Laptop freezes when doing graphic intensive stuff

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Hi folks!

OK, new to XP, and have tried a number of things to solve this with no
luck.

I have a new laptop, P4 3.06Ghz, 512mb, with an ATI Mobilty Radeon
9700 graphics card, and have XP Home installed (SP2 I think, but can't
figure out how to check this). Works ok, but completely freezes
intermittently when it's doing graphically intensive stuff, like
running Unreal 2. It has also frozen once when I was using the cursed
Windows Media Player with all the video effects dancing.

When I start Unreal 2 (patched), I can play it for 1 to 5 minutes
before it freezes. And I need to do a hard reboot holding the power
button down.

I have tried to patch everything with no success. As there are no
error messages (just a total lockup), I don't know where to look next.

Any ideas?
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Deep Foiled Malls wrote:
> Hi folks!
>
> OK, new to XP, and have tried a number of things to solve this with no
> luck.
>
> I have a new laptop, P4 3.06Ghz, 512mb, with an ATI Mobilty Radeon
> 9700 graphics card, and have XP Home installed (SP2 I think, but can't
> figure out how to check this). Works ok, but completely freezes
> intermittently when it's doing graphically intensive stuff, like
> running Unreal 2. It has also frozen once when I was using the cursed
> Windows Media Player with all the video effects dancing.
>
> When I start Unreal 2 (patched), I can play it for 1 to 5 minutes
> before it freezes. And I need to do a hard reboot holding the power
> button down.
>
> I have tried to patch everything with no success. As there are no
> error messages (just a total lockup), I don't know where to look next.
>
> Any ideas?
> --
> ---
> DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
> ---

It might be the GPU getting hot, but I would first suspect the CPU is
hot. Download hmonitor.exe and monitor the CPU temperature while doing
a Spybot run. Spybot is CPU intensive and will quickly show you via
hmonitor if there is a cooling problem. You can use a can of compressed
gas "dust cleaner" available at any computer store to blow into the heat
pipe exhaust to remove accumulated dust and fibers from the fan inlet.
Restrain the fan with a paper clip to prevent overspin damage to the fan
bearing surfaces.

Hard shutdowns are typically hardware related and if not a cooling
problem, might be RAM or HD. Test RAM with memtest86.exe. Test the HD
with the drive vendor's drive health utility. Check Event Viewer logs
for repeated errors or warnings that could be related to the hard
shutdowns.

Also, use the advice on this site for cleaning up the system in general:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm One of the background apps
running while gaming might be contributing to the shutdowns.

Q