Recently, my computer has been overheating when I simply play Skyrim for 5-10 minutes. I've tried tons of things because I think it might be a problem with my computer and not the game because it does it with other games but I've dusted my computer's keyboard and I always have a fan blowing on it. It usually only does it with Skyrim but it has done it with tf2 before once recently. I actually have a laptop, not a desktop, and they seem to overheat a lot but I dunno. Another possible problem is my large amount of mods download for Skyrim that could affect the performance, I've got around 25-30 mods or something downloaded so maybe the game can't handle all of them. I've had crashing issues and problems with modding dragon age and other games before so that could be it.

If anyone can give their thoughts on the matter and offer any advice, that would be great. I haven't played Skyrim for several days except for maybe 5 minutes before it overheats, and I think I might suffer withdrawal symptoms soon

/yep i noticed this also

as soon as i updated to patch and used 4gb patch

i started playing and my computer over heated witin 5 mins

switched back to v1.1 and used LAA had no problems after that

Not much you can do with a laptop accept get some cooling underneath.

do you smoke around it... do you use it around anyone that does smoke.. what about candles.... or insence or anything that may burn... hell even some peoples cooking without burning anything can fill up the internal components of a laptop or desktop with grimy dirt collecting debree... making it VERY difficult to clean... as "blowing" it out won't do much beyond getting some loose stuff out.

I don't know how many laptops i've had to disasemble and individual clean a good chunk of the components and even replace the fan itself ( which is easier said than done in most cases)..

Really not much you can do about it.. this is the failasy of using a laptop.... or a highly compreed "desktop" (mini machines and crap where all the stuff is crammed into a super tight space)

Put an ice cube on top of your monitor.

Its a laptop, ofc it gets overheated.. laptops are not made for gaming, not even the gaming ones.. you need powerfull cooling to game on a laptop :/

FTFY, if you're going to be mean you might as well be right about it.

OP: In the past the laptop would function for much longer time periods right? So yah something has changed and very likely it sounds like the cooling methods are not working like they once were. The question now is, do you have the money or expertise to get that laptop popped open and genuinely cleaned out. That is your resolution, if you've never opened a laptop up before though then its just a matter of finding someone who can and offer them enough money to do it. Its usually about an hour or two of work for someone who knows what they're doing and depending on how easy it is to find the tear-down manual, its just one of the more annoying tasks for sure. I loathe doing it myself and I charge even friends the 'normal rate' to do it. Kind of like a 'don't be so careless' tax for using the laptop in situations where the fans are svcking in crap that clogs them up. It is also again one of the more annoying elements of dealing with computer hardware, especially if you're not the first one to open the laptop and run into a freshly stripped screw.

ED: The other possibilitiy is if the thing is under warranty: Make the manufacturer do it, simple.

Personally i feel sorry for people who waste their money on "gaming" laptops. You can build a custom PC for the same amount of money and get much better components. Or should i say faster components? Laptops are not for gaming and that's it!

If I didn't travel for a living I would build my own, but I need a laptop for work. Figured I might as well spend a little extra money and get one I can play with too.


Don't knock "gaming" laptops. Mine is almost 2 years old and I can run Skyrim on High settings with no issue.

Use compressed air to dust off your comp?

Oooh dusty laptops, my favourite gripe

Its like the manufacturers make access to the worst clogged places particularly awkward to get to so your machine burns out and then you go buy another ... Cynical me, but not too far wrong I dont think.

You can use those compressed air cans to blow out the cooling vents from both sides (depends on make and design), but if you are beyond the warranty its an easy job if the can is not clearing everything.

Please only do this if you feel confident taking your machine to bits ... very, very carefully.

Wear an earthing strap.

Remove power cord.

Remove battery.

Watchmakers screwdrivers, map on a piece of a4 where all the screws came from to open up the bottom panels (map them because occasionally they are different sizes and can cause problems if put back in the wrong holes afterwards .. You dont want to use a bigger screw and poke a hole through layers of the boards inside destroying connections or just making short circuits - Bad juju)

You just want to gain enough access to be able to remove the fan (sometimes you will find bits of sticky tape covering the screws to loosen the fan in its custom shaped housing).

Gently get the fan out of its housing (hopefully there will be enough connecting power supply wire for the fan to just ease it out of the way).

Inside the housing of the fan, have a look where the air gets channeled out of the machine - More than likely that will be your biggest problem, and you will have a carpet blocking the vent grills on the inside.

Clear it gently with some small tools like an artist stiff paint brush, plus a compressed air can to get rid of any remainder (Dont use a hoover - Static build up from using a hoover can damage your machine)

Re-assemble carefully.

I do this on my laptop once every six months. And it usually needs it.

I take no responsibility for any damage you may do to your machine though

I had to stop playing earlier because one of my GTX 580s was overheating. But I *had* been playing from 1 a.m. til 3 p.m. without any significant breaks.

If you dust off your computer with compressed air, be careful though. Do it outside if it's very dusty, and do it from a far distance and hold the fans with a finger when dusting them off so they don't spin.
I didn't do the two latter things a few days ago when I did it, and something then went wrong. Had to get the computer to a technican. Costed me 120$ just for that little mistake when cleaning the computer.

But but I love the sound those fans make when I blast them
/Technician
//yah, I suppose poor quality fans could be hurt if you do this
///Thinking it was more of a situation where you blasted some of the still liquid compressed air by holding the can at a bad angle, far more believable.

I would also look into getting a laptop cooler. 20-30 bucks is a small investment that makes a big difference.

Welcome to the club! My computer overheated from the beginning I played Skyrim, before any updates/patches were added; I had to buy a cooling pad to solve the problem.

My Alienware M17xR3 kicks butt playing skyrim w/ it's HD 6990. No overheating whatsoever. Probably helps that I redid the crappy job Dell does with the thermal paste. Basically I use it like my 'Console' system... It's hooked to my 46" LCD TV, and I use my Xbox 360 controller

My advice for the OP would be to have the thermal paste redone by someone who knows what they are doing, and use a laptop cooler if needed after redoing the paste.

My laptop has the same problem. My solution is to periodically pause the game by hitting ESC (about every 10 minutes or so) to give it 30 or so seconds to cool down. Also, lowering the graphics settings seems to help on a laptop (It's because the onboard graphics of a laptop aren't really up to the task of running a graphics intensive game like Skyrim) - when in pause mode, the game stops rendering the game world, giving your graphics card a chance to "rest"

disable turbo boost in the bios and get a cooler.
thats what i do

This.

If you're nervous, you can look up videos of your specific laptop to see exactly how you should do it. A friend of mine recently cleaned out her fans, and she found tons of hair and dust clumped up inside the fan, but it fixed it right up! But I mean HUGE, like the size of an unfolded wallet. Good luck!

I again highly encourage any laptop opening to only happen if you've got the tear-down manual in hand. Yah sure you like to figure stuff out on your own but honestly: These things can be invaluable and the difference between "If I just apply a little more pressure...oh snap there goes the systemboard" vs "Man this is so much easier with instructions. I'm sure glad I did that now I can play Skyrim at laptop limiting mediocre settings forever!"

If desktops often come with a removable easy-clean dust filter now... why don't gaming laptops?

Does make you consider a conspiracy.

Well the only thing I've ever gamed on besides a couple handhelds is a laptop. I've never owned a console or a desktop in my whole life, just a laptop my mom uses for work stuff since I don't make much money to buy a console or anything at my age ;_; I'm surprised it can run the games it does. It's 3 years old now. I have used compressed air cans to clean out the keyboard since it's the dustiest area and it works so I may try that. I just don't get why it only overheats for Skyrim. It never used to. I have a large fan blowing air directly on the spot to the left of the manual mouse pad because that's where it oftens gets hot, and a rather old fan that sits underneath the computer but it doesn't seem to help much.

I could try lowering graphic settings like someone suggested, because I do have a highly outdated graphic card (ati radeon hd 3100).

My wife uses a a slim platform below her work laptop with a broad, built-in fan to keep the temperature down. I'm sure if you google this, you could probably find out the details. Can't say it will work for gamers--or not, but it's worth looking into.

1. You do not have any "card" at all, if that is all it has. That's only a lowly chipset video Chip, and a very old one of those.

2. Because it was never designed for gaming, its remaining useful life may now be extremely short, because gaming on it will eventually cause the chipset to fail far faster than any of the "normal" activities that it actually was intended to perform.