Laptop Specs

Harps

A question I've been meaning to ask for a while, how do I know if my laptop is capable of properly running a game well? Wanting to give HL2 amongst other things a shot on it and although the 'will it run?' sites say it's fine, I'm sceptical if it'll really run on my laptop to a satisfactory level.

Even with old games like Half Life 1 I find my laptop overheats very quickly, it'll turn off if running the game for more than a couple of hours even though it comfortably passes the specs requirements

Zillah

We could help more if you actually told us what the specs were.

As for the overheating, have you tried cleaning the fan with some compressed air?

tman

Yeah, we can't really help much without some more info...

My magic ball says you have an 8600GS GPU... Am I right?

Duggy747

Harps wrote: »

Even with old games like Half Life 1 I find my laptop overheats very quickly, it'll turn off if running the game for more than a couple of hours even though it comfortably passes the specs requirements

Sounds like Old Betty needs a clean around the fan or you have it sitting on a cushion / on top of your bed.

Anywho, Half Life 2 has always been known for having a versitile engine which could be played on a range of machines from shìtty ones onwards.

Minimum requirements of the game:

• Processor: 1.2 GHz Processor
• OS: Windows, 2000/XP/Me/98
• Graphic card: DirectX 7 level graphics card
• Hard Drive: 4.5 GB
• Memory: 256 MB RAM

Turtwig

You could just download the demo and see how it handles on your laptop.:)

Mark Hamill

This website is pretty good at telling whether or not your system will handle a specific game:http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/

Alternatively you can got to "Start", then "Run" and type in "dxdiag" (without the inverted commas). On the menu that pops up, the system section will tell you your processor, and the display section will tell you your graphics card and you can use that to find out what you can run (or post the results here and ask for opinions).

Keep in mind though, if its heating up on half life 1 it probably needs a clean around the fan and maybe new thermal paste too.

Harps

Thought I did add the specs..odd

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 1.90GHz
2GB RAM
32 Bit Vista
ATI Radeon X1250 Graphic Card

It comfortably passes on that system requirements site but as I said Half Life 1 seems to strain it.

I've had it for 3 years now so I guess I'll have a look into cleaning around the fan and see if it helps

Monotype

The graphics is pretty weak and old but if HL1 is stuggling, then it's more likely due to excess junk running in the background. Uninstall any programs you don't need and defragment the drive.

Overheal

3 years old = clean it

Potential-Monke

Well if it is anything like my XPS, then get rid of Vista and install XP.

TerrorFirmer

Harps wrote: »

Thought I did add the specs..odd

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 1.90GHz
2GB RAM
32 Bit Vista
ATI Radeon X1250 Graphic Card

It comfortably passes on that system requirements site but as I said Half Life 1 seems to strain it.

I've had it for 3 years now so I guess I'll have a look into cleaning around the fan and see if it helps

Half Life original is an ancient game and although your integrated gpu is similarly poor by modern standards, it would easily play HL at any setting or resolution flawlessly. HL2 would be a different story, thought it's such a hardware friendly engine it would run fine on the X1250, even. Neither game should give you any trouble really, as advised already give your laptop a bit of a physical and software wise spring clean.

Skerries

try and clean your fan out with compressed air

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yyEVSkz_0M

check to see if there is one for your particular model

also you might consider getting a laptop cooling pad

Jonny7

to clean/speed up the pc go to download.com

search for advanced systemcare I think its called

that'll clean it real good

Harps

Cheers for all the tips, I'm finishing up at college at the moment so think I'll wait a few weeks before taking the laptop apart incase I mess something up.