Hi, I purchased and am stuck with this piece of crap about a year ago. Since then the laptop has been overheating/crashing and generally underperforming with games and other more extensive media. If I play some 3D games from the last 3-4 years it will overheat and crash, if I watch Hulu and the temperature in the room is slightly warmer...it will crash. Painfully I decided to tolerate this and when possible I switch to Power Save mode ...then computer doesnt crash but performance fail. Recently I started playing again one of my old favorites Heroes of Might and Magic III, and every now and then it will overheat and crash. I can't take it any more... game from 1997, no 3D and still crash... Not only I cannot play new games with significant lag or crash or watch HD videos...can't even play the classics. I have decided to repair it or brake it trying... any ideas? - Fan heat sink is clean, I use cooling pad and when I switch to Power Saver mode (lowest power consumption) problem disappears...but performance disappears as well ...videos/games will be choppy. Any other suggestions?

Are you 100% sure it's an overheating problem? What program are you using to monitor temps? What is the CPU temp immediately after a crash?

I don't know if it will help, but below are some Laptop cleaning tips: http://www.informationweek.com/stor...

You can try installing OCCT...it *should* be able to report the CPU temp. You can then run the stress test to see how high the temp climbs & at what temp the crash occurs. http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_e... Have you ever tested for memory errors? http://www.memtest86.com/download.html Have you ever run thru your BIOS settings?

I am pretty sure it is related to overheating for several reasons: 1. When I played during the winter with a window directly opened behind it blowing freezing air at it ... it never crashed...otherwise it crashes regularly when I play/watch certain types of media 2. I can hear the fan go to max before it crashes 3. I have used temp watching software...can't remember name... temps go to 70+ C (ACP) dual cores go to 64+C ...they are somewat high-ish otherwise to in idle around high 40's. At one point I thought it might be the audio card, but cant really support that. It seems that it is not graphics only since Heroes 3 doesn't have too much of graphics ...though crashes there are infrequent ...but fan does go to max often...I guess it is processor related problem ...of maybe heatsink faulty engineering or something... I have also considered removing the panel covering the heatsink,memory and video card (1/3 of bottom panel) and just keeping the laptop like that ...but most probably that will not be a sustainable solution.

Memory test don't find errors .. I also updated from 2 GB to 4 GB (3GB + for 32-bit system)... no improvement in performance or crashes. Bios doesn't have anything useful (no fan speed/power supply) Currently I am considering opening the heat sink and seeing if everything there is correctly applied(thermo paste) ...possibly applying my own Arctic Silver 5 ... are there any tricks to boost heat sink (say, applying thermal paste in places other than the usual between cores and heatsink)

Apparently you don't wanna try OCCT? That's how you'll find out.... "I have used temp watching software...can't remember name... temps go to 70+ C (ACP) dual cores go to 64+C ...they are somewat high-ish otherwise to in idle around high 40's" If those readings are correct, your CPU's not overheating. Search elsewhere for your problem.