Laptop overheats while running CoX
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2010-04-11 17:20 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Games are power-hungry. They drive the processor and the graphics card to the ground, and cause a lot more overheating than any other programs out there.
Assuming that your vents are not being covered and all your fans are working correctly, another problem would be the drivers. Recent NVIDIA drivers have caused overheating, so make sure you have drivers that are not affected by this.
You'll want to install SpeedFan in order to monitor your temperatures more closely. Make sure the fans are running. Run COH in a window and keep an eye on the temperatures; if you don't hear the fans turn on when the temperature passes a certain threshold, something may be wrong with them.
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I monitored the GPU's temperature using Speed Fan before and after updating the NVidia driver, and it seems to rise quickly to 60 degrees Celsius (about 140 F) by the time I can log in a character. This happens pre- and post- driver update. I am currently using NVidia version 197.16 for Vista 64 bit notebooks. |
Originally Posted by Leandro
Games are power-hungry. They drive the processor and the graphics card to the ground, and cause a lot more overheating than any other programs out there.
Assuming that your vents are not being covered and all your fans are working correctly, another problem would be the drivers. Recent NVIDIA drivers have caused overheating, so make sure you have drivers that are not affected by this. You'll want to install SpeedFan in order to monitor your temperatures more closely. Make sure the fans are running. Run COH in a window and keep an eye on the temperatures; if you don't hear the fans turn on when the temperature passes a certain threshold, something may be wrong with them. |
You may be right about the fans not working properly. They are running, that much is certain, but they do not adjust at all to the added heat when running CoX. When using Speed Fan, however (using what limited knowledge I have), I cannot get them to display on the configuration menu, nor under any other tab, as if they are not being recognized.
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Something that might help is capping your frames per second. Add -maxfps 30 to the command that launches COH to prevent it from rendering more than 30 frames per second. That should make the video card work less, as it won't try to process as many frames as possible all the time.
Typing /maxfps 30 in the chat line works as well. You might even want to limit the FPS a lot, say /maxfps 10, and then increase the cap until you find the sweet spot that doesn't overheat your machine.
www.SaveCOH.com: Calls to Action and Events Calendar
This is what 3700 heroes in a single zone looks like.
Thanks to @EnsonsDeath for the GVE code that made me VIP again!
Make sure you clean the vents out from time to time. I've found with my high-end laptop that it tends to run pretty hot, as well. I purchased a laptop cooling pad/stand for my laptop, and it's helped a lot.
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Very good suggestion. I would recommend a laptop cooling pad as well.
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Originally Posted by DarkEther
Make sure you clean the vents out from time to time. I've found with my high-end laptop that it tends to run pretty hot, as well. I purchased a laptop cooling pad/stand for my laptop, and it's helped a lot.
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We'll see....
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In Vista and Win7, your laptop PC's performance is controlled by the Power Profile. If left to initial settings, Balanced mode will let the CPU choose how much fan speed/GHz to deliver. Sometimes, the PC doesn't quite make the switch fast enough and the processor gets hotter than it can handle. You can set it to full use (CPU/GFX at full, all fans on) by selecting "High Performance". (You'll need to be plugged into the wall for this to be effective.) |
Originally Posted by Master_Armantus
HP HDX X18T-1200 CTO Premium Notebook PC
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8800 @ 2.66 GHz Windows Vista 64-Bit NVidia GeForce GT 130M 4.00 GB RAM Hopefully that's enough spec info. As the title says, this laptop overheats while running CoX. Usually the process is I'll open the CoH Updater program, run the game, log in to a character, and run around in-game for about 1-5 minutes. This is when my laptop shuts off completely. It ceases all operations and the display goes black instantly. I've been told this is a safety feature with some laptops when they begin to overheat, so that there is no permanent hardware damage. My question is why this only happens when running CoX, and if there are any solutions for this problem? Other pertinent information to consider: I've already tried using a laptop cooler, 2,500 rpm dual fans, and they make not one bit of difference. I've tried using the fans in combination with cooler surfaces and environments, and again this has no effect on the problem. What's more interesting is I can run programs with much higher video, memory, and processing requirements than CoX and they run fine. CoX is the only program that overheats this laptop. And yes, I've tried running it in safe mode and it's still no use. I appreciate any help out there. |
Open the Control Panel, and choose Power. (If you're in category view, cllick "System and Security", then click "Power Options"... I might be wrong on the titles, look around a little.) Change the plan to High Performance and click OK. You may also do this in the notification tray: Look for an icon with a battery. (If plugged in, you'll see a tiny plug in front of the battery.)
There is no way to set this to come up automatically, you'll need to select this every time you log in: Balanced is always default.
Try it again with High Performance on, see if it makes a difference.
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The vents are spotless. And yes, I'm using a laptop cooler, and there's no difference in performance whether it's turned on or off.|
Originally Posted by DarkEther
Make sure you clean the vents out from time to time. I've found with my high-end laptop that it tends to run pretty hot, as well. I purchased a laptop cooling pad/stand for my laptop, and it's helped a lot.
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Originally Posted by Tahquitz
Try it again with High Performance on, see if it makes a difference.
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Originally Posted by Leandro
Typing /maxfps 30 in the chat line works as well. You might even want to limit the FPS a lot, say /maxfps 10, and then increase the cap until you find the sweet spot that doesn't overheat your machine.
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According to Speed Fan, my laptop does not always shut off at a certain temperature. Sometimes the GPU is only 44 C when it happens., other times it can reach up to 60 C. The one thing that IS common each time it shuts off, is that I have logged in a character. Sometimes the shut off happens instantly, sometimes it takes a few minutes. But it always, ALWAYS happens once a character is logged in (no matter which character). And again, I've tried this in Safe Mode a million times, and it makes absolutely no difference.
I am beginning to think the problem is faulty hardware... either a bad battery, video card, vent fans, or I don't know. According to HP the hardware is working perfectly fine (this is after I sent it in for them to check up on it a couple weeks ago). I hope they're right.
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AE: 38959 - Invasion of the Dark Realm
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What about the CPU temperature? If it's shutting off completely that's a more likely cause than the GPU temperature.
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Originally Posted by Master_Armantus
According to Speed Fan, my laptop does not always shut off at a certain temperature. Sometimes the GPU is only 44 C when it happens., other times it can reach up to 60 C. The one thing that IS common each time it shuts off, is that I have logged in a character. Sometimes the shut off happens instantly, sometimes it takes a few minutes. But it always, ALWAYS happens once a character is logged in (no matter which character). And again, I've tried this in Safe Mode a million times, and it makes absolutely no difference.
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They have both (it's a dual core) only ever gotten as high as 41 C, which is AFAIK pretty acceptable.
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Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
What about the CPU temperature? If it's shutting off completely that's a more likely cause than the GPU temperature.
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My Virtue Projects
AE: 38959 - Invasion of the Dark Realm
HP HDX X18T-1200 CTO Premium Notebook PC
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8800 @ 2.66 GHz
Windows Vista 64-Bit
NVidia GeForce GT 130M
4.00 GB RAM
Hopefully that's enough spec info. As the title says, this laptop overheats while running CoX. Usually the process is I'll open the CoH Updater program, run the game, log in to a character, and run around in-game for about 1-5 minutes. This is when my laptop shuts off completely. It ceases all operations and the display goes black instantly. I've been told this is a safety feature with some laptops when they begin to overheat, so that there is no permanent hardware damage.
My question is why this only happens when running CoX, and if there are any solutions for this problem?
Other pertinent information to consider: I've already tried using a laptop cooler, 2,500 rpm dual fans, and they make not one bit of difference. I've tried using the fans in combination with cooler surfaces and environments, and again this has no effect on the problem. What's more interesting is I can run programs with much higher video, memory, and processing requirements than CoX and they run fine. CoX is the only program that overheats this laptop. And yes, I've tried running it in safe mode and it's still no use. I appreciate any help out there.
My Virtue Projects
AE: 38959 - Invasion of the Dark Realm