Laptops overheats and shuts off when I play games

Question

I've recently been getting in to playing PC games on my laptop, but unfortunately nearly every time I play, my computer overheats and shuts off after 5-10 minutes.

Although I have not checked the temperature while playing (I don't want it to overheat again), I can hear the fan whirring progressively louder as the game runs until it shuts down.

Here are my specs:

Model: Lenovo Win7 PC
Processor: Intel Core i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.2 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

I really know nothing about computers, so I have no idea how to fix this problem. The graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M. I'm not sure how important that is though, because this is happening with older games (like Half-Life 2) too. I would appreciate any advice or suggestions.

Solution

The video card in your computer is getting too hot.

Choose laptop location

Don't use your laptop on your bed or your lap. Place your laptop on a hard surface like a table when playing games. Fabric from your clothes, or your comforter can block the inlet fans. You could also buy a laptop stand which provides extra ventilation.

Install Speedfan

Speedfan is a free program that will tell you what temperatures you are hitting in your laptop. Temperatures up to 80c are nothing to be worried about. Anything higher, and the laptop may shutdown to protect itself.

Dust Out the fans

If the fans become clogged with dust, their ability to cool your laptop will suffer. Buy some 'caned air' from your local computer store, and blow out all the dust.

Do not let the canned air spin the fans too quickly! Caned air can destroy fans. Use short controlled bursts.

Find a local expert

If your computer is still overheating, then take it to a computer repair shop. They will be able to diagnose if the thermal paste should be replaced, or if you are experiencing early signs of hardware failure.

Comments

[kobaltz]

Do you smoke around the computer?

[Rowan K.]

No, I've never smoked near my laptop.

[kobaltz]

Try getting a can of air and blow through at the heat sinks. I've had to take apart a few laptops and use denatured alcohol and qtips to clean out the components (heat sinks and pipes) and used it to remove thermal paste on the cpu, gpu and chipset to put some artic5 down.

[Rowan K.]

So to do this, would I have to take apart my laptop and blow air into it? Or could I just do this into the vent area on it?

[kobaltz]

You could first try the vents. Otherwise you would be looking to take it apart if it didn't help; either to do what I said above or to replace faulty fans.

[cutrightjm]

I was always told blowing compressed air into a laptop was a bad idea.

[Java Girl]

Keep in mind that compressed air won't blow out large chunks of dust bunnies that collect over YEARS OF TIME. You would need to disassemble the laptop and literally pull the chunks out with your fingers. Compressed air = maintenance not an option for backpedaling years of neglect.

[Canadian Luke]

This is a very low quality answer, in that it is extremely difficult to follow anything on this post. I would suggest using the Edit function to clean up this post with proper grammar, and separate it in some paragraphs for readability. If not, it is very likely it will get lost in the great recycling bin of the Internet

[Thalys]

In addition, you do NOT want to use brake fluid on a computer - isopropyl alcohol is what most folk recommend.

[Thalys]

I've fixed up this answer, as much as possible. One thing I missed in the original is the mention of 'caked up heat sink compound' - while it can happen, its useful to know that laptops often use thermal pads rather than thermal compound (which can be mistaken for dried up thermal compound), and these have different physical characteristics to thermal compound. You may not always be able to swap one for the other. When thermal compound does dry up, its chalky and crumbly