Laptop Turns Off During Games

[rokasaidukas]

I have the Sony VAIO VPCF1 for around 4 years now:

• 
  500GB HDD
  4GB RAM
  GeForce GT 425M/PCIe/SSE2
  Intel® Core™ i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz × 8
  Ubuntu 14.02

Ever since I played Starcraft 2 my laptop started crashing in games after about 10-15 min of game play for every game. The only game I can launch without having overheating issues is Heroes of Might and Magic III, any other game I play (DotA2, CS:GO, Minecraft, L4D2) on any settings I tried still runs really fast but overheats in a matter of minutes. I changed the thermal paste for my CPU and GPU, cleaned out all of the dust - no luck. Using a USB fan only makes it crash in less than a minute. I kept track of my temperatures, when I launch my laptop in the morning it is on 40C, after a few minutes of browsing around 50C, Dota 2 reaches about 70C during team battles, Minecraft is an average of 60C. Caught my laptop crash on me during Dota 2 (on lowest settings) when the temperature was 60C. Do note I could play all of these games for hours without any crashes before playing Starcraft 2, ever since it keeps crashing and I've done everything I could to try and prevent overheating.
Is my laptop still save-able or did it finally bite the dust?

 

[Cazauxx]

Overheating is the main cause.
The reason it turns off it to save the cpu/gpu from getting damaged.

70c is very high!!

Try putting the laptop on a table top and see (if you havent)

Solutions could be reducing the graphic settings in game to put less pressure

 

[rokasaidukas]

Overheating is the main cause.
The reason it turns off it to save the cpu/gpu from getting damaged.

70c is very high!!

Try putting the laptop on a table top and see (if you havent)

Solutions could be reducing the graphic settings in game to put less pressure

I always use it on a desk, sometimes I put something underneath the corner of the laptop to get more air, do manage to get atleast 5-10 more minutes before shutting down. I usually play on the lowest settings, as higher settings just crash very quickly.

 

[Cazauxx]

Overheating is the main cause.
The reason it turns off it to save the cpu/gpu from getting damaged.

70c is very high!!

Try putting the laptop on a table top and see (if you havent)

Solutions could be reducing the graphic settings in game to put less pressure

I always use it on a desk, sometimes I put something underneath the corner of the laptop to get more air, do manage to get atleast 5-10 more minutes before shutting down. I usually play on the lowest settings, as higher settings just crash very quickly.

Alright,
If you were playing games on this laptop were these issues occuring when you first got it?

 

[rokasaidukas]

Overheating is the main cause.
The reason it turns off it to save the cpu/gpu from getting damaged.

70c is very high!!

Try putting the laptop on a table top and see (if you havent)

Solutions could be reducing the graphic settings in game to put less pressure

I always use it on a desk, sometimes I put something underneath the corner of the laptop to get more air, do manage to get atleast 5-10 more minutes before shutting down. I usually play on the lowest settings, as higher settings just crash very quickly.

Alright,
If you were playing games on this laptop were these issues occuring when you first got it?

Sorry for the late reply, but no everything was smooth on this one, everything started after Starcraft 2, as that game was the first one that actually started to overheat my laptop.

 

[Illumynization]

Is the power adapter getting really hot? Can you play off the battery for over 15 min?

 

[rokasaidukas]

Is the power adapter getting really hot? Can you play off the battery for over 15 min?

Power adapter is just normal temperature, barely radiates any heat. But that's a good question, the performance decreases significantly, so never tried playing without the adapter. Will update my experience in the morning.

 

[Cazauxx]

Is the power adapter getting really hot? Can you play off the battery for over 15 min?

Power adapter is just normal temperature, barely radiates any heat. But that's a good question, the performance decreases significantly, so never tried playing without the adapter. Will update my experience in the morning.

All good,
Tell us when your ready

 

[rokasaidukas]

Okay tested without the ac, minecraft never crashed in during around the period of 30 minutes, despite having some occasional frame rate issues it ran quite well, the temperature was the same. L4D2 had some significant frame rate decreases, around 30-40fps, crashed in about the same amount of time. I have the feeling that I just have to buy a new machine, won't be able to play Fallout 4 at this rate

 

[Cazauxx]

Okay tested without the ac, minecraft never crashed in during around the period of 30 minutes, despite having some occasional frame rate issues it ran quite well, the temperature was the same. L4D2 had some significant frame rate decreases, around 30-40fps, crashed in about the same amount of time. I have the feeling that I just have to buy a new machine, won't be able to play Fallout 4 at this rate

Sorry to hear the issues you are having with your laptop.
Its really strange how it doesnt play games well with a i7 processor.

Maybe you could try this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834991042

If its definetely overheating.

 

[rokasaidukas]

Okay tested without the ac, minecraft never crashed in during around the period of 30 minutes, despite having some occasional frame rate issues it ran quite well, the temperature was the same. L4D2 had some significant frame rate decreases, around 30-40fps, crashed in about the same amount of time. I have the feeling that I just have to buy a new machine, won't be able to play Fallout 4 at this rate

Sorry to hear the issues you are having with your laptop.
Its really strange how it doesnt play games well with a i7 processor.

Maybe you could try this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834991042

If its definetely overheating.

I keep having thoughts that it might be Starcraft, as I read an article of that game not having an fps cap during menus and people complaining that it ruined their gpu's, but I just do not want to believe that. And I was thinking of getting one, do you know anything on the power science of usb fans? As I tried two different models from friends (sorry but I have no idea what models they were), one worked phenomenal, It had like 4 fans and it felt really solid, got through 3 hours of Dota 2 on pretty good graphics without any problems. The other one was a simple Microsoft one, only had one fan, and with that I couldn't manage to even get through the camera pan when you start a chapter on L4D2, literally crashed in less than 10 seconds. That's why I was sceptical of getting one. I assume voltage and wattage has a lot to do with it? And both of my usb ports are 3.0s

 

[jaguarskx]

You might want to look into replacing the thermal paste with something like Arctic MX-4. Thermal paste used in laptops are generally only average at best. It could have also deteriorated over time which means it is less capable of transferring heat now compared to when it was new.

http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-Performance-Compound-Interface-Material/dp/B0045JCFLY


The problem is you need to partially take apart your laptop so that you can remove the heatsink to clean off all of the old thermal paste before applying new thermal paste. Not everyone likes to take their laptop apart so you could go to a laptop repair store and ask them how much it would cost for them to do for you. They can also clean out any dust trapped inside as well.


You could also start saving up money for a new laptop. The Intel HD 4400 (Haswell) is actually ranked a little higher in performance than the old GT 425m. The newer Intel HD 5500 (Broadwell) is even more powerful. Though not tested yet the new Skylake generation integrated Intel HD GPUs (510, 520, 530) will like be at least equal to the GT 425m.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Geforce-GT-425M.34152.0.html


Naturally, dedicated GPUs have advanced as well.

 

[rokasaidukas]

You might want to look into replacing the thermal paste with something like Arctic MX-4. Thermal paste used in laptops are generally only average at best. It could have also deteriorated over time which means it is less capable of transferring heat now compared to when it was new.

http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-Performance-Compound-Interface-Material/dp/B0045JCFLY


The problem is you need to partially take apart your laptop so that you can remove the heatsink to clean off all of the old thermal paste before applying new thermal paste. Not everyone likes to take their laptop apart so you could go to a laptop repair store and ask them how much it would cost for them to do for you. They can also clean out any dust trapped inside as well.


You could also start saving up money for a new laptop. The Intel HD 4400 (Haswell) is actually ranked a little higher in performance than the old GT 425m. The newer Intel HD 5500 (Broadwell) is even more powerful. Though not tested yet the new Skylake generation integrated Intel HD GPUs (510, 520, 530) will like be at least equal to the GT 425m.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Geforce-GT-425M.34152.0.html


Naturally, dedicated GPUs have advanced as well.

I have replaced the thermal paste, the one on the cpu still looked good, the paste on the gpu was cooked to oblivion, and i did use some crap cheap paste which didn't improve my temperatures at all. I will look more into all this. Thank you!

 

[rokasaidukas]

This being my first post, I love the feedback I'm getting, lovely lovely community, very impressed. Got a lot of info to look into (I'm studying software development in college, so my knowledge with hardware is a little bit outdated). Again thank you for the useful tips

 

[jaguarskx]

Good to know that THG has provided you some useful feedback.


Regarding the thermal paste on the CPU... You should have replaced that the first time you removed the heatsink. The problem is that when you break the thermal paste seal, and then simply place back the heatsink with the old thermal paste you introduce tiny air pockets in the thermal paste. These air pockets acts as heat insulators which decrease heat transfer and cause the CPU (or other component) to operate at higher temps.

The next time you remove the heatsink you should clean up and replace all the thermal paste for all the components the heatsink was in contact with.

 

[rokasaidukas]

Good to know that THG has provided you some useful feedback.


Regarding the thermal paste on the CPU... You should have replaced that the first time you removed the heatsink. The problem is that when you break the thermal paste seal, and then simply place back the heatsink with the old thermal paste you introduce tiny air pockets in the thermal paste. These air pockets acts as heat insulators which decrease heat transfer and cause the CPU (or other component) to operate at higher temps.

The next time you remove the heatsink you should clean up and replace all the thermal paste for all the components the heatsink was in contact with.

You learn something everyday! I will take this into account during my next dissassembly.