I have a laptop from about 2 years back or so. It's a good, fast system even by today's standards. Also, it's very heavy. Anyway, Compaq having put a P4 into a laptop, the system is basically all fans. But over the past several months, simple acts like converting videos is becoming impossible. It overheats and shuts off at a drop of the hat (probably the summer's not helping any). Is there a way that I can tone down the processor speed or hd access or something to keep this running cooler? I'd love to open the computer up and give it a good cleaning, but Compaq's hard to get inside.

Further, I'd like to note that I have a 1 foot distance between the desk and the bottom of the computer (it's sitting on a stand with lots of ventilation below), and i've even had the computer overheat with a fan blasting the system right next to it. I bet a cleaning of 2 years of gunk could help, but barring that, maybe turning the computer down could help. Any suggestions?

Solution = Buy yourself a laptop cooler from retail stores and vaccum the vents for any dust blocking the way... TMP-Man Asus P5P800 PAT P4 506 @ 4009Mhz 1.3v Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 1700RPM 92MM + AS5 2GB OCZ 2-3-2-5 DDR400 120GB/300GB 7200RPM HD Leadtek 7600 AGP 590/1600 VF700 ALCU AS5

Maybe blowing out with canned air?

It's time to clean that laptop out it's becoming obv the dust built up over the years is becoming your heat problems. Take it apart and clean it inside and out, just mark each screw so you know where to put them back on, because laptops can have all sorts of screws to them. "Windows Me II aka Windows Vista."