Could my CPU be dying?

christenm123

Today I was playing some Counter-Strike Source on my Acer Aspire 5100 laptop that has a gig of RAM, ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 Graphics chipset (128 MB) and an 1.6 ghz AMD Turion 64 x2 with a 512 kb L2 cache, and has all the proper up to date drivers that it should have. I was in the middle of my game having fun then all of a sudden out of the blue my computer completely powers down with no warning. Now the weird thing is I can leave my computer on overnight for a couple of days (Doing things that don't eat up much resources, mind you) and nothing bad will happen. Why would it all of sudden shut down in the middle of a game? This isn't even the first time its happened. All I can think of is that since I've had this computer for about a year now, the CPU might start to be dying, or it could use a new layer of coolant. What do you guys think?

leefdaddy

probably an overheating issue... try and get a cheap laptop cooler...

JDMurray

CS doesn't really have the kind of graphics to put a heavy load on a typical desktop graphics adapter, but the ATI 1100 in a laptop may generate enough heat to cause a failure while playing CS and other FPSes.

A dual-core AMD laptop will run hotter that a typical laptop. If you are running Vista, turn off Aero and you'll ease the load on the processor. Also, only use the laptop in a cool area and make sure it's sitting on a surface that dissipates heat. If it continues to crash you'll may consider putting it for a diagnostic service.

christenm123

What I play is Source, which is basically Counter-Strike with Half-Life 2 quality graphics. I may invest in some sort of cooling device next payday. Since Monday is a day off for me (No time-and-a-half ) I'll run some tests playing the game in different places to see if that really is the case. Thanks for the advice guys.

Edit: Guess I should mention I'm running XP Pro for my OS. I was using Vista Ultimate, but I got sick of what a resource hog it was on my system and uninstalled it.

Edit again: I just use my computer on a standard wooden desk, so I assume that doesn't dissapate heat?

JDMurray

HL2-quality graphics, eh? If the crash keeps happening, set all the graphics settings at their lowest point. I know it'll look like CS did five years ago, but your CPU and graphics subsystem will generate less heat.

christenm123

Last night I downloaded the original CS through my Steam account. I guess I'll just play that until I can order a cooling device.

ally_uk

It does sound like it could well be a overheating issue do your event logs contain any clue as to what the problem could be? Have you checked the temperature readings in the BIOS after a crash as this would be a good place to look for a potential overheating problem. ( Could be a thermal shutdown)

Since it's a laptop I would apply a good quality compound Arctic Silver 5 should do the job!
Also go with the other procedure of cleaning dust off the heatsink. And get some compressed air inside the machine

Bearing in mind if your CPU is hitting temps of 80 - 90 degrees then your laptop will perform a thermal shutdown to eliminate risk of further damage.

I found this excellent site on how to reduce temps

http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/129/42/

Enjoy

christenm123

I opened up my case last night and gave it a blast of compressed air. Found two huge dust bunnies in the fan! No wonder it was crashing . Anyways, after I did some cleaning in there, it doesn't run hot anymore. I can actually feel the drop in the heat level.