PC Troubles

553 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Ickebeebon, Feb 6, 2006

[Black] Katalyst

Discussion Starter · Feb 5, 2006

I own a Area-51 5500m laptop.

P4 3.0
1024mb pc3200
80gig 5400 rpm
Radeon 9800 Mobile 128mb
XP Pro sp2
Drivers are up to date

I've had it for about a year now with no problems. I'm a CS:S player and have been before I had this laptop. But recently, my laptop has been shutting down while I'm playing. I thought a cooling dock (heatsink w/ 2x 80mm fans) would fix the problem, but it hasn't. All the fans are working, the dock works fine, and the exhaust air isn't that hot.

When I play, I shut down all my programs. I've run a system defrag, virus check, spyware checks and my system is clean.

So any ideas before I have to go through hours of Technical Service over the phone?

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The_Outsider

· #2 · Feb 5, 2006

Does it reboot itself or does it simply crash? I would not know where to start, you seem to have done your best to make sure the system is clean.

Do you have much running in the background? it may be something to look into, but I don't know.

Hope you get it fixed!

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Vindkall

· #3 · Feb 5, 2006

Three things springs to my mind first is heat, even though you have a quite nice heat setup, hows the GFX, GPU overheats cause this too, not only CPU overheats.
Second is that there are some fatal error caused by the software, but as everything is the latest...
Third is that you don't have enough power, maybe the battery or adapter has been damaged and can't put out enough power for both the GPU and the CPU.

Anyhow, does it only shutdown when you play CS:S or when you play other games too?

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The Fifth Horseman

· #4 · Feb 6, 2006

Are you sure the cooling vents to/from heatsinks are all clean?

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Ickebeebon

· #5 · Feb 6, 2006 (Edited)

it sounds like your power supply is conking out to me..... does it do this at any other times?

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[Black] Katalyst

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 6, 2006

To answer a few questions...

-When it shuts down, it doesn't restart.

-The other programs running are just system programs, I shut off most 3rd party programs.

-Cooling vents and heatsinks are all clean and working properly.

-It also does it when I play City of Villains.

-When I play any games on it, I always use the wall adapter.

I'm going to try to turn down the bus speed of the video card to see if that will do anything. I also don't know how to check if the cpu and gpu are getting proper voltage.

Thanks for all the help, but I think technical service will hear from me. Time to grab my cell phone and a :beer:.

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Ickebeebon

· #7 · Feb 6, 2006

sorry to hear we couldnt help. oh well, good luck then!

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