SL is crashing my laptop

Hi,

since a week, i log in and i can be 30 minutes playing and then my screen comes all black with lines and i have to do the manual forced reboot (with the power botton) If i have skype on and sl, or sl with the highest graphic option, i'm just able to play 5 minutes then the same, black screen, lines and locked pc, manually reboot.

I got a pc format, and we installed windows 7, but is always the same, and with any of the viewers, LL, snowglobe, emerald, imprudence.

It was just from one day to another ... so .... can someone help me pls, i have to keep 2 jobs and they need me T_T

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core (1999 MH)
Hard drive : 250GB
RAM: 4GB
Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.632.1.2-090817a-087324C-ATI


Ake

What is the brand and model of the laptop?

If you don't use a cooling pad, try that.

If there's any place to check for and remove dust, try that.

Your system doesn't seem powerful enough to support using the highest options to me. Highest being Ultra settings with a 512 draw distance. It doesn't sound close to powerful enough for highest settings to me.

I'd try more like high customized with some settings turned down or mid with some settings turned up.

How old is that laptop?

My best guess, your problem is that Radeon 3200. It's an IGP (integrated graphics processor), not a real graphics card. IGP's almost never play well with SL (or with anything else, for that matter). They're just not built for this sort of thing.

From your description, it's probably overheating. Try putting the machine on a cooling pad, and of course, make sure all vents are completely free of dust. If that doesn't help, you're probably out of luck. Sorry.

My best advice is that you replace the machine with one that has a real graphics card in it, and that has a good cooling system. I realize that's probably not what you want to hear, but it's the only good answer I've got. IGP's should be avoided like the plague.

Ahh. Yeah, good point. Didn't think of the integrated graphics. I guess I assume everyone has a regular card. xD Overheating would be my guess too. Trying to play SL with that? Good luck. Get a computer that can handle it.

My pc was working really good since one week ago, when the avi start to look transparent and then, when i unclicked the "costume" in graphics, ( a tip from a photograper and designer friend) i could see the the avi again, but was still crashing my laptop.

is an HP pavillion5 and on April is gonna be one year since i bought, so is not that old.

I have done all the graphic software things, and even installed windows again, and is not a software problem, I will try to play another game to see what happend.

Thanks for the answers!

I will see if i can get a cooler, but the fan of it is in a corner, so i haven't seen a cooler like that for my laptop.

Thanks again

You can try their suggestions with the cooling pad and removing dust, but I'm not sure how long it would last trying to crank your graphics stuff through an integrated graphics board. >.>

*sighs*

thanks anyway, I'll see what can i do, at least i still have my old desktop machine and sl works good slow but good

(but i need my sl in my laptop T_T)

Seeya!

You can try getting more time in SL by dropping settings to relieve stress on the GPU. You can try running a pre-Windlight browser like Rainbow Viewer from http://my.opera.com/boylane/blog/rainbow-viewer. Also try downloading HWMonitor at http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php and run it to watch the temperatures on your CPU and GPU to confirm that is the problem (and/or as a warning to log off when things get too hot before you crash). A good cooling pad will also help.

The bad news is that cycling heat is the most damaging thing to do to a computer. That is, getting your GPU to a high temp (within specs) and leaving it there is less damaging than briefly overheating and then crashing which turns the unit off and reduces temperature. Long term, this kind of damage will start to show up in less intensive applications than SL, until the unit fails.

It has started, we did a new windows install, windows 7, it doesnt over heat that much, but now i can't play SL, just 1 minute and i crash, and all new program that I install, paf! crashes.

Even when i did a diagnosis with BIOS, never finished, cuz it crashed T_T

I am talking with the HP support center now.

Thanks guys!

When are people going to learn.. LAPTOPS ARENT MADE FOR GAMING


Even the independent video card systems have a terrible time running high end applications or any graphic intense games... even ATI and Nvidia webpages list the laptop independent graphics cards as (not intended to play graphic intense games)


Second life is a graphic intense game.. if you want to play it.. its best to do it on a desktop with a Nvidia 9 series or higher or an ATI 4 series or higher...




Another thing is this... laptops tend to fry and overheat because the geniuses designing them put the intake or exhaust (OR BOTH) fans on the bottom of the laptop... What this means is you cant set this on a table or your lap.. or really any solid surface.. and as someone recommended earlier... Buying a pad with cooling fans on it that elevates the laptop off the surface is a really good idea.

Mine is. But it ain't cheap.

Mine, too. Yeah, the question should be corrected to say, "When are people going to learn that CHEAP laptops aren't made for gaming?"

Gaming laptops do indeed exist. You're just not going to find them at Walmart for $599. If you're prepared to spend about $3000 or so, you can get a laptop that will run SL very, very well.

My G70 would be a great example. It's about a year and a half old now, the age when cheapo laptops tend to become obsolete, and it still runs SL just great, at maxed settings. I fully expect to get another 2 years out of it before it will need replacing.


In my opinion, gaming laptops, while expensive upfront, do pay for themselves in the long run. Consider this:

Spend $1000 on a consumer grade laptop, and you get a machine that will probably work sort of OK for the next 18 months or so, and then it just won't be able to keep up anymore. It will never give high end performance, but it will be usable for most tasks for about a year and a half. That's breaks down to about $700 a year, for a mediocre experience. Or, spend $3000 on a gaming laptop, and you get a machine that will work really, really well for the next 3 years or so, and will still be pretty decent for the following year or two after that. That comes down to about $600 a year, for a good experience.

So, the gaming machine is actually slightly less expensive in the long run, and far more enjoyable the whole time. It's a total win-win.

Well, maybe not a TOTAL win-win. The (obvious) downside is that a comparable desktop could be assembled for half the cost of a gaming laptop, and would last far longer, since almost any of its components could be upgraded at any time, for relatively little expense. But if you MUST have a laptop, either spend what you need to spend, or make your peace with the fact that you're not going to be able run resource intensive applications on it.



I'll now throw in my usual plugs for my two favorite laptop makers, ASUS and Malibal.

For off-the-shelf machines, ASUS really can't be beaten. As the only laptop maker in the world who manufactures their own motherboards and graphics cards, they're typically able to offer far more bang for the buck than anybody else. Plus, their warranty is really good. (Note, the ones they sell at Best Buy aren't the same as the ones they sell through online retailers like NewEgg. If you get an ASUS, get it from the right place.)

If you'd rather configure your own than buy a prefab, Malibal is awesome. They don't mark up their parts costs at all, from what I can tell, so their pricing tends to be really good, and from what I've seen, their workmanship is top notch. Also, from what I've been told by friends who own Malibal laptops, the company's customer service is fantastic. When it comes time to replace my ASUS machine, I'll most likely get something from Malibal.

I have an Asus G51. The Sager/Clevo models that Malibal sells are a step up (tend to have better cooling and more configuration options). I've also had good experience with Alienware, which appears to have come down in price and gone up in support since they fully merged with Dell.

I'm glad to hear SOMEONE has had a good experience with Alienware. Everybody I know who has one has told me it's been a disaster.