VPCEE2S1E/BQ shuts down during gaming?

[JConnolly]

Hi all, new to this forum so please go easy.

I own a Sony Vaio VPCEE2S1E/BQ, 4gb of ram, and the AMD Triple Core processor.  I've had this laptop for around a couple of years or so.  Recently however, it has started shutting down unexpectedly during gaming.  It doesn't shut down normally through the shutdown.exe procedure, it just turns off completely and without warning. 

Now, it's important to note that I'm not doing heavy duty gaming here, I'm talking playing Battlestar Galactica Online on lowest settings, as well as The Old Republic. 

I'm no computer expert, but I think it has something to do with over heating as after it shuts down, the area near the touch pad on the left hand side is very warm to the touch.  This happens regardless of having it on a cooling stand which has 3 external fans blowing air into the laptop.

I understand that this laptop is not a dedicated gaming laptop, but it should be able to handle some low intensity online games. 

Could anybody give me any advice?  I have a dedicated repair centre locally according to the finder, but how much is a job like this going to cost and how much time is going to be needed?  I am a University student so my laptop is pretty much essential.  I also plan on getting an upgrade to this laptop during the summer so if the cost of the repair is a little too high I may just grin and bear it.

Sorry if tl;dr, just wanting to give everyone as much information as I can. 

[rich912]

Hi JConnolly,

The solution my be as simple as cleaning  the vents with compressed air or disassembly to carry out a thorough clean of the fan and vents.

Download a utility such as PC Wizard and let us known the temperatures recorded for both CPU and GPU during normal use and also when gaming.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/pc-wizard.html

Rich

[JConnolly]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for your reply.  I have downloaded PC Wizard and these are the temperatures recorded for normal web browsing:

Hardware Monitoring :     ACPI

Thermal Zone :     77 °C

:

Processor Voltage :

Voltage :     0.99 V

:

Processor AMD Phenom II :     Sensor DTS

Core 1 :     82 °C

Core 2 :     82.2 °C

Core 3 :     82.4 °C

Energy Power :     20.74 W

:

Temperature (Diode) :     80 °C

:

Hard Disk Monitoring :     S.M.A.R.T

Hard Disk SAMSUNG HM321HI :     36 °C

Hard Disk WD Ext HDD 1021 :     38 °C

[rich912 · Accepted solution]

Hi JConnolly,

Your suspicions re overheating are confirmed by the stats provided. Your model has the AMD Phenom™ II P820 Triple-Core Mobile Processor and recorded temperatures for both thermal zone and cores are almost double what are expected for normal browsing.

No doubt you have experienced a slow down prior to a shutdown due to passive cooling kicking in?

A thorough clean of the fans and cooling vents should be carried out as a matter of urgency or permanent damage to the processor/motherboard may occur.

You could try cleaning the vents with compress air (Air Duster) and the see whether this improves things but my guess is that disassembly/cleaning will be required to achieve a long term fix.

Rich

[JConnolly]

Thanks Rich, I have sprayed compressed air into the vents in order to cool it temporarily.  I'm having it looked at by a professional tomorrow as I am not entirely comfortable taking the thing apart myself! Thanks for your timely and helpful responses.