Laptop gets HOT when playing Civ4!!

[Chilolo]

I have this nice little laptop, sempron 3000+ with only 512 shared ram, that really suc..
well anyway, I tried to install civ4 - and it worked - a bit slow, but it worked..

Now I experience that the computer produces a lot of heat from the area where the cpu and ram are placed every time i play civ4, and only civ4
- not just heat, but really really HOT..
The computer have not complaint itself, but I have discovered at black stain(?!) on the table where the laptop stands, just like the stains you get on something when it gets to cloes to a candlelight..

So now I feel ready to be afraid - why dosent the computer shut down itself when it gets too hot - and wouldent it be to hot when it makes black "smoke"-stains on the table?

Could it be because of the low RAM?? would it help to get more of that?
Could it be some kind of bug in the game - I hope not..
Or could it be something else with the computer, and if so, what?? Because it is only happining during Civ4..

Please HELP - my mind is in disorder

Chilolo


Moderator Action: changed thread title to be more descriptive, and moved to tech Support. --Padma

 

[RogueTrader]

if you look in your bios settings, it should have a "health check" section where you can tell it to do certain actions at certain times. EG. Shut down when cpu reaches a certain temperature.

Do you have any other graphics intensive games you play on your laptop, and what is the graphics card of your lappy?

 

[panzooka]

glad u didnt put ur laptop on your lap, or u will have some stain on your pants

i think its the heavy hard drive and ram usage. can u add some more ram?

 

[Chilolo]

RougeTrader:
thanks, I will take a look at the bios..
No, I am not really playing other graphics intensive games on the laptop now, I tried once to play one of those "1.person shot and kill"-games and also the game Fallout Tactics, some time ago, but the screen simple couldent keep up, it was stalling all the time (thoug there was no heat problem), so I droppede it, and dedicated my time for civ3 only , and that works just fine..
Hmm, I am not really a hardware-shark, but I do think that my graphics card would be SIS M760 - could that be correct??

Panzooka:
not just stain on my pants, but proberly burnmarks all over my left leg, gosh..

yes, I now have two blocks of 256 ram, and I am planning on shifting them with two blocks of 512 instead - for the reason that the graphics are eating a sertain amount of ram, because it is shared..

 

[RogueTrader]

It sounds like you are using the standard graphics card for the laptop. Without knowing too much about the specs for your laptop and from what you've said, it sounds like the graphics card isn't cutting the mustard.

Normally, the graphics card will do the running of the graphic and let the processor concentrate on other things. However, it seems that this is not the case for your lappy. This has the effect that the main cpu of your laptop is doing all the hard work, and has to keep moving it's memory back and forth to the hard disk.

 

[Chilolo]

It sounds like you are using the standard graphics card for the laptop. Without knowing too much about the specs for your laptop and from what you've said, it sounds like the graphics card isn't cutting the mustard.

Normally, the graphics card will do the running of the graphic and let the processor concentrate on other things. However, it seems that this is not the case for your lappy. This has the effect that the main cpu of your laptop is doing all the hard work, and has to keep moving it's memory back and forth to the hard disk.

Thats bummer Is there anything I can do about it? or have I just learned my lesson, not to buy a laptop another time..

 

[Mr_V]

Actually, I think your graphics card is doing just fine, however since it's a laptop, which is all tightly packed, there is no same amount of room between the components as on a desktop.

My laptop gets very hot too when I'm playing Doom3, Rome Total War, Wolfenstein and - Civ4! It is simply graphics card working on all of 3D effects, doing exactly what it is supposed to do. I think it has it's own divers that will stop it overheating too much (this is the reason why laptop integrated graphics cards have different drivers that the same family of cards but for desktops).

As I said, my laptop is getting to be about a year old now, and it's had its fair share of 3D exhausting games, and being heated up. So far, no problems, touch wood. So I think you should just go ahead and play, when you see smoke, then start worrying.

 

[Citizen Philip]

Thats bummer Is there anything I can do about it? or have I just learned my lesson, not to buy a laptop another time..

There have been many previous threads about this kind of thing: Regardless of what the company tells you, laptops aren't really a good idea for gaming. As you seem to be running from an Intergrated Graphics Processor, consider yourself one of the lucky few.

 

[builderchad]

I tried civ4 on my laptop and have probe software which showed that it was the CPU that was specifically over-heating. I decided to investigate on my desktop and the CPU was running at 61 degrees after playing civ for about 3 hours! The gfx card was running cool so its definately a CPU intensive game.

Chilolo, there is a simple solution which I use for my hot running laptop:

Laptop cooler

2 fans sit under the laptop in a thin case, powered by USB, and it works very well - you can even use it on your lap. It adds to the general noise but its better than a metling laptop and you should be able to get one from one of your local pc shops or online retailers like the one in the link above.

Hope this helps, cheers.

 

[Thumper333]

Thats bummer Is there anything I can do about it? or have I just learned my lesson, not to buy a laptop another time..

No, no, don't get drastic.

It's not the fact that it's a laptop that's thje problem....a lot depends on the type and maker of the laptop.


I am currently playing Civ 4 on my Dell i9300, and it doesn't get any hotter than when I am just surfing the net or working on spreadsheets or PDFs. In fact, I played Civ 4 for about 8 straight hours yesterday, part of the time on my glass coffee table and part of the time on my lap.

I remember when I was researching which laptop to buy, there were several that had multiple complaints about getting hot all the time, I think the HP was the biggest offender.......Some manufacturer's will use substandard fans, or not enough fans, or poorly placed fans.

 

[maartena]

This is one of the reasons why they leave 3D functionality out of laptop videocards sometimes. The manufacturors of laptops aim to create a laptop that is light-weight, and light on electricity usage so you can use it anywhere. The downside to that is that they have removed certain features from CPU's and GPU's to get the most out of the laptop.

The Intel Centrino with Pentium 4 Mobility for instance steps down in speed when it doesn't need much speed. My 1.6 Ghz Centrino goes down to 600 Mhz when just browsing the web or typing, etc, as it will conserve a lot of battery energy that way.

Although many games work just fine, a laptop was not designed for 3D gaming. It was designed for portability and business applications FIRST, and only for leisure and gaming SECOND.

When I run a 3D game on my desktop computer my computer gets a lot more noisy simply because it activated the 2nd fan in the case, and the fan on the graphics card runs at full speed. After playing for only half an hour, my feet are getting nice and toasty simply because of the expelled hot air.

In a compact environment as a laptop, heat is VERY hard to expell, and takes some smart engineering to get the job done. So they compromise between the amount of heat generated by not putting in certain features and the cooling system and how effective it is, and come up with a good compromise, and voila, a laptop is born.

Bottom Line: If you want a laptop that is somewhat decent at gaming, you have to really look carefully before you decide, and it will often take a good chunk of money to find a proper laptop.

 

[Chilolo]

Thanks for the help and support, I really needed a good shoulder-clap..

Well anyway, I will try out that laptop cooler that builderchad was talking about, and then get some more RAM (wich I allready planned before civ4),
and then hope that these things will bring some light on my gaming situation..

If any of you should have any ideas or solutions that I could try out, beside the tow above, then do feel free to mention it - not that I am paranoid in any way or perhaps

But thanks again, and merry christmas (better say it too soon, then too late)

Chilolo

 

[brianshapiro]

I was having problems with Civilization 4 crashing whenever I used the keyboard or sometimes the mouse. I then went to reformat and reinstall Windows. Throughout the whole Windows installation program it would power off the computer unexpectedly. To get it though reinstallation I had to put an ice pack beneath my computer. So I guess my main problem was my laptop was overheating. Even so, was what I experienced normal or should I contact HP service?

 

[builderchad]

I would definately call HP support Brianshapiro...something definately wrong there.