Why does laptop overheat when ds plays games?

[cakedup]

Ds life depends on likes playing minecraft and Roblox, games where other players join in. Yet recently after about 20 mins, the laptop overheats and switches off.

Do cooling pads work?

I've seen tutorials for cleaning the fan...considering this is not my area of expertise is it wise to attempt this?

The bits inside will get hotter when working "hard", and games are the sort of thing that will do that.

I'm presuming that this is a laptop, does it have fans and are they working? You'll hear them if they're there.

Also is the laptop being played somewhere "good" for it? If it's being played on a duvet, carpet or even a lap then the vents can end up being blocked and the cooling won't work as it should.

Cleaning the fan can often help, machines do get filthy inside. Depending on the laptop, and the tutorial, this may or may not be a good idea to attempt yourself. Some machines comes apart really easily and are a snap to clean. Others, like Apple's, are a nightmare and I wouldn't recommend dissembling unless you are very confident.

If you can tell us what type of laptop and what Operating System it is (e.g Windows 7, Windows 10 or OS X) then someone will be able to recommend some software that will tell you things such as how fast the fans are going and if they're working as they should. If might be that a fan has died.

Unless it's a gaming laptop, it's probably not powerful enough to run those kinds of games. They are very intensive on the graphics card and processor, and laptops tend to have built-in graphics cards and low speed processors.

Yes absolutely imperative to play on a flat, hard surface so that the fans have space to blow out air. You can also raise the laptop up on books or DVD cases (again be careful not to block the fans) so that it gets more air.

But in general it might be worth looking at upgrading, either to a laptop designed for this sort of thing or (better IMO and probably cheaper) a desktop.

I got a cooling tray for when I play games and it works a treat.

Does the laptop hardware specs meet the specification requirements for the games ds plays? The games maybe pushing the hardware too much. Is the laptop sat on a clear flat hard open surface of does he sit with it on his lap or sofa? Are any vents vlocked/restricted

Games like Minecraft don't have particularly high requirements, that one I do know states that it's happy running on things like integrated graphics cards.

If the laptop wasn't up to it you'd get jerky unplayable games. So the question to me is why isn't able to keep itself cool enough. And that often does come down to broken or clogged fans. If the game itself runs fine other than the over heating then I'd focus on that first before going for a hardware upgrade.

I've seen people get good results from stacking coins on their laptops, they act as reasonably efficient heatsinks, but let's not go that crazy yet...

Depends what you're doing on Minecraft and how you have your settings set.

The minimum requirements of a game are not necessarily the requirements you'll need to get a good experience out of the game.

Mine used to do that when I typed assignments on my laptop sitting on my bed many years ago...

BadgersPaws2 yes I can hear the fans and they get really noisy when DS plays his games. He knows to place it on a hard surface. It's a HP ProBook 4530s, Windows 7. Downloading a program to analyse the fans sounds good except I'm quite wary of downloading things like that - they always seem to end in viruses or constant pop ups!
DS says the game 'lags' sometimes, so that might also be sign the laptop is struggling? Although he manages to play for hours so it can't be that bad. Would you not suggest a cooling tray BadgersPaws2?

BertieBotts I had no idea there was even such a thing as a gaming laptop!! My laptop is a standard one, not a great one at that and at least 5 years old too.

Dh hoovers the laptop fans when they stop working as well.

What is the laptop on when he is using it - lap / table / sofa?

What does Task Manager say is using all the CPU?

Downloading a program to analyse the fans sounds good except I'm quite wary of downloading things like that - they always seem to end in viruses or constant pop ups!
Don't go bothering with that, quite often when computers start making a lot of noise Task Manager will show you what is causing it.

Does he D/L random software and install it without knowing what it is first?

Does he use torrenting software?

"It's a HP ProBook 4530s, Windows 7"

Cleaning the fans doesn't seem like a terribly hard operation, have a look at a video like this and see if you think it's manageable.

You can even just blow on the fan, while holding it as he shows, and that'll help shift any fluff that's in there.

"Would you not suggest a cooling tray BadgersPaws2"

For people who use laptops on their laps they're not a bad a idea, but if it's being used on a hard flat surface the benefits might be slight. A computer should be able to deal with the amount of heat that it produces, this one isn't, so I think that there's something to fix somewhere.

Is the laptop always used plugged in and how old is it? It might be the battery, as they get older, especially if it's always plugged in, they can get less efficient and they can generate a lot of heat. Heat that is above and beyond the "normal" expectation for the laptop. What's the battery life when running from a battery? It might be worth taking the battery out entirely or getting a new one.

"Downloading a program to analyse the fans sounds good except I'm quite wary of downloading things like that"

I can't recommend one for a Windows PC. I've used them before on an old Apple laptop to great effect.

Can you dial down the graphics options? e.g. lower the resolution, detail or view depth in these games?

Being a standard laptop plus 5 years old might just be the problem. They are not designed to play games on, so it's a bit like getting a small car and using it to carry heavy things around all the time - it's going to make the computer struggle and reduce its life.

I'd always recommend a desktop for gaming, a proper one with a normal sized tower, not the mini ones, gaming laptops are overpriced and won't be right for what he wants. But the lifespan of a computer used to play games is about 5 years anyway, then you'll have to replace some parts. You can push it to 10 years if it's built well and you only want to play the same game, not brand new ones.

I had a similar problem with my old dell, and when I opened it up, it was packed full of fluff! Fixed the problem fine.

"They are not designed to play games on, so it's a bit like getting a small car and using it to carry heavy things around all the time - it's going to make the computer struggle and reduce its life."

That's not the problem, a decently designed computer should be able to dissipate the heat it generates when working "hard". The signs of an aging computer being unable to handle what's asked of it would be it running slowly not cutting out due to overheating. Overheating indicates some sort of hardware problem, which might be as simple as fluff in the fans or an old dying battery, which should be resolvable.

Does sound like a fan issue.

I was given a gaming laptop as a birthday present, it cost just over 1k. To be honest if he wants to game and you ever look to replace a igaming tower pc gets you far more for your money than a gaming laptop. Especially if you can build it yourself, DS and has mate just built one as it was DS Christmas present, took two days.

It's also a bad idea to have a laptop heating up on your actual lap especially if prolonged use.

www.argos.co.uk/product/9255399

We got this for our Mac book, which sounds like it might take off when we play games on it. Works a treat at cooling it which in turn makes it quieter. Highly recommend!

If it's an older laptop and you can still hear the fan working then it will probably just need "defluffing" inside.

True, Badgers, but it's always been the case for me that when parts are coming to the end of their life it does cause crashes and shutdowns.