NationStates Jolt Archive

I've got a Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop, I bought it about a year ago and up until last month it has served me pretty well. but lately, every time I try and play any game on it, the damn thing just turns after 20 to 30 minutes. At first it would work fine with all games. Then, I started playing Medieval II Total War and after a few weeks it would automatically turn off after a half hour or so. Now the stupid machine doesn't even play Flash games for more than 20 minutes. What's weird is that it it'll work perfectly fine if you're doing anything besides playing games. Also, after it turns off, I have to wait about a minute or two until it turns on again. If I try turning it on immediately, the fan will whir as if it is turning on but nothing happens.

Can anyone help me out before I throw this thing out my window?

Sounds like some kind of issue with the Processor.

Sounds like some kind of issue with the Processor.

So, will I have to go to a shop and get it all checked out?

it is obviously distressed by how you waste your time playing games.

Your computer has become sentient and disapporves of the games you play.

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4420/gsemultipart33374oy5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Good morning, Dave.

So, will I have to go to a shop and get it all checked out?

You might, yes.

I've got a Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop, I bought it about a year ago and up until last month it has served me pretty well. but lately, every time I try and play any game on it, the damn thing just turns after 20 to 30 minutes. At first it would work fine with all games. Then, I started playing Medieval II Total War and after a few weeks it would automatically turn off after a half hour or so. Now the stupid machine doesn't even play Flash games for more than 20 minutes. What's weird is that it it'll work perfectly fine if you're doing anything besides playing games. Also, after it turns off, I have to wait about a minute or two until it turns on again. If I try turning it on immediately, the fan will whir as if it is turning on but nothing happens.

Can anyone help me out before I throw this thing out my window?

Sounds like it's overheating.

Take it to the shop.

Your computer has become sentient and disapporves of the games you play.

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4420/gsemultipart33374oy5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Good morning, Dave.

It's 7pm and my name isn't Dave. *Unplugs* :p

Sounds like it's overheating.

Take it to the shop.

okay, to the computer shop I go...AWAY!

*flies*

*Unplugs*

I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen...

Heat. Your processor is overheating.

A best-case scenario solution would be to make sure your laptop gets plenty of ventilation, especially to the underside. Consider investing in a laptop cooling platform.

In a worst-case scenario, there is a physical problem causing the overheating, such as a poor connection between the cpu and it's heatsink/cpu fan. It'll need to be repaired.

In a silly-case scenario, your computer is infected with the LG virus. If it starts randomly linking to silly images and videos of people playing in mud and/or kicking eachother in the groin, then your computer is beyond saving. ;)

As my supervisor in the computer lab once said, see there's this demon and it lives inside your computer, and it DOESN'T LIKE YOU! :D

No, sounds like overheating.

I've got a Dell...

This is where you went wrong.

Heat. Your processor is overheating.

A best-case scenario solution would be to make sure your laptop gets plenty of ventilation, especially to the underside. Consider investing in a laptop cooling platform.

Invest? In todays economic uncertainty. That's crazy talk. I've got mine sitting on pack of playing cards featuring women in various states of undress and a pile of pennies. That money ain't going anywhere I don't want it to. ;)

Invest? In todays economic uncertainty. That's crazy talk. I've got mine sitting on pack of playing cards featuring women in various states of undress and a pile of pennies. That money ain't going anywhere I don't want it to. ;)

Remnants of a recent poker night?

I've got a Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop, I bought it about a year ago and up until last month it has served me pretty well. but lately, every time I try and play any game on it, the damn thing just turns after 20 to 30 minutes. At first it would work fine with all games. Then, I started playing Medieval II Total War and after a few weeks it would automatically turn off after a half hour or so. Now the stupid machine doesn't even play Flash games for more than 20 minutes. What's weird is that it it'll work perfectly fine if you're doing anything besides playing games. Also, after it turns off, I have to wait about a minute or two until it turns on again. If I try turning it on immediately, the fan will whir as if it is turning on but nothing happens.

Can anyone help me out before I throw this thing out my window?

It sounds like the CPU's thermal protection is kicking in (like other people said). My uncle had the same problem. He had me over to diagnose/fix it, and it turns out that the factory thermal compound needed to be replaced. I don't know why it failed, but once I cleaned off the processor and heatsink/fan of the old thermal pad, and applied some new thermal grease to the processor, it started to work without shutting down.

If new thermal compound doesn't do it, check to make sure there's no problem with the heatsink/fan.

Maybe dust buildup in the ventilation ports is causing the overheating? The dust bunnies have a religious hatred for technology.

The factory thermal compound is usually just a very cheap rubber-like thermal pad. It actually disintegrates very quickly. If It's not under warranty then open it up clean the crap off and replace it with a single tiny tiny dot of arctic silver.

If you might have another heat-sink on your graphics chip. You probably want to do the same thing there.

While your at it clean the fan intakes and blow some air though the heat-sink fins. Also, if your laptop is like mine you also have little holes under your keyboard which act as an air intake. You can clean the underside of your keyboard as-well.

And finally, install some kind of temperature monitoring program so you can see what your current cpu temp is. I'm at 66c right now... which is pretty hot.

Is the fan working properly? My previous Dell's fan quit and it acted just this way. Maybe a chill-pad will help, or a good cleaning.

Well THERES your problem! Dude, you got a dell, lol...Ive went through about four of those bitches...and I refuse to go back...My Toshiba on the other hand, is doing quite nicely....

EDIT: also, if it is the fan, definitely get that fixed soon, I let mine just go for months...and It Baked itself, and the OS ended up being corrupted, and it wouldnt get pass the loading screen...

Okay, I'm starting to think it maybe is overheating due to one of these problems. I'll take it into a shop and get it checked out. Thanks for your help everyone.

It's a series that have had problems of this sort (heatsinks, the fan outlet is badly located or something), though they've fixed it with more recent models. As a fill in solution you could try putting it up on stilts (taking care not to block the fan outlet) or any general way of allowing air to circulate beneath it.

I've bought Dell PCs and my laptops and never had any hardware problems with them. And generally get good customer service aswell. Perhaps I'm the anomaly.