Hey all. Hoping for some direction regarding a problem I am having.

I returned to playing Skyrim on my laptop now that Dawnguard is available. Ever since I've been having problems with my machine literally shutting down. Not to desktop- just flat power off.

Here are some parameters of what is going on:

1. My vid card is the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870.
2. I utilize a HDMI cable to run my video to a larger, external monitor but only when playing games.
3. I updated the card drivers this morning with the Windows 7 control panel utility. Problem still occurring.
4. So far the time that I'm able to play before a crash varies from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Most often it has been less than one hour. There is no consistency in the time till the crash event occurs.
5. I've "tested" a theory that it was the vid card by playing Amalur. Played that for a good two hours- no crash. Not sure what to make of this.
6. Early on I turned off the Hi-Res pack thinking that that was overloading the video.
7. Active mods are Better Roads and Sounds of Skyrim.
8. My laptop is often on all day long as I write. Never powers down while I'm surfing the net or writing.

Thoughts? Ideas? Links to solutions? Any assistance would be much appreciated.

1. It's overheated, and you aren't running any thermal monitoring.

2. It's got a defective or mismatched power brick. A laptop with that video card needs a bigger and more powerful power supply than the stock brick supplied with a standard laptop. When the power runs out, the PC is forced to quit.

A full shut down of a system means the system is overheating and the built in sensors are reaching critical, so it shuts down the system to help prevent damage.

I have an Alienware laptop with the same card, where did you get the drivers as mine are from 2010 and updating causes the comptuer to never power down or restart. Would interest me please.

I also use a type docking station that blows air into the fans under the laptop, amazon or ebay is your friend to find.

All I did was go into control panel and let Windows update the drivers. Utilizing the AMD/ATI site actually loaded drivers that Windows didn't appreciate. Something about unsigned certificates.

Good idea re: docking station. Hadn't though about that. Thanks!

It does appear I have an overheating issue. Sigh. But at least there are some things I can control/fix.