I'll have to try taking it apart again before taking it to the shop to see how things are. Before when I took it apart, without having to take it really REALLY apart, all I could get to was the HDD. I couldn't really get into the vents or anything to do any in depth cleaning. I got some compressed air and blew it into the vents and into the keyboard but I don't think it made a difference. When I first started noticing problems, it would blue screen while I was playing games or watching youtube videos, but if I don't keep externally cooling it, sometimes I find it shut off overheated from just idling. I know that it wasn't asleep because the fan was whirring like crazy and I had it set to never go to sleep. I haven't tried letting it go for a few months now without being externally cooled but that's beginning to fail me. I'll have to try one last time to clean it out before taking it anywhere.

Another option would be to turn on any battery saving options in the control panel and turn down any performance options. You will notice a performance loss if playing any 3D games but the rest should still be able to manage ok. Not sure how much of a difference it will make, but it is an easy one to try.

If you have a desktop
i suggest you the remove the side panel
especially with the heat we have this yrs

Mine has been removed for a long time
and there is even less dirt now

Originally posted by Infi8nity
EVERY ONE SHOULD KNOW THE BASICS!!

I think its crazy how alien computers are to most people. They are simple machines, if you know how to add 1+1 then you can learn the basics. So if you do not, take the opportunity to learn it can only do good.

Teach us you will...Yoda.

Not all are up to your standards so why not teach instead of ridicule and insult?

Peace

What make & model are your laptop?
Before you do anything intensive (e.g pulling the thing apart) I'd suggest googling, for example, "Dell Studio 1558" or whatever it is.

Some laptops have fundamental flaws in the way they're put together in terms of heat dissipation... so knowing what you're up against before you start is important.

For example, my Dell Studio 1558 was overheating. The reason, however, is because the heatsink that covers the CPU, GPU and memory had .1mm height discrepancy (that is, the heatsink for the CPU was flush, but the heatsink for the GPU was .1mm higher) and nothing to compensate.

I bought a .1mm copper shim to put between the two, applied new thermal paste (including both sides of the shim), whacked the thing back together, and BAM! Temps dropped from ~90c (which is the shutdown temp, as a safety mechanism) down to about 40. Much better. I haven't had a shutdown since.

So... knowing what you're up against is an important place to start.

Use a can of air.

Clean out the dust in the fan from both sides, or directly by removing the keyboard on most laptops, every 1 month. More so if you smoke near it. As the fan collect dust fan speed and airflow drop dramatically. Dusty laptop fan long term effects include death of the fan bearing.

If its not closing itself down. I wouldnt worry to much. Clean the air vents out and if your that bothered buy a usb fan base system for it. They are cheap and you can get them on ebay..

I'm shipping it off to the repair shop tomorrow for a full tear apart and everything and hopefully they don't rob me blind while trying to fix it. I'm also going to do some google searches here about my make and model to see if it's really just a piece of junk, lol. I haven't had a shut down or blue screen for heat in a month or so, but it started doing that back then and that's when I absolutely HAD to resort to external cooling options.

EDIT: I was informed through email that they charge nothing just to find out what the problem is so that's good. I'll probably have them clean it out and everything and see if there are hardware problems. If something's wrong, I don't know if it's worth fixing or not since parts are normally all souldered together in one place in laptops, aren't they? I'd probably just be better off buying a cheap notebook for this school year. I know that this computer cost around 600 bucks and was a present so I didn't have to pay for it, but I can't really afford a new one right now with my own money because I'm only employed VERY part time.

I actually had my laptop shut itself down yesterday for the first time because it overheated. I downloaded Speccy to tell me the temperate. My CPU and motherboard are both around 50 degrees C.

Originally posted by jude11

Originally posted by Infi8nity
EVERY ONE SHOULD KNOW THE BASICS!!

I think its crazy how alien computers are to most people. They are simple machines, if you know how to add 1+1 then you can learn the basics. So if you do not, take the opportunity to learn it can only do good.

Teach us you will...Yoda.

Not all are up to your standards so why not teach instead of ridicule and insult?

Peace

How did I insult any one? If a teacher tells you to read is that a insult?
If you do not know basics then YOU need to take the time to teach your self. I did, you can to. Did you even read the thread? I am helping (teaching) as much as i can....
I think this comment was just to protect your ego because you do not know much about computers. I am not insulting any one just trying to get people to see how ridicules it is that they do not know the basics in 2012. Our whole world is starting to be based around computers and we all need to understand them because we all use them. Just as you know how to change a tier or a battery in a car you should know how to add a piece of hardware or change thermale paste.

I got an email back from the shop today with a bit of disappointing news. He can't get it to overheat like it does here at home. Here's the message I got:

"I am continuing to scan the computer but as of yet I have not been able to duplicate the problem you are having. All fans work properly and the temperature seems to be within normal operations. I am running a stress test on it for till Friday to see if it will come up with a problem. I will keep you informed."

Of course when it's in the shop, it comes up with no problems. -.- Either way, it's getting picked up tomorrow and I don't know what the final result will be. I feel like I'm wasting the repair shop's time if they can't get it to overheat. I probably look like a dummy.