My Pc Is Pissin Me Off!

[xpimpitox]

ok so i got an alienware laptop that i have had for 2 years and it works fine and dandy except when i play any sort of games or view videos online. it friggin either freezes or just shuts off all together! i have a level design project due in a week and i cant even run warcraft 3 world edit to do it because after like 10-15 mins it freezes up on me! i have done a clean install of windows and updated the drivers pretty much. anybody know what it could be? the only thing i think it may be is my graphics card drivers, i have an nvidia geforce go 5700 and when i try to download drivers from the nvidia website it says it cant find any nvidia hardware or somethin like that.

so anybody know what could possibly be goin on with my POS computer? i cant even play WoW anymore because of this but more importantly i cant do my damn project which is a big part of my grade! HELP!!!!!

[Lakemonster]

OK..

Heres what I think is up. Your processor fan and heat sink has gathered up too much dust and lint and is stopping airflow down into the heatsink fins.

Or the dust is slowing your fan speed down.

I think you are overheating and its shutting itself down....

Carefully remove the fan and heatsink and clean both items.

Removing and replacing fans and heatsinks on the processor is a very gentle and careful procedure. You can easily crack the ceramic core of the processor if you get rough. Its like diffusing a bomb. GENTLE! Edited January 8, 2007 by Lakemonster

[fewwdragon]

A few more things to try.
By a cheap fan that goes under the laptop if you fear overheating like this:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__DataStor_Si...rch=laptop+fans
2. Make sure you have the lastest windows service pack and patches. Becareful though read all the cations. This can be found on the windows update page.
3. Make sure that your power cable looks okay no tears or bends.
4. Look agian for new drivers for your video card.
5. See if you can find a fourum for your video card to see if this is a common probelm.

The way i see it there is one of two probelms you overheating like lake said or either your video card of memory is not functioning properly together.

are you sure it's a geforce go 5700 i have never heard of a geforce go 5700 before i am ati fan anyway. (to be sure: control panel, system icon, hardware tab, device manager button, display adapter)

[web250]

Sounds like a heat problem, possibly also a driver issue.

[ghostofdavid]

I'm with lake, it definately sounds like a heat problem. Do you have pets in the house? I know it sounds gross, but even in the cleanest of houses, pet hair/dust/lint can get in your lappy and shut it down by overheating.

[xpimpitox]

thanks guys! i have one of those fans and it still does this. im gonna have to check up on service pack and see if i can CAREFULLY clean out my computer. i havent cleaned it out like lake said at all and that may be a factor. as for the drivers its on the nvidia website so im gonna look for a forum and check em out. thanks again!

[Scheetz]

sounds to me you are just overheating. After 2 years you should def replace your thermal paste with some Arctic Silver 5. Just use a can of air or a compressor and blow all the dust out of your laptop case.

[Lakemonster]

Like a complete dumbass, I overlooked the laptop bit.

I have no clue about laptop cooling.... but I imagine that there is some way that airflow can get restricted.... a good clean could still be in order.

Updating drivers.... Id do all that first. some laps are a complete pain to crack open...

[xpimpitox]

well it being an alienware laptop, upgradability was in mind so its not really difficult to open up the pc, it shows you how in the manual. im a bit inexperienced with opening laptop cases which kinda scares me off a bit. im gonna get an air can and see what i can do. thanks again!