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Would appreciate advice on laptop overheating and registry issue

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mosey:
Hi

I haven't been an active member of DonationCoder (apologies) but I do enjoy reading the newsletter that comes through to my email, and was wondering if it might be possible to get some advice from people here with some problems I've been having with my 5 year old laptop.

1. Laptop Overheating:  I play a very old Valve game called Team Fortress Classic (on Steam), and several months ago, my laptop would suddenly turn off mid-game.

Initially I thought it was the wireless card going awry, as every time I booted the laptop after a sudden-death, I would physically have to press the wireless button on my keyboard to 'reset' the wireless.

But after installing Notebook Hardware Control, I am now wondering if it might be the CPU as the temperature does get rather high sometimes (80 degrees celsius) according to its monitor.

I have now attempted to 'underclock' the CPU using this program, and if I play TFC, I find that my laptop doesn't shut down suddenly, but after about 5-10 mins, my wireless connection will disconnect, only to reconnect again after about 10 seconds (effectively kicking me out of a game)

The laptop model is an NEC Versa e6000, and without knowing where the actual hardware sits, I wonder if the CPU could cause the wireless card to overheat.

If it is the CPU overheating, what would be the best way of dealing with this without using an external laptop cooler?

2. Small registry problem: In a bit to clean up my system a while ago, I started using Revo Uninstaller to uninstall programs. Somewhere along the line I forgot to check each 'registry' entry before deleting, and now when I try to use Launchy (application launcher) or the Start Menu - to open up e.g. 'My Computer' I receive an error:
This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Folders Options control panel.
--- End quote ---
If I click on the link on my desktop to My Computer, it works just fine.
 I have tried using the filefix for 'lnk' and 'cpl' reg files at Doug Knox's site, but to no avail.

I know it's rather cheeky of me to ask for help without contributing much towards the community, but any advice would be really much appreciated!

Many thanks.

mrainey:
Fred Langa's thoughts on overheating.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60300177

mouser:
I know it's rather cheeky of me to ask for help without contributing much towards the community
--- End quote ---
not at all -- we don't view things that way here -- everyone is welcome to ask for help when they need it.

you're already way ahead of most people in diagnosing your problem.. and it's highly likely you have correctly identified why your computer is spontaneously shutting down.  not only that but figured out a fix for it.

i'm not a hardware expert by any means, but it kind of seems unlikely to me that the heat is responsible for the wireless card losing it's connection.. just because there seem more likely culprits, like the normal annoying dropped connection that occurs relatively frequently for everyone.  wireless usb adapters and pcmcia cards are very cheap these days, and it may pay to just buy one and see if it solves your issue.

[i had a problem with my old laptop suddenly being unable to go to standby properly after i upgraded to windows xp sp3.. after a day of struggling i just said sod it and bought a new $20 network adapter card and the problem was solved; sometimes it really is easier to just replace something than figure out what particular gremlin is on your wing.  however -- if you have a built in network adapter in your laptop that may not be a viable option, though it would be useful if only to tell you if overheating is the the cause].

As for your My Computer issue, i don't know.

TucknDar:
If it is the CPU overheating, what would be the best way of dealing with this without using an external laptop cooler?-mosey (July 04, 2009, 04:20 PM)
--- End quote ---
Sounds like you've got dust in there. Have you ever cleaned the fans in your laptop? My laptop was overheating (not drastically like yours, but too much) so I found a guide on the net, bought a can of "canned air" and cleaned the fans. Solved it! If you've never cleaned your laptop, I'd put money on dust being the cause of the overheated CPU.

Shades:
When the laptop is older, chances are that you can find a service manual for free. Usually a service manual tells you how to correctly dismantle your laptop. When you have such a manual and some technical knowhow you could be removing all the dust everywhere in the laptop.

The reason that I am not a fan of the canned air solution is that you can (seriously) damage fan(s). Blowing air directly at a fan will make it rotate at an RPM rate it was not designed for. Securing the fan(s) will prevent that, but I'll guarantee you that not all dust bunnies are removed from their burrow otherwise known as your laptop.

Having said that, most dust bunnies do leave so you should notice a drop in temperature.

Come to think of it, when you are able to remove the keyboard from the laptop following the steps from the manual you should have good view of all the dust buildup inside.

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