Notebook Random Restarting

[Private_Shon]

My friend has a year old reasonably well maintained Toshiba A70. For the first 8-9 months no problems, playing CS:S or HL2 (Just a little lag) but no major problems, even playing for long periods of time, but now it seems that it resets itself even just browsing the net and just doing work around 20 mins it does it. so he places a couple of tissues and cold ice-pack on the hottest part and it seems to keep the computer on for considerably longer maybe couple hours then turns off. Don't think its a virus because nothing else seems to be going wrong. no new software installations or hardware installs. powers fine because AC + battery so if AC stops battery should keep it on. any ideas? i'm thinking formatting.

hes not overclocking either. no fancy stuff just average PC gamer.

or is there a model defect?

 

[Nitestick]

sounds like overheating for certain. i haven't done much work on laptops but as far as i know the cooling is just a simple low profile heatsink (duh). the most logical explaination for an overheating problem that has developed is a) dust buildup b) dying fan C) thermal paste between the cpu and heatsink has lost its effectiveness.

 

[Private_Shon]

how would you suggest to fix it?

 

[Nitestick]

with care you could open the laptop up. if it appears to be a dust problem get a hold of some "canned air" and use that to clear the dust. if possible while its open carefully turn it on (without damaging the laptop or yourself of course) and make sure the fans seem to be running at a decent speed. if the fans are running alright and dust doesn't seem to be the problem replace the thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5. don't worry too much about what it is or how to use it yet. if the first 2 things fail post back and it can be explained in full.

 

[Private_Shon]

yeah he got the computer guy to check if it was dust but they opened it and cleaned it already, isn't it really hard to take the processor off and stuff? could he just go to the computer place and get the guy to do it for him? cause hes planning on buying a new PC cause this ones screwed.

 

[Nitestick]

yeah any tech guy with half a brain should be able to do it for you. its actually a simple job it just has to be done well because its important.

 

[Private_Shon]

mmmmmkkkk