Heat-related crashes with T43?

Hi, I bought a T43 over the summer and overall it's a great machine. I find, however, that intense 3d graphics applications cause the machine to crash sometimes (or oftentimes). After some research online, I think this may be related to heat...or some sort of similar overload of the computer's capabilities. My specs are:
Pentium M 1.73
512 MB RAM
ATI X300 64 MB
60 gig 5400 rpm HD

I know this is not a gaming machine, but I do like to relax a bit with GTA3 sometimes. Here are the symptoms I've noticed:

With my "Setiathome" screensaver, which crunches numbers and has a 3d graphics display, the machine will eventually slow down and if I leave it for long enough, the screen sometimes is blank and blue when I return. Also, playing GTA3 the game can either just freeze up or the screen will suddenly turn completely blue (no words, just blueness). With either the screen saver or GTA3, I have to do a hard restart and just hit the power button to turn off the computer.

It seems like after a certain amount of time and heat the computer cannot run GTA3 for long at all without crashing. Sometimes I won't even be able to play for 5 minutes before it crashes, and it may get worse as I keep trying to play. So this makes me think that heat builds up over the course of my computer session and isn't dissipated quickly enough to prevent crashing immediately when 3d applications are run.

Does this make sense to everybody? If my hypothesis is correct, do you have any tips to keep things within acceptable limits? I have the game set at max resolution but only 16 colors...I'm afraid turning down the resolution would make things look fuzzy or deformed, since this is an LCD we're talking about. I can fiddle with other settings in the game, but what else can I do? Settings to adjust in ATI's control panel?

EDIT: By the way, under good circumstances my T43 can run GTA3 easily with almost no noticeable slowdown. When it does crash it happens quickly...maybe a few stutters, then it crashes a couple minutes after that. There seems to be a very "sharp" threshold, beyond which the game is all but unplayable because it crashes in minutes.

Could this also be related to RAM? Memory being used up over time or something like that?

 

It does sound like it might be getting hot. Depending on how handy you are, you might consider cleaning out hte inside with compressed air to make sure the fan is able to spin without restriction. Also check for spyware and other nasty programs like that. You can also download something like CHC (Centrino Hardware Control) to get a better idea of what's going on with the machine in the way of temps and such.

 

Brian: If it's doing it while gaming and running SETI, spyware's a non-issue, as it'd be running at 100% CPU regardless of whether it's got spyware or not.

However, the crashing could be caused by spyware...

Microsoft AntiSpyware works fairly well from what I've seen, for detecting and removing spware.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I ran Spybot S&D yesterday and it found a few tracking cookies and stuff, but nothing else. I assume Spybot would find spyware...am I correct? McAfee AV also found nothing wrong last time I ran it, though that was a week or two ago. McAfee's background scanning certainly hasn't alerted me of any problems.

I may download CHC to give me a better idea of temps and that sort of thing. I am not that handy with computers so I'd hesitate to open things up and poke around.

Any possibility this is a problem with RAM or a lack of RAM? I know the computer seems to slow down (web pages scroll slowly) if SETI has been running for a long time. With XP Pro, McAfee, AIM, IE, SETI, GTA3 and other processes all kicking around over the course of a day (even if they're not all on at the same time), I suppose my 512 megs of RAM could be overwhelmed at times. Perhaps an increase in virtual memory would help things? It's at 768k right now, but it goes up to 1536 maximum.

Still, 512 of RAM seems like more than enough...I tend to close down other applications when running GTA3 anyway.

 

Nope, a lack of RAM won't cause actual *CRASHES*, it'll just cause major slowdowns.

As for the part about SETI running causing slowdowns... that's just odd. The amount of time that SETI has been running shouldn't affect the speed...

I'm almost thinking that this thing has a major problem other than the heat.

I would try a program called MemTest86+, at http://www.memtest.org - I'm wondering if you've got a memory problem, or something.

 

SETI is known to have issues with ATI video cards, so that's not as big an issue.

I'll try that memtest program. Thanks for the help guys.

 

512MB should be enough to run decently.

 

maybe more ram will give less travel between temporary data in HD and processor hence lower work, lower temp, faster response?

 

Hey,
I've downloaded CHC. When idle or under light (web surfing) use, the CPU temp tends to be between 47 and 52 degrees C. When playing GTA3 (or running SETI I think), the temperature climbs quickly to the low 60's. Today playing GTA3, the last time I checked the temp before the computer crashed it was at 63 degrees. How do these temps sound to you guys?

I downloaded memtest, but I'm unsure of how to use it. I downloaded the version that's supposed to work with a USB memory key, but I just don't know where to go from there. I put it on my memory key but I don't know how to get it to run. Are there any memory tests that don't require a boot disk, like online ones or anything?

 

A quick update.

One time recently the system crashed while playing GTA3 and actually restarted itself without me having to do a hard reboot. Once windows loaded back up, I got a message saying that the system had recovered from a serious error, etc., and that an ATI graphics driver was the root of the problem. ATI's site doesn't seem to mention any problems similar to mine and won't let me download Catalyst 5.10 on an IBM (I may have 5.10 already anyways). I did, however, take ATI's advice and download a new graphics drivers from IBM/Lenovo's site. This does not seem to have fixed the problem.

Yesterday I installed the battery (I had been leaving it out of the machine much of the time to let it stay cooler) and played GTA3 for a long time without crashing. But today I played again (32 colors this time, to really test the system) with the battery installed and it crashed again. Hmmm....I will have to do some more testing. At least the testing involves playing a game!

 

Those temperatures seem pretty **** high in my opinion. I've heard of high temperatures causing the videocard to crash the machine, so even if windows would say it's a video card problem, it might still be the heat. Call customer support and give them your temp readings see if it's normal to idle at more than 45C casually.