weird llaptop problems

Having just bought a new dell inspiron laptop i was looking forward to hours of uninterrupted sl without family needing my computer. However i have a weird problem - sl works fine when im on battery power but when i need to plug it in or run from mains power sl goes bananas - at first it crashed and i got run time error messages. but today i did manage to stay on but the graphics were bouncing and stretching about followed by a major physical dump. its only sl that does this everything else runs fine on mains power. Any ideas??

I would talk with Dell. I fyou just bought it and it's already doing physical dumps (blue screens) then thier technical support may try something things with you and/or test parts to get them replaced (like ram).

Of course I'm assumign you uninstalled SL, shut down (not restart), powered up, reinstalled and it's still going nutsy on you. Also the fact it does it ONLY when powered is kinda suspect. Also are you moving around the house when you do this? meaning like first time is on yoru couch, second time in your bed, third time in the bathroom? It could be an environmental issue. Crazy I know but I've been blue screening XP for the last 6 months straight on 4 seperate PCs with different reasons.

My guess is that the machine is overheating. SL maxes out use of both the CPU and GPU, so your system can get quite hot; more than it will running typical business applications. (3D games might stress the system as much as SL does.)

So, you wonder, why only when you plug the system in? Well, it's because it gets hotter for two reasons:

1. There may be some heat produced by regulating the mains power to the voltages used by the computer.

2. Most modern laptops use different power management settings for battery use. (By default, that is; you can change them.) The settings for when you're plugged in are probably "maximum performance"; the CPU is always run at full speed, the hard disk never powers down, and so forth. The settings for running on batteries have some power management features enabled, and that reduces the amount of heat.

Definitely something to discuss with Dell. You might also try using a laptop cooler; a base with fans that you sit the laptop on.

I need to buy one of those lap top coolers. I was having a over heating problem, but mine was for a different reason... oops, you do need to suck those dust bunnies out every once in a while. LOL

You do? o.O

Laptop CPU's switch clockspeed when connected/disconnected, to save battery time


SL runs in an infinite loop wich normally runs at a constant speed, suddenly out of nothing the speed decreases by more then 50 % (or doubles in the other direction)

lot's of games barf on this situation (especially Glide games, like SL)



try putting your laptop on "always high performance" mode
start SL
connect/disconnect the power 20X


if it survives you found your solution



EDIT: if not it's prolly overheating
an intel *core* should never overheat, a *pentium/celeron* is guaranteed to overheat
an AMD can overheat but normaly only after manny, manny hours of 3D gaming

Yep... doh! LOL

Intel chips (even them old Pentiums & Celerons) have built-in thermocouple circuitry preventing them from seriously overheating. As the CPU heats up, the circuity will slow it down to help cooling. If the CPU continues to heat up, a protective circuit will eventually kick in and completely shut the system down.

Older AMD chips, on the other hand, did not have this protective circuit and could actually burn up physically in a catastrophic situation (such as cooling fan failure.)

-peekay

you are right Peekay


but in practise, windows will bluescreen with an irq_not_less_or_equal error or similar before the thermal protection kicks in


I've burned a couple of athlonXP's myself
but i assummed a recent processer, sindce this person said it's a new dell
i also assumed the laptop is running SL, offcoarse an old intel will not overheat under normal usage




i am just qouting my own overclocker experiences

this is a brand new laptop inspiron 9400 - all i have loaded on it so far is skype, yahoo and msn messsenger and sl- dell have told me to system restore cos i was getting blue screening - but now after reinstalling sl i have same problem even on log in screen the graphics are going heywire - nothing else just sl - so iim sure its not an over heating problem as i havent been able to play the game yet to over heat it rofl. i try to log in and graphics explosion on log in page and then runtime error- this is infurating as i know others who have bought much cheaper machiines play sl fine -

ok its def not overheating - i charged it up over night started sl - white lines all over the log in page and it then crashed - blue screen - i never even typed my log in name!!!
now i wish id spent a third of the money and bought a cheap laptop lol

get on the phone with dell, i had good luck with them a few years back (previous computer needed a new motherboard ^_^ was the last couple weeks of the warranty too).

well after 3 days on the phone to dell theyve eventually said they'll take it back for full refund - considering it blue screened every day since i bought it bar the first day - hoooray!
and these are some of the reasons i got for not being able to play sl on a high spec machine like inspiron so beware!
* are u downloading all your games from the same website?? Its probably a bad one*
* you probably need a patch go to the second life website*
* try loading a different game on it*
( i did i loaded wow and got blue screened immediately)
* ahh you should have bought a gaming machine - inspiron is not meant for games*

Just wanted to check, Swaffette, you weren't wearing it in a box on your head were you?

Gimme a break. This here is tech support grasping at straws. "Game machine" doesn't mean it's the only computer games will run on, just that it has higher specs (and of course costs more) than other models.

I gotta say, as an IT guy it frustrates the hell out of me when customer service/tech support people lie like that to the trusting novice. Like, how often when people discuss an electronics purchase (eg. a TV) with me they're like "but that's what the salesman said!" Over the winter holiday, my mom was getting on my nerves while shopping for a camcorder by repeatedly asking me questions and then saying "hm, are you sure about that? I better go ask the salesman" and then of course the salesman just lies and tells her what she wants to hear.

rofl nice one suzie , dunno about wearing it on my head but i felt like ramming it on the techs head lol
You're absolutely right Johan luckily i realised what he was saying was cobblers lol but thought id post it here to show the ridiculous things these guys say - he went off to ask customer services first before returning with that gem btw lol - in future i'll buy from a shop where i can actually deal with a guy across the counter.