Overheating laptop

[twofingerstoGideon]

Any ideas? My laptop will go all day doing 'normal' stuff - surfing, word processing etc., but only lasts about 15 minutes watching video (eg. 4OD, iPlayer etc.) before overheating/black screen/switching off.

Why does this happen? Does anyone understand this stuff (clearly I don't!)?

[fairgame]

Mine started doing it last year. I bought a laptop cooling tray and it stopped it overheating.
I don't know why it does it. I think it's because my laptop is old and has an old graphics card etc which can't cope.

[twofingerstoGideon]

Thanks fairgame. Mine is almost four years old. Is that old for a laptop? Everything else works fine and this is a recent fault.

I'd never heard of laptop cooling trays. They look interesting.

[fairgame]

Mines 4 years old as well. IT guy at work said that 3+ years is old for laptops

[VivaLeBeaver]

Hoover the fan vents. Get rid of the dust.

[twofingerstoGideon]

Thanks, fairgame.
No dust in mine Viva (or not enough, I think, to cause a fault). Technician changed the dc plug jack and had the back off a few weeks ago, so it had a good old clean!

Should have asked him about the overheating at the time but it slipped my mind.

[cdtaylornats]

I just stand mine on a rack from the kitchen