Dropped HP Pavilion dv6, Now Won't Run Games

[dark_phoenix]

I'm an avid gamer and recently dropped my laptop. Prior to this incident, I could run games fine. Now, within approx. 2 minutes, my entire system shuts off. There's no warning of overheating but I don't hear the normal sounds the cooling fan makes when playing games. It may sound rudimentary so I apologize, but I'm not technologically savvy. Is it recommended that I purchase a separate cooling fan for my laptop or should I take it to a professional for further inspection? Websites/videos/common browsing is not a problem.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

Was it running when you dropped it? If so I would be suspicious of a dying hard drive.

Other things to consider is a connection somewhere is loose, perhaps even a stick of RAM getting knocked loose.

 

[dark_phoenix]

Fortunately, it wasn't running. I booted it up about 10 minutes later when I arrived to class and it seemed to be running fine. It wasn't until I attempted to game later on that it shut down. I did remove the back piece to readjust, as it had come askew, but being a layperson wouldn't know what the RAM looked like if it bit me. In that case, it might be best for me to take it to a shop rather than spend money on a cooling fan if it possibly isn't the issue--I'd just assumed it was for lack of noise to indicate it was running and because there hasn't been an issue with low-brow web surfing and even some simple games.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

If you're concerned the cooling system died because of the drop you can always use some monitoring software to see if the temperatures are getting too high.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Monitor during low-level use and again while gaming.

 

[dark_phoenix]

That's a good idea--much appreciated!

 

[dark_phoenix]

Update: My temps are seemingly normal but my GPU is out of whack. I'm not quite sure what this means other than that I biffed my graphics card.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

How do you know it's out of whack.

 

[dark_phoenix]

Sporadic percentage changes? I'm a layperson--it's the only number that drastically changes from casual browsing to gaming. I've been told it's most likely my motherboard but don't want to accept that as the problem because cost-wise, I'd have to just can the laptop. I do realize laptops like mine aren't designed for gaming anyway but have been running quite a few games (before the drop) of high quality on it without an issue.

 

[dark_phoenix]

Update: Not wanting to take apart my own laptop out of fear that I'd be responsible for its ruin, I took it to a shop. They disassembled it and determined that the cooling system is not to blame but that I'm pretty much lucky the games ran even thus far considering the specs of my laptop. They pasted it back together, charged me for the labor, and it still shuts off during the first 2 minutes of gameplay. Depressing.

 

[Turb0Yoda]

Update: Not wanting to take apart my own laptop out of fear that I'd be responsible for its ruin, I took it to a shop. They disassembled it and determined that the cooling system is not to blame but that I'm pretty much lucky the games ran even thus far considering the specs of my laptop. They pasted it back together, charged me for the labor, and it still shuts off during the first 2 minutes of gameplay. Depressing.

Ouch. I'd say the HDD could have been rattled. If reinstalling the game doesn't work... and if an OS reinstall doesn't fix it, get a new HDD and swap it in if possible...

 

[dark_phoenix]

I never thought about reinstalling the games. As of today, I was able to play for 10 minutes on one game but it black-screen-shutdown again during about the 8th minute of gameplay in another. I probably should've tried this as the easiest solution first! Will do. I'm iffy about an OS reinstall as I'm technologically impaired myself, and similiar with getting a new HDD to swap out. However, at this point, both are cheaper than buying a coveted-yet-extremely-expensive gaming desktop.