Getting an Underfan?

My laptop is doing the same thing my old one used to do: Giving me lag waves in my video games. My old laptop, when playing San Andreas, would give me about 15-30 seconds of good gameplay and then a wave of lag and then 15-30 seconds of good gameplay and then a wave of lag. When I tried reinstalling the Operating System on my old laptop, it shut down in the middle of the installation, every freakin' time. So I sent it in, and when I got the papers back, it said all they basically did was replace the fan. The laptop worked fine after that.

So I theorize I have the same problem with this laptop. I know in another thread some of you said that a slower fan won't cause lag waves, and yes, I can hear the fan spinning now, but nonetheless I DO get lagwaves, and in flash games! Flash games that inferior school-issue CrApple laptops can play without any trouble. If that's not telling, I don't know what is. And whenever I try to play Rise of Nations, it lasts about an hour or two and then the computer blacks out on its own, I think because it got too hot (I feel under it, and it's burning up when it does this) so I let it sleep for a while and then it can resume the game.

I'm planning on backing up my data, and wiping the drive of this computer and giving it XP. For one it'll use less RAM, and for another, I'll know if it's the same problem or not if it shuts down in the middle of OS installation like my old one did. Whether it does or not though, I'll probably send it in eventually. But, whether I need to get the fan fixed or not, I want to keep the laptop cool from now on. So I want to buy one of those fans that acts like a platform you sit your laptop on top of.

So, I need to know what brand to look for. I don't want to have to buy more than one of these underfan things, so I want a brand that'll last, a brand that's thorough, and a brand that can fit a laptop that's about 13-14 inches wide by 10-11 inches on the bottom. Any suggestions?

Why don't you just get an ANIME fan?!

DOHOHOHOHOHO

But no seriously, clean out your fans, and keep it on somewhere solid and flat when using it, putting it on your lap or bed only keeps the transfer of heat at a high level and damages shit.

If you really want an underfan, just get whatever. Use some common sense man, where would you be if we didn't walk you through getting new computer things?

Install and run speedfan. Run a demanding program, and check the temperatures in speedfan. Post results.

Get a desktop if you want to play games. Also, the GTA series is infamous for its PC version bugs and glitches.

Get a desktop if you want to play games. Also, the GTA series is infamous for its PC version bugs and glitches.

It is? San Andreas runs perfectly fine for me once I run it in Windows 98 compatibility mode so everything doesn't move at 2x speed. It's bizarre seeing cars not being able to stop in time. They didn't design it for multi core processors.

It is.

If you use your laptop at a desk, I'd suggest getting an elevated laptop stand instead of a fan. It does the same thing, but costs less.

And I don't mean one of those gay angled stands. The one I have is basically just a 6 inch high metal shelf with holes in the base so air can flow. It works fantastically.


Well, yeah, maybe get an angled one if you actually use the keyboard on the laptop, but I don't, I have a wireless keyboard/mouse so I'm basically using the laptop as a monitor.

Where you may think a fan would solve the problem it might no. It'll just attempt to keep your overheating hardware cooler. Please post the temperatures like Roph asked. This will show if its the hardware or just the lack of cooling thats causing high temperatures.

I did what you suggested, here's what I observed:
Runescape still had lag waves, but they APPEARED to be less frequent. The temp went up to the early-to-mid 90's, having started at 81-86.
When I ran Rise of Nations, it went a little while but caused the computer to put itself in hibernation again.

So if Speedfan did indeed speed up my fan, it wasn't by enough. Now bear in mind when I first had this Lappy, it was capable of playing games like Runescape and Rise of Nations without issue.

That being said, I wasn't quite sure how to use Speedfan. I ticked off the "Automatic SpeedFan" box. The bars about CPU usage fluctuate from tiny amounts to filled-to-center and occasionally over the center.

Which section should I look for readings from in particular? And how do I configure? In the "fans" section I didn't see anything listed.

Speedfan doesn't speed your fan. It shows you a reading of temperatures and fan usage.

I got one for Christmas and I didn't even ask for it =o

/brag

Speedfan doesn't speed your fan. It shows you a reading of temperatures and fan usage.

Oh, all righty. How do I go about collecting that data while I'm gaming?

use the chart feature.
Tick sections you want logging.
play game.
exit.
read graph.
?
PROFIT!