Why is my laptop overheating?

Question

I have a Gateway M1625 laptop running Windows Vista that I've owned for nearly two years. I'm very careful about laptop care; I regularly clean the fan, I always have it propped up from a flat surface so that there is adequate air flow underneath, I regularly run anti-virus/spy-ware checks, I shut it down nightly as well as during the day on days that I won't be using it much, and I make sure that I don't have a ton of junk applications running in the background. Recently, my laptop began shutting down for seemingly no reason. After downloading SpeedFan, I realized that my computer was overheating (temperatures for CPU and Temp1 would reach over 90C). At first I thought I had it narrowed down to a wireless card problem because whenever I switched off the wireless card it would quickly return to temperatures between 40C - 55C, but within two minutes of turning on the wireless card (even if I wasn't doing ANYTHING with the laptop) it would be back up above 90C. I tried a couple different USB wireless adapters from my friends to see if that worked better, but the laptop would still shoot right back up to high temps. Regular cooling pads don't prevent the overheating problem, although placing a pretty strong house-fan underneath keeps everything cool enough that I can keep testing around.

This made me curious because the problem no longer seemed to specifically be about my wireless card, so I switched to a wired connection while my laptop was cool. Everything remained cool with the wired connection. Then I started playing around with different things on the laptop and noticed that it heated up very quickly when playing videos. I found some sites that suggested it was a memory error. Vista has a memory diagnostic tool which I ran, at which point my laptop promptly overheated and shut down again. I turned on my house-fan underneath the laptop and ran the diagnostics again, but it didn't find any problems.

I feel like this has to do with the memory in my laptop, but I can't find anything online to support this theory. Are there any other diagnostic checks that I should run that might catch the problem, or other things I can do to narrow down the origin of the overheating? I feel like the next step is to buy some memory, replace what's in my laptop, and see if the problem persists, but I would hate to buy memory and then find out that it was pointless. Any ideas?

Answer 1

That is a strange one. By the way, you did a great job of explaining the problem and the steps you took so far. Much better the the typical question "my laptop is broken, can you fix it?"



I'm not familiar with the Gateway line but the first thing that I would do is to re-seat "remove and re-install" the memory.



Honestly, it sounds like a fan or a heat sink issue. Are you sure that the fan(s) are running at the normal speed?



Did you change something in the bios that might affect how the laptop runs?



Do you have all of the latest firmware, drivers, and bios updates?



Did you try removing the battery? Is that the heat source? Probably not because it sounds like you only have the problem when you are under a heavy processor load.



Also, as stupid as this sounds, try safe mode. Does the problem still persist?

Answer 2

You should always use your laptop on a FLAT surface, such as a table or desk. It's also good to have a laptop fan to help give it even more cooling. Putting it on your bed or on your lap restricts air flow so it can't cool off and when it can't cool off... things will stop working.Any number of things could have happened, but if I had to make a guess I would say the motherboard. You need to contact your computer's company's tech service and see if they can diagnose the problem. A lot of companies nowadays have online chat tech service so you will have an easier time understanding and remembering what you're told as you diagnose your computer. Although it may SEEM like your computer can't come on at all there are usually "tricks" that you press or type in in order to re-activate so your computer can tell you itself what's wrong. Hopefully you're still under a warranty. It'd also help if you mentioned what type of computer you had. Although I take very good care of my laptop (XPS M1330 from Dell) I recently had to have the motherboard replaced due to a manufacturing problem on their part. Because it was a widely-known problem they had extended the warranties on all computers with it so my motherboard was replaced for free. It was also replaced in seriously TWO DAYS.

Answer 3

I would sugest to buy cooling padd

1)Targus Lap Chill Mat AWE55US (Black with Gray)

*Protects lap or work surface from heat

*Dual fans help disperse laptop heat for improved functionality; extends the life of the laptop

*Soft neoprene exterior provides added comfort on your lap

*Limited One Year Warranty

Answer 4

You can find the best deal in the Amazon's Cyber Week Deals http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=384082011&tag=cyber-week-deals-20

Answer 5

U NEED 2 SET IT ON SOMETHING SO THE FAN CAN HAVE AIR GOING 2 IT