hello all- argh! i've searched via google w/o much luck on this. i have consistent occurrences of sudden shutdowns that require a 10-15 minute wait prior to successful reboot. thankfully it only happens if I attempt to play ANY games. this tells me it's GPU overheating. i've tried the rivatuner route and also GPU-Z. between incompatible hardware issues and complexity of parameters in rivatuner, no luck. i saw mention of running with the GPU outside the laptop. i'm almost crazy enough to find out how oh....here's some specs just in case: toshiba satellite a505/S6968 on Vista Home Premium 64-bit 4 GB RAM ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU the whole laptop is raised off my desk by 2" and no obstruction to hot areas. do those fan-equipped laptop boards make a big enough difference, like if i just set my laptop on it even while on my desk? i'm a bit tempted to build a cooling system with an old PS fan, but if there's ANY way to send orders to the BIOS (Insyde H20) or other way to tell the GPU fan to turn on at 50 degrees less and stay on.....???? thanks for thoughts.....i'm not a frequent gamer but COD4 is truly cool to play and by the way- there WAS a time this shutdown wasn't happening at all. I think it showed up after I did a full restore of my original purchase date condition- the DVD's you make prior to any foolishness salsa4ever!
Ye overheating GPU, if its happening in games then its almost certain its the GPU. I have an Akasa notebook cooler, drops temps about 5 degrees on normal use, I don't game on it but yea its USB powered and 2 x 70mm fans. You could make your own really easy, power it by USB as well (or an old PSU, it would run much faster then). You could also try Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste on your CPU/GPU
I have the same problem (HD Radeon mobility 4650), laptop shuts down. I now have it now on a laptop cooler, and it works fine. I don't think my main fan is cooling the laptop but i can't find a program that can control it using windows 7 64bit. Have you tried speedfan?
....thermal shutdown "ARGH!'s" WOW....thank you all for the many great ideas! Re: Speedfan.....yep, been trying to decipher it. It is just a little deeper than what I'm geared for in terms of cerebral fortitude (hope that little icon worked!?)....AND... the Tech Power-up GPU-z prog doesn't seem to "find" my GPU. that prog is ATI-focused and I'd have thought a Radeon 3200 wouldn't be so elusive. Tried WinFlash, ATIFlash to no avail. the thermal compound is an interesting clue.....will be scouting more on this. the laptop coolers i keep walking past at office depot might be worth a try. amazing how much a USB port can power. I use a Line6 UX2 interface for guitar-->DAW and can't believe the fantastic quality of signal with what I assumed to be a mere trickle of power but the PSU's i just can't seem to throw out are worthy once again of at least a try to see what readings come out of Speedfan- which i do wish had an option for closer to novice than EE. i have an inexplicable envy for those able to read voltages and temp thresholds, etc. 'Spose I need to hover in amongst the great minds herein.... thanks again for all yer's generous info. i hope to report back with witness of flaming icecicles rn Funny how by the time ya wade thru so much of the subsurface root mat, ya forgot which way is north or even the destination