Laptop shutting down while playing games

What is the problem?

from GalCiv2 Forums

I do not know if this is the right place to ask this question. But I have a problem that I do not know the answer to that you guys maybe can answer for me.

It seems that my Laptop, while playing games like Skyrim, Team Fortress 2, and Portal 2, tends to turn off (like a shutdown) and refuse to be turned back on for a couple of minutes afterward.

I asked around and the people told me it might be an overheating problem. The problem with the statement is that the laptop is able to play Galactic Civilizations 2 at MAXIMUM settings (best graphics and appearance settings, etc.) and the laptop has gotten ALOT hotter during those play sessions, which can last for hours. It is able to endure such conditions successfully. Plus, Skyrim and the two Valve games were played with at the lowest possible settings, and when the Laptop turned off, the Laptop was not that hot (it was cooler than the time I was playing Galactic Civilizations 2).

The other explanation is that there could be hardware damage. The problem with the statement is that I believe if there were damage, then it should manifest a lot sooner than around December 26 of last year, the first time I have this problem since at that time, I tried to play Skyrim for the first time. I also did not do anything that might damage laptop (i.e. dropping it).

Is there any possible explinations to the problem? Here is the specs of the Laptop:

Laptop Model: MSI GT660

Age: Just over one year old

CPU: Intel Core i7-740QM

VGA: nVidia GeForce GTX 285M

RAM: 6GB

Other facts:

All of the games were played with the fan manually turned up to maximum. Also, the fan is often set to the maximum when I felt it needs to be on (i.e. most of the time when I feel the laptop getting hot).

The Video Drivers were not updated, but I refused to update them since the last time (Mid Nov. of 2011) I did that, I got BSoDs whenever I tried to play Galactic Civilizations 2 when it would work perfectly before without problems. So, I promptly removed the update.

If there is anymore information I could give to you guys, please say so.

54,932 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top


obviously going to say it's a heat problem causing the reboots just based on the fan fact.  There may be possible hardware damage due to the heat.  Try running a temperature monitor app and seeing what the temps are at.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

All temperatures are under 100 degrees C. But I thought it will not be the overheat problem since Galactic Civilizations 2 is able to work and the Laptop, at that time, was hotter than the times that the crashes occurred with Skyrim and the two Valve games.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

A memory intensive game would cause the shutdown too. Sometimes a cpu can 'lockup', shutdown as it were if the heat reaches a certain point. The other cases you mentioned might be the opposite. Load the game on a minimized screen (not full screen) and open task manager. Click on the performance tab. It should give you an idea as to what the cpu and the memory looks like. Try playing the game with task manger open and look for spikes in either the cpu or the memory windows. A spike in either one could be your culprit, memory or cpu. 

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

By the way, here is the Direct X output. This may help in finding the problem:

Machine name: MSI-GT660
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Micro-Star International
System Model: MS-16F1
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz (8 CPUs), ~1.7GHz
Memory: 6144MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 6126MB RAM
Page File: 2678MB used, 9570MB available

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I had this same problem running Dawn of War 2 on my laptop.

In my case it boiled down to updating windows & my video drivers in combination with removing the fan and cleaning the vents (the bigger culprit of the two).

Lowering the game's resolution helps too.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Almost certainly overheating. Games use very different resources, so just because you can run one on high settings is no guarantee you can run something else on low settings. When you're dealing with games with heavy graphics, a card can rise 5-10 degrees celsius in a few seconds, and they will cool almost as quickly after the computer shuts down. It is unlikely that just feeling the computer will give you an accurate sense of the temperatures involved.

When did you last clear your fans of dust?

(realistically, if you game a lot you probably want to clear out both fans and their filters at least every few months. laptops are horrible at this stuff)

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I had the laptop cleaned a week ago if you are wondering.

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

update your drivers you cant play games these days without having up to date drivers get the latest redist directX and netframework installed...
check your GPU temperatures...
Start the game and pick the lowest resolution and work your way up...
Having a Laptop for games is one thing using it for games with highest resolutions on max settings or even ultra mostly causing BSOD If its still able to show it :D
Laptops are not for gaming...Even if they have the brand alienware... Skyrim for example is a game that heats your GPU up extremely when you encounter large sections ( standing on a mountain top )+ your ram... if your on max settings try normal or low settings and push the resolution a bit down.
This may sound hard but a laptop is packed so tight with hardware there is almost no airflow some of them have a passive cooled gfx card making it easy for the heat to rise until it reaches its limit ( talking about black stripes in games or graphical bugs caused by heat ) while you seem to have a airflow cooler it sounds like a heat problem or defected RAM module.

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

100 degrees? is that Celsius or Fahrenheit?  I get emotional if mine gets above 70C and try to keep it below 50C. Especially when I game. You will find that the cooler it is, the faster it will run in gaming.  I prop mine up when on the road ($1 wire mesh in-basket) and have the mother of all cooling platforms at home (starting to show its age - it doesn't cool the whole room any more) My other game crasher was when I had a video card go bad (note, hot temps will cause a video chip to have a heart attack - I did it a couple times)

 

So, I'm anal about temp. Keep it around 50C if possible.

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting dnzrx, reply 2
All temperatures are under 100 degrees C.

They need to be WELL UNDER ......;)

Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top

No real problems like this on my desktop ... but much the same as the others on the laptop. Memory intensive games accompanied by overheating, shutdowns and lockups is classic. BTW, 100 c =the boiling point of water ... think about putting your hand in a pot of boiling water ... like Jafo said for sure!!!

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting dnzrx, reply 7
I had the laptop cleaned a week ago if you are wondering.

Did you open the laptop up and clean the fans? Or did you just blow compressed air into the filters?

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top

100 Celsius is critical even for modern hardware while a GPU can withstand temps of over 150 C i think gainward is 170 C max and then the card dies ( note that these cards would never fit into a laptop. A GFX card it should stay at around 70- 90 on graphic intensive games ( Battlefield 3 ) while in normal use around 40 and idle below 30
to read out the temperatures i recommend AIDA 64- (its the new everest) you can also check your ram with it and other hardware components.

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Had the same problem, I just invested in a cooling fan on the bottom of the laptop- problem solved.