Need help before laptop melts into pile of slag

Alright, as you can see from the forum title, I'm having a HUGE problem with my laptop overheating. I have an Averatec 3200, and I had not a problem with it for somewere around a year. But about a month after my waranty ran out (FIGURE THAT) it started to overheat. When I say overheat, I dont mean I cover up the fan and it shuts down. I mean I let it sit on top of my desk and it reaches tempatures that could start a super nova, then it periodicaly makes beeping sounds and then after about an hour of it running (total) it shuts down. The fan works, I've cleaned all the dust out of it. I just can't explain it. Does anyone else own (or has) an averatec 3200? Do they have a history of this? Is there anything I can do (other than get one of those stupid cooling pads, I want to maintain my mobility). I emailed averatec support and they told me they might be able to fix it, but could cost as much as 300 bucks (and I'd rather look for a free or cheaper fix first). Thank you for any suggestions.

 

Did you check through the task manager if your CPU usage is normal, or if something is using your CPU to the fullest?

It might be that you have some malware running.

or for some reason or another (maybe a drop) the contact between the CPU and the heatsink was broken. In that case you would want to open it, clean up both CPU and heatsink surfaces, reapply thermal material (arctic silver recommended) and try if that helps

 

I have reinstalled windows several times between when it started and now. So anything like malware would have been wiped out. The cpu usage is fine. And the heat sink is right next to the fan, which I have cleaned several times, so I've seen that it is intact. Its all discolored, however, from the masive doses of heat. Kinda humours if this wasnt an 800 dollar piece of equipment.

 

i'd be willing to bet its ashort ciricuit..you noticed any loss in performance? i bet something zapped it some where along the way and inadvertantly crossed a couple of lines that arnt supposed to be crossed, causing you to loose heat reduction or causing it to run hotter than it should...

i'd try tracking down a cheap processor and replacing it...Or ... if its old enough, just buy a new one...cause at that rate...it'll be burnt out to nothing in no time...

 

Exactly what I thought. And, btw, no loss in preformance, except my battery life is ****, doesnt last longer than 20 minuets. Ha, luckily...its old enough...I have already begun shopping. But I dont believe its gonna burn it. I've TRIED to burn it out (only after it was doing this for a while) so that I would have an excuse to get a new one. But the bastard wont die, ha, my luck eh? I'll just buy a cooling pad and give them both to my mom (she wants to learn how to use a computer, and I have to teach her, this will not end well). I'm looking customizing a compaq v5000z, mmm, 1 gig of RAM goodness. Can't wait.

 

hehe thats the spirit man!, this laptop that i'll be geting in a few weeks will be the most powerfull PC i've ever owned..

I'm all excited 'n' stuff ^_^

 

Whoa if your battery life just drains like that then maybe it is a short circuit, but I dunno.

Are your fans going nuts all the time? Maybe you have accumulated a lot of dust inside your laptop.

Many people report problems with their computers and complain their computer is a piece of junk, but don't realize it's because of dust.

I think your case is a hardware problem. Maybe you could contact them and beg for free servicing. They might honour their warranty even after the term is over if it was really close to the end date.

Cheers and goodluck,
Mike

 

averatecs burn out, they suck. I owned one and subsequently sold on ebay because of a short in the power receiver thingy so it started to melt ( i fully disclosed this on the auction) Just get a new one

 

So if this is a short circuit, it won't be the CPU that is toasting but something on the board. That would certainly be a way to tell. A short circuit cannot develop in the CPU!

Never thought something like that can happen! But I guess it is always possible with lower end laptops

 

Most of the heat seems to be coming from right overtop of the procesor. I tried using that program "speed fan" but it wouldnt show me what my temp was and it couldnt do anything with my fan (crappy intergrated motherboard ****ty stuff....grrr). I really dont think its my fan, I blew the dust out of it with some compressed air, but it didnt help.

 

My Dell Smartstep was notorious for overheating and shutting down. I found that opening it up, removing the old heat transfer material from the top of
the CPU, and installing Arctic Silver really helped the situation. Took the P4 2.4 from > 55C (wouldn't measure any higher) to ~45C, and it hasn't shut down since.

Have you tried "Mobile Meter"? That should give you a pretty good idea what's going on inside.

 

About how much did that arctic silver stuff cost?

 

something like $5

newegg isn't the cheapest place to get them, but http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N=50001410&Manufactory=1410