problems with SL and overheating?

simple question. I'm wondering if anybody else is having a problem like this, and if so, if they know of any solution.

I just bought a brand new laptop. when I run second life, it runs fine for a few minutes, then inexplicably my computer completely freezes up and refuses to respond. the first time it happened I restarted and ran SL again to try and pinpoint the cause. the system froze and locked faster this time, but this time I noticed that the surface of my computer became extremely hot. I turned the computer off for an hour until it returned to room temperature, ran SL again. it worked for several minutes, then the computer became extremely hot, then once again my computer froze.

I think you know where I'm going with this.

I also had a desktop a while ago with a faulty cooling system. whenever I'd run SL for long periods of time the system would overheat and shut off. I know SL is extremely processor intensive but come on. It's a laptop with 2.8 ghz and 512 of ram with an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics chip.

so 1, is this likely the problem? I just bought the laptop friday and this hasn't happened except when running SL. if this is a plausable issue, is there a way to reduce the amount of processing power SL is using? I remember reading once that SL will use whatever processing power isn't already being allocated regardless of the amount. can that be taken down? if not, is there a reasonable solution to getting SL to run for more than five minutes without damaging my laptop's logic processor?

Does the laptop have some way of reducing how fast the CPU is running? With Macs, you can simply set the CPU to "reduced speed" rather than "automatic speed", and I expect that Windows laptops will usually have a similar utility. You could also try running with the laptop unplugged from wall power; many will reduce the CPU speed automatically in that situation, but don't expect the battery to let you run for more than an hour.

SL "abuses" the graphics chip like almost no other program does. That may be where your heat problems are coming from. Not knowing the ATI chips, I don't know if there is a "low power" mode. Lowering resolution might help. But your new puter shouldn't crash from heat; return it.

If you want to demonstrate the problem without SL. Run a graphics intensive OpenGL screensaver and you will likely see the same effect. I think (not a hardware person) that your graphics processor and fast graphics RAM may dissipate more power (thus make more heat) than the CPU and 0.5GB RAM.

You also might consider raising your computer up off the table or couch, or whatever it's sitting on while running SL. Just put a book under either side of it, allowing air to pass through. It probably won't be enough, but it's still worth trying.

What model of laptop do you have?

You can also buy a raised platform that props your laptop up so the fans can work more efficiently. Many of these also have fans that work with your laptop, pulling the heat away from it faster and more efficiently than the laptop's fans alone. I think Targus makes one, called a chillpad or something??

I need to get one myself!

Yup it is the Chillpad and works great. Two large fans, USB powered.

Some laptop manufacturers (*cough*eMa*cough*) may cheap out on some aspects of production -- and isn't it funny how they try to save money on the least complex parts/tasks?

You may have inadequate thermal paste connecting your various processors (particularly the CPU) to their heatsinks. Consult the net for any pertinent information on your particular model to see if others have similar experiences. Then get in touch with your warranty service.

I had an overheating-spontaneous-shutdown problem with my particular portable, and although warranty dawdled a bit getting it back to me, it returned in much better shape (no longer overheats, and in fact, the fan only comes on occasionally).

PS. Properly made laptops running on a suitable surface should not overheat regularly. Using a 3rd-factor corrective factor (ChillPad, bag of frozen vegetables, etc) is not acceptable. It's like hitching a horse to your car when your shoddily-designed transmission fails.

This sounds a little unusual to me, mostly because in my experience overheating computers spontaniously reboot or shutdown completely, not simply freeze. It *could* be overheating but I wouldn't be 100% sure.

The fan pads are inexpensive however judging by what I see here at pricewatch.com so even if it doesn't solve your problem outright, it would be a good investment.

Have you tried running games and process-intenstive applications on it with similar results? You might also google for a peice of free software that will monitor the temperature of your hardware (the names of such escape me at the moment) and set it to warn you when you're overheating (properly cooled systems shouldn't run much over 50 degrees Celsius at their peak, 30-45ish degrees is ideal, I would consider high 50s, 60s and above potentialy dangerous). A laptop can get hot to the touch but still be within acceptble temperature range for the hardware.

It sounds like the laptop does not have the proper cooling fans in it - I would not keep the laptop if I were you - I imagine if you play other intensive 3d games, you would run into the same problem. I run SL on a laptop as well, and even with 2 fans it still runs very hot. I had a previous model lose one of its fans - I could run Windows fine until I ran SL or a graphics intensive application like Poser - then the laptop would shut off after a few minutes. This isn't an SL specific problem - it is a graphics card specific problem. You will find it will happen ultimately with other 3d apps, it just depends on their complexity. For me, even running remote access software to get into the laptop with 1 fan from the new laptop causes the old laptop to overheat after awhile - it is all about the video card. Good luck. If you can replace the laptop, I would - it sounds like either a faulty model or a design flaw. You didn't indicate the brand or newness of it, only that you recently got it, so without knowing that, I don't know what your options are.

Most all laptops with processors running higher than a 1ghz run pretty hot at full speed (ie plugged in) the newer ones over 2.5ghz can get blazing hot, so much so you can't actually set it on your lap for any length of time. This is normal. I would suspect it is the ATI graphics chip since it is well known that ATI doesn't get along with SL very well on some systems. That and the way video memory may be shared with system memory on some laptops there is a lot of openings for problems since SL hammers on video memory. If it only occures when playing SL, it leads me to think it is the ATI graphics as that is a common symptom.

We have a few Dell laptops here that all exhibit the same heat problems when playing games. Unless you buy a laptop specifically designed for gaming it's likely the factory cooling will be inadequate. A chillpad or proping up the back and running a fan across the bottom will help enormously. It completely alleviated the problem on the laptops we have here. They still get hot but don't overheat.

I am having the same issue, except I am running a IGP 9100 card 128mb 8x. Freezes, sometimes even completely resets back to boot screen - but it mostly just locks up, to the point where I have to press the reset button.

I've emailed tech support about it and they gave me a less than warm welcome, stating that the chipset the MB870 (the name of my mainboard) used a R7000 based core, which is incorrect. Their lack of followup leads me to believe that either they do't care about trial member problems, or just simply don't care. My mainboard comes with tempuruatre monitoring of my video chipset and, it reaches 50-60 celcius nominally. when playing SL, it remains the same; and under all gaming conditions the core runs stable (scary, I know, but the core is .15micron, and can run stable at tempuratures up to 65 celcius. reminds me of how hot the old voodoo 3 2000/3000 models ran, 70celcius ..

Im not sure it's heat related, otherwise i wouldhave had touble with games like Doom 3, and Battlefield vietnam, where the video core gets used to it's full potential. I believe the problem lies within the game programming itself, since no other games exhibit this problem.

It's up to Linden Labs to listen to the compability problems Radeon owners have; and they haven't showed me any sort of promising re-assurance.

Fan control speed is controlled by mainboard resources; can be manipulated through software but is not a good idea. In the case of laptops, the fans are automatically controlled by hardware and cannot be altered. Although, the cooling pad is a good idea, the solution to the problem here is not heat, i can be quite sure of that.

But seriously, if your laptop fan is running all the time, even if not at full-tilt, there's a good chance you have a manufacturing defect. Unless it's a Thinkpad. I had the top of my old Thinkpad coated with Teflon because I got tired of stuff sticking to it when I was cooking breakfast.

Again, if the brakes on your new car don't seem to work that well, you don't buy a parachute for the back -- you send the car back to the factory for correction.

Yes... SL and its resource demands will cause your computer to run hot. i have a Mac Dual 2.0 G5 desktop.. fully loaded, including the top of the line ATI Radeon 9800 w/256 VRAM. The G5 has multiple cooling fans that cycle on and off depending on heat load. SL is the only application I run that causes several fans to kick on when running SL for long periods.

Stay cool....