Laptop overheats when I try to render videos in Windows

[oweaponx]

I have a Toshiba Tecra, 256G HD, 4 G RAM. I have it partitioned for Windows 7 Ultimate, and Linux Mint 17.2.

Currently, I am only having issues on the Windows side. When I am rendering a video in VideoMakerFX, at some points, the fan sounds like it's going into overdrive, everything stops moving, and then, the computer goes off.

I will also have, if I leave the computer alone for more than 10 minutes, for whatever reason, it'll do the same thing...if I'm using Magic Jack, plugged into the laptop, and talking on the phone, it will still do the same thing.

So far, I've taken to using a cooling fan, which helps, somewhat. If I'm not actively using it, like making a phone call, it still does that.

I can leave it be, when I'm in Linux, and it hasn't had this problem, yet.

Would simply using some compressed air help, or would I need to do something more?

 

[MU_Engineer]

The second problem on Windows is easier to troubleshoot, your computer's power defaults are probably set to shut the computer off after 10 minutes of inactivity.

The way to troubleshoot the first (overheating) problem is to run a temperature and CPU frequency monitoring program under both Linux and Windows. Video rendering is a very CPU intensive task and laptops are not designed to dissipate the large quantity of heat that a CPU that is being run at 100% load generates. There are three ways the computer deals with this. One is to ignore the problem, keep the CPU running at full speed and then when it melts, the computer dies. No computers made since the early 2000s do this. A modern computer will either see it's approaching "critical overheat" temperature and then shut itself off to save itself, or it will throttle itself to a lower speed to keep running.

 

[oweaponx]

The second problem on Windows is easier to troubleshoot, your computer's power defaults are probably set to shut the computer off after 10 minutes of inactivity.

The way to troubleshoot the first (overheating) problem is to run a temperature and CPU frequency monitoring program under both Linux and Windows. Video rendering is a very CPU intensive task and laptops are not designed to dissipate the large quantity of heat that a CPU that is being run at 100% load generates. There are three ways the computer deals with this. One is to ignore the problem, keep the CPU running at full speed and then when it melts, the computer dies. No computers made since the early 2000s do this. A modern computer will either see it's approaching "critical overheat" temperature and then shut itself off to save itself, or it will throttle itself to a lower speed to keep running.

That's right. I'm so used to having my settings for screen saver, shutting of HD, etc. on my old system, that when I redid it, I didn't think to look at it. That was solved, so TY!


I have a Toshiba Tecra: A10-S3501.

I have attempted to clean the vents, and anywhere else there was dust on my laptop. I also took out the battery, and dusted there. I may have to take it in, as one of the screws, the head is, idk, I want to say frayed, but not that...


It looks like I may have to take it in, though...

 

[MU_Engineer]

Sorry for the late follow-up, I am very busy with work. Two and a half hour a day commute on top of 65-70 hours a week of work doesn't leave much time for anything else.

Laptops are not meant to have the CPU run at full load for very long. They do not have the cooling capacity to handle it, and this is especially true with relatively recent laptops which have gotten much thinner and lighter than the old bricks that used to be out there. The laptop CPU designers, especially Intel with Sandy Bridge laptop CPUs and later, have also assumed that you won't run your CPU flat-out for very long, so they allow the CPU to run much faster (and dump out a bunch more heat) for a short period to time in order to feel more snappy in typical short-bursts-and-then-a-lot-of-idling laptop usage. Running such a CPU flat-out in an Ultrabook is a great way to see it start out great and then either throttle WAY back, or if the BIOS is set up with the critical temp below the critical temp of the CPU, it will go great and then shut off. No amount of cleaning will let the CPU run at full high speed for a long period of time. You'd need a desktop to do that as a similar-speed desktop CPU will have a heatsink that's 10-20 times as large.

By the way, the term you are looking for with the screw is "stripped."