Acer Aspire 8920 shut down problem

steve.alpha

Hello everyone, I'm really hoping someone can help me with this as I've tried everything else I've found on the internet with this.

The Problem
Whenever I run a game the computer suddenly shuts down. No warning screen just completely shuts off. This problem has been described by a number of users on various different websites after a bit of googling.

The specifics
I am trying to run fallout 3, even tried it on it's lowest settings. It also happens with Mass Effect however I know it can run this game as I've played a good few hours of that but it was a good few months ago now. I hadn't played it for a while and came back to it and it just shut down maybe 3 mins after opening the game.

The Apparent Cause?
Overheating, as described by most of the other forums.

The Solutions
Raising to laptop to let it ventilate. Tried and to no success.
Undervolting. I went through this entire guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/235824-undervolting-guide.html and when I ran ORTHOS the max I got was 65C which doesn't seem that hot? But I went through it all anyway and deceased it by 10C and didn't go much further. Still shuts down.
Cleaning out the fan and heatsink. I opened her up last night and gave it a good old blow (manually) just around the fan and got a few hefty enough dust bunnies out of it. Tried it again and still the same shut down. So all I can think of is that I couldn't find the heatsink (not sure what it looks like) and so couldn't clean it. I can open it up and take pictures maybe and someone could point it out? Or maybe compressed air might help, eventhough I got a good amount out just by myself?

Could there maybe be another problem I'm not thinking of? Can anybody help with this? Any more information you need just ask, I hope I have most of it here.

Gone Drinking

Try underclocking the graphics card, if that helps, then you know thats whats overheating. I just googled your model of laptop there and there's a post or two of people having similar problems to yourself.

steve.alpha

Are there any underclocking guides online? From what I can tell this is basically making the graphics card worse so that it becomes less stressed? I'm very inexperienced at this so excuse the laymans terms. Will I be able to change it back again no hassle after changing it? I have RMclock downloaded which I used to undervolt, can it be used to underclock?

8balljunkie

hi everyone

about the aspire 8920(G) the problem is this you need a tool from acer called "empowering technology" in order to have a graphic card control and etc... The problem is it only supports VISTA!!!!!

If you are a windows 7 user i suggested you download ati catalyst control center install the program and then go to graphics -> powerplay and change the plugged in box to "maximaze battery life" so that it doesn't work at maximum speed. I know it reduces performance but at least it doesn't shutdown during gaming!

danger_mouse_tm

Get a can of air and blow out the exhaust at the side and the air intake at the bottom. Raising the laptop is not enough. If it has every been on your lap then the fan at the bottom has drawn in fibres from your clothes. If you are anyway handy, you could take off the bottom panel and give the the cooling system a good cleanout. There are various laptop cooling pads out there will built in fans from €10 delivered on ebay.