Possible Overheating issue

[kalark]

I have an Acer 3624

celeron M 1.6

1gig of ddr2

GMA900


I got this as a gift and use it mainly for programming. I do a little gaming on it when I'm away from home but nothing more then WoW and CS 1.6 (gaming is mainly on my actual gaming computer at home )

anywho, so I've been playing thru single player Half life 1 and get a decent Framerate (around 60 constant) but for some reason will drop to >10 randomly for about 45 seconds, I hear the fan crank up a little then when it stops it jumps back up to 60. To me this seems like a Heating issue, but I would just like some insight from more experienced individuals

also if this is indeed a heat issue, what possible solutions can I use?

 

[lolitha]

Dust build ups can cause overheating but when is this happenng when you are running in batter mode or is this happening even you are plug it in to the power socket ???

 

[kalark]

This is happening while I'm plugged into the wall

 

[ibleet]

The last time I had an overheating issue on my laptop was when I found dust blocking the video card exhaust fan. I cleaned it out and it ran nearly 20c cooler. You might want to crack it open and have a look around.

 

[cfvh600]

Perhaps your CPU throttles to a lower speed when it gets to a certain temperature (when the fan kicks in), and once the fan kicks off it goes back up to full speed. You could perhaps test this by running CPU-Z on your laptop and taking note of the processor's speed when the fan kicks in.

 

[lostandwandering]

^That is most likely the cause for the decreased performance since most laptops have safety features that throttle the CPU and GPU down when temps reach critical to prevent damage to the system. Heat does sound like the culprit. Clear out the fans and also make sure that they are actually pushing air.

 

[ibleet]

The power saving feature will throttle the laptop as well, often times causing it to overheat in certain circumstances, like dust. Normally a laptop will just shut down when it reaches an unsafe temperature, but hey, you never know.

 

[kalark]

alrighty I'll go ahead and crack her open to check for dust build up, wouldn't suprise me with how much I've been carrying it around


thanks for all the helpful replies