My laptop keeps shutting down while playing games. Help!!

[BlackCitadel]

Hello,
First, my laptop model is SATELLITE C660-1M0
PART NO. PSC1GE

Windows 7 Ultimate
Core i3 M 380 2.53 GHz
RAM 3GB

ATI 500 MB Graphics card.

Yesterday while I was trying out the game "Dark Siders II" the laptop shut down automatically.

And today while I was playing The Sims 3, it shut down 2 times. No Blue screens or error messages, it just shut down and the screen turns off immediately.

Can anyone please tell me what causes this?

Please, any one help me because this drives me crazy!!

 

[Digerati]

First thought is heat - since gaming is one of the most demanding tasks we can ask of our computers. So you need to make sure you don't have a build up of heat trapping dust.

I wish whoever coined the word "laptop" never did. A "notebook" should never be used on your lap (or bed, carpet, etc.) but on a hard, flat surface that allows air to circulate underneath.

What are your temps? You can monitor them in real time with Speedfan or I use CoreTemp.

If temps are okay (60°C or less for the CPU) you might consider getting a Notebook Cooling Pad w/ext. power supply. Powering the pad's fans with an external power supply (instead of through the notebook's USB port) does not increase the demands (and thus, generated heat!) on the notebook's battery and/or power circuits.

 

[BlackCitadel]

I am using my laptop on a glass table.

 

[BlackCitadel]

Unfortunately the CPU temperature gets over 60,
Core 0 gets to 64 MAX and core 1 gets to 63

 

[Digerati]

64°C is not "hot" but it is very warm and could still result in stability issues. My suggestion to use a cooling pad still holds - especially when running resource demanding programs like 3D animated games.

You should also remove every cover, the battery, drives and any card to expose as much of the interior as possible to remove any heat trapping dust. You can buy cans of compressed dusting gas at most discount and home improvement stores.

You also need to verify your fans are spinning - visually if possible or at least by feeling for heated air being exhausted out.

Also, make sure your system is fully updated and it is malware free.

 

[iceferret]

Similar thing happened to me recently, plus it would freeze up, cleaning dust out improved it slightly but not long after that the hard drive failed. replaced and no more shutdowns. Fortunately I had plenty of recent backups.

 

[Arfer Daley]

lick the back of your hand
then place back of hand as near to cpu vent slots you should feel warm air pumping out as the cpu fan spins if this is not the case power down computer and hold the hoover hose over the vents and hope it sucks out some caught up dust/fluff switch pc back on and do test again hopefully airflow will be better if not its poss slowing down of cpu fan could be the problem yyou can use the suck or blow end of the hoover or try both to dislodge any hairs etc that seem too clog up the airflow vents (sounds a weird thing too do but ive used this method a few times too clear a semi blocked vent on a laptop

 

[chepsy99]

It could be driver related, do some more research into the matter before purchasing a cooling pad.

 

[DavidStanely]

I might be due to following issues:

PC might be overheating, make sure that fans are working fine.
Unwanted running programs
Windows is infected
Registry related issues

Try to fix above mentioned problems. Hope issue is resolved.