Help, my laptop is on fire!

[Berek]

I posted about this in my blog: http://mathewanderson.blogspot.com/

Essentially, the temperature monitor of the GPU on my Dell Inspiron e1705 registers an idle temperature of 86c, and a loaded temperature of 92c. At this point the computer slows itself down to an almost standstill (I presume to prevent overheating somehow).

Something is clearly wrong... but I do not know if its the heatsink, fan, or the sensor going haywire.

Either way, I really need something new. This baby took me to China (and hopefully back this coming summer), but it's really outdated with its rather slow ATI 7900gs 256meg graphics card (the rest is ok overall...).

Other system specs:

2ghz C2D
4GB memory cas 5
DVD writer
17" 1920x1200 glossy screen

My inquiry: Should I try and hold out until DDR3/E8500 C2D/8GB/Blu-ray/SSD mini-PC systems come around, or just try and sell this thing for what its worth now (what is this worth anyway?).

Whether I come back to China or not, I'm looking to build a micro-atx enclosure, to give me something more powerful than a laptop could provide. It's less mobile, but still more mobile than a full-blown mid/full tower enclosure.

Oh, and anyone in Hong Kong or Shenzhen China that just happens to know a place this thing could get fixed, message me... .

Thanks,
Berek

 

[digitalwanderer]

it's really outdated with its rather slow ATI 7900gs 256meg graphics card

I REALLY doubt it has an ATi 7900GS in it.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

LOL, I was going to tell him that was the source of his problems, actually. Non-existent video cards do tend to run quite warm

Berek: have you blown out the heatsinks/fans on your laptop? If not, get some compressed air and do it!

 

[Berek]

It's a 7900 GO gs... details, details! .

OooOo, I should indeed do that... k, I'll go to Wal-mart here and see if they have compressed air, which I think they do.

I did take it to some mystery Chinese shop previously here in Shenzhen, but unfortunately they said they couldn't fix it because they "couldn't get the part"... I never bothered to ask what "the part" was .