Averatec 3250 Overheating Problems HELP??

Hi,

I have a Averatec 3250 running an AMD processor and after having it for a little over a year it has started heating up and then suddenly rebooting. My guess is the rebooting is a self protection mechanism.

I will simply turn on the computer and leave it alone, running nothing but what's in the start menu. Which is an anti virus program and a few other nondescript programs. Within 20 minutes the laptop will suddenly reboot due to heating issues. What's going here?

Today I ran a program called "What's Running" just to make sure the processor wasn't being over worked and sure enough the processor is hovering at 7-15% usage. Nothing to cause a overheating problem. I also installed a temp gage program to verify heat was the issue and sure enough the temperature gradually climbs and climbs until the darn machine is really hot and the reboot takes place.

Now if I actually use the 3250 for something this overheating can start within the first 5-10 minutes. I have been careful to keep the machine reasonably clean by blowing canned forced air through it every month or so. The 80GB drive is only 30% full and this machine is maxed out with 512MB of memory. So adding more memory is not a possibility. What do I do?

Averatec's website is useless. It has been stripped of any FAQs or Forums. Basic drivers are all they supply on-line. You must call their tech support for anything else. Which means spending money to have them do something I can do. If I knew what the real problem was. Help?

Someone out there must have already encountered this problem. From what I have read these Averatec laptops are prone to overheating. So what's the solution?

Thanks! Your help is greatly appreciated!

Timestar

 

Assuming the fan in your machine is working, it might be time to open the chassis and check inside. Might need to use that canned air a bit more thoroughly, or even a dab of AS5.

 

Make sure all fans are actually spinning.

When blowing air to clean the notebook, it is a bad idea to force the fans to spin with the air. Use a toothpick to hold the blades stationary. Like most electric motors, if you supply electricity, the motor turns. But if you turn the motor mechanically, you generate electricity. Only in this case, it is a reverse airflow and you are therefore applying a reverse current against the rest of the PC's electronics.

If the fans are spinning correctly on their own, I would next recommend booting memtest86+ and test your RAM.

 

If it will handle your CPU, I recommend installing RightMark CPU clock utility. Gives you some control over the CPU clock and has a temperature reading right on the task bar.

 

This has been covered a few times before. It usually turns out to be the fan, either failed (least likely) or chock full of dust. Most of their units place the fan sucking staright up close to the bottom louvres. Lap use or even setting on a table can start sucking up stuff into the fan. Isn't long before the low power fan doesn't run properly. With the temp utility you can watch, under compute load, how fast the temp does rise. Very rapid. Newer units have a sticker placed directly below the fan blocking the direct suction louvres to prevent the fan from sucking debris into it. It then pulls the air from all over the case and works fine keeping the fan relatively clear of dust and such.

You will have to check your fan and as mentioned above clean it out and see if it does resume full speed operation.

Rick