Motherboard Fried

Sins or no Sins?

Published on July 20, 2008 By Dieselsoldier In Technical

Last time I played Sins 2 months back - multiplayer- the game crashed after some visual garbage on the screen. The eventual diagnosis? Motherboard physically fried, no drek.

Computer off to the factory, new chips installed etc. Now, I am a little hesitant to play Sins again though I do not know if the game somehow caused the motherboard to spontaneously burst into flames or if the cause was long term chronic overheating. Maybe.

What I want to know before attempting any reinstall: Have there been any other reports of physical drive faliures or melted CPUs or anthing of this sort you guys are aware of?

Laptop: Vista Home Premium Intel Core Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00 GHz 2.00 GB RAM Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS

Comments

Kitkun

on Jul 20, 2008

Not terribly likely to be Sins' fault.

I haven't heard of problems with those components. Look around for reports on the manufacturer and the model you have.

Make sure your laptop is always well-ventilated. Especially when doing something that will stress it. Don't overclock it, either.

WebReg

on Jul 20, 2008

I know this is gonna sound stupid (especially if you already know it) - but don't sit with your laptop on your lap.

Most laptops are actually built assuming that the underside of the machine is raised above a solid surface by its feet - giving air flow beneath the machine. If you sit with it on your lap it wont have that ventilation and could easily overheat.

Similarly, don't sit it on any other soft surface - on a desk or table is best. And keep any vents at the side or rear free as well.

Applications themselves rarely if ever directly cause hardware damage - but could stress an already sensitive system and push it over the edge.

Dieselsoldier

on Jul 21, 2008

Thank you for your responses.

I'll retry Sins now with more confidence.

I already use a ventilator and I don't overclock. The heat issue seems to stem from this particular model HP Pavilion laptop as the repair guy claimed to have seen numerous fried boards like mine. My guess is the hardware I chose (custom) is not designed to run in such small space.

Annatar11

on Jul 21, 2008

Some laptops tend to run very hot, yeah. I "have" a Dell (about 3 years old, use it for movies

) that I couldn't sit on my lap if I wanted to.. it gets so hot it might as well burn me. The reason I wrote "have"? I'm pretty sure all that heat is slowly but surely killing it. Recently it started giving me BSODs half the time when I try to power it up

So yeah, the game wouldn't have anything to do with it. Whereas you can get a case with extra fans for the PC, laptops don't really have that luxury so depending on the hardware, heat is a much bigger issue.

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