# Laptop Randomly Crashes While I'm Playing Games



## DarkentheSky (Aug 28, 2011)

Okay so I'm posting this to see if I can get some help from people who know what they're doing. Over the last month or so when I play a game on my laptop for between 30 minutes to an hour the computer will just randomly shut down with no explanation at first it was only one game but it has progressively started happening on more and more games I play. It tends to affect the full screen games more than non full screen. I'd like to know if anyone knows how to fix this. My comp specs are as followed:

Dell XPS M1530
Windows Vista Home Premium 32b
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 2.40GHz
4GB of RAM
GeForce 8600M GT

Any help would be much appreciated.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Hi, welcome to TSF

Sounds like a heat problem. Have you blown the dust out from your laptop recently, and do you keep the air vents clear when you're playing games?

Make a note of your temperatures and voltages in BIOS, then boot into Windows and run a fullscreen game while monitoring the temps/volts with HWMonitor. Post back with the BIOS readings and a screenshot from HWMonitor.


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## DarkentheSky (Aug 28, 2011)

I just dusted it out on your suggestion today and here's the screenshot of the HWMonitor while I had a fullscreen game open. I couldn't find anything relating to temp or volts in my BIOS but that may just be because I've not used it much.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Your screenshot is showing the CPU minimum 55C and maximum 79C. It should be around 40C idle and 70C while gaming.

If you dusted by blowing into the air vents, open the laptop and give it a good clean with a can of compressed air, making sure the fans and heatsink are completely free of dust. Reapply some fresh thermal paste. Also, you might want to buy a cooling pad to further reduce temperatures.


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## DarkentheSky (Aug 28, 2011)

So my problem is more than likely a heating issue? If so thanks for the help, it was really starting to piss me off when I'd play a game and just have my computer shut down randomly.


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## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

I usually recommend this laptop cooler as I use it myself for my laptop and it works. Its a bit expensive but worth it in my opinion and observations.

Antec Cooling System for Notebook Computers Model Notebook Cooler 200
$65


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