX and a T7600.
Using MSconfig, I pulled the 80 or so background processes down to 25 and i shut off aero, and cpu usage was less than 5% on idle. Than when it was game time, his cpu and gpu were running substantially cooler, like 40C less.

K-TRON

 

thats true.

in our Clevo D900's the CPU temp is the least of my worries since the notebook has separate heatsink and fans for the CPU and GPU.

so if a notebook's fans/heatsink does share the burden to cool a CPU and GPU, then it could be either or even both.

 

Gophn I'll try what you said and give an update on the progress. Thanks for the help guys!