Overheating Problem?

[Silver Fire]

Alright, so I've got a bit of a problem with my Toshiba Laptop. It's about 4 years old and has rarely given me problems, until recently. The model number is Toshiba Satellite A200-TJ5

On Monday, I decided to play a video game in the morning and to my surprise the laptop crashed within 2 minutes. I didn't think much of it, so I restarted the laptop only to find that the onscreen image appears "broken" or distorted. The laptop doesn't even load but instead goes straight to a BSOD while windows is trying to load. Since the image is distorted I can't really tell you what it says. The laptop shuts down on this screen and if I reboot it I get the same distorted image and BSOD issue. I have to leave the laptop off for about 15 minutes, then it started up just fine.

So I decided to stream a video but within ten minutes, the laptop crashed again. I then got the distorted image and BSOD problem, so I waited another 15 minutes. After some testing I realized that now I can't play any video games, or watch any videos because the laptop keeps crashing when I do these things.

I figured, maybe the fan is dusty. So I get my compressed air spray and send it into the vents, but there was no dust since I had cleaned it earlier this month and I also use a cooling pad.

So I downloaded a program to monitor the temperatures of the hardware. The CPU and hard drive seemed fine, but I noticed right away that my video card has jumped to 70 Celsius, and my computer only just started and doesn't feel hot at all. So I tested this and I noticed when I played any video game the video card temp jumps up quickly and reaches 100 Celsius after about 1 minute, and then my computer crashed. I streamed a video and I noticed a slower increase, but after 10 minutes the video card temp jumps to 100 Celsius and it crashes. During this the CPU temp was around 66 Celsius, but I think that's normal.

Also, I have windows fully updated and all drivers as well.

Here's a screenshot of the temp when my computer is on idle after just being started:

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/9681/idletempk.jpg

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

i am not good with mobile technology..But my opinion is that you apply some new thermal paste, according to most average laptop thermal paste has a life span of 3 to 4 years, some high end thermal paste is designed for 8years.

 

[christop]

Yeah sounds like it's overheating. I would replace the thermal paste on the heatsink.

 

[photonboy]

I agree that it sounds like a PHYSICAL issue.

It is probably either the thermal paste is bad or a fan problem. I think most laptops have a single fan which also cools the CPU so it's more likely the thermal paste.

I doubt it's a software issue but you could test by creating an Ubuntu Live CD and booting from the CD. (BIOS must be set to boot CD-drive first before hard drive. Download the 32-bit Live Ubuntu image and burn it to a CD or DVD, then simply boot from it).

If you can't get your system to crash running from Ubuntu Live CD your problem is either:
1. the hard drive
2. corrupt software (you'd need to reinstall Windows after backing up your files, settings etc.)

Summary:
Probably need to pull your laptop apart and reseat the heatsink and possibly replace the fan(s).

Other:
Flash your laptop's BIOS to the latest version.