Overheating Problem

[george]

Hello everyone,
I bought this game on steam summer sale. I enjoy playing it but i have an issue with overheating.
It seems that the game is causing my laptop to overheat like hell. It reaches 90C and once during a bossfight it reached 95C, which is the shutdown threshold, and turned off.
I have tried reducing the resolution to 1024x768, turned shadows off, turn effects off. I have the textures to medium.
The game has reached the point where it looks fake-ish with the low quality. Still the problem persists. I even tried undervolting my laptop but to no effect when playing the game. It still reached 90+ degrees. Does anyone have a solution to this?
The only temporary solution i have is to minimize the game with ALT+TAB and let the laptop cooldown a couple of minutes to 70C and then up again.
Here are my specs:
Acer Aspire 5930g
Intel core 2 Duo T9400 2.53GHz
Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT
4 GB Ram DDR2
Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (which means 3 GB Ram in reality)
Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[Zloth]

I've heard of this before. For some reason, the card goes crazy trying to render as many frames per second as it can so it starts cranking out 250+ fps! It's fairly rare but it does happen.

You might try upgrading your graphics drivers. It could be the problem is rare because the drivers that have that problem haven't been used much. That's just shooting in the dark, though.

If you can, get to the NVIDIA control panel and manage the 3D settings for just this game. Set the verticle sync to On. That should keep the fps down and let the 9600M cool down.

[george]

I will try that, though i have already limited the fps to 30 via the main menu settings. That thing with the unlimited fps was happening sometime ago to Faster Than Light and was overheating my laptop too. It was solved when i enabled vsync, just as you suggest now. I hope it works this time too. Thanks for the input.
Edit: I tried the Vsync Forced On in the Nvidia control panel, but to no effect. 5 minutes in the game, 85C. I will try upgrading my drivers next, and hope for the best
Edit2: I ugraded my drivers to the latest. Still no effect. Sigh, i guess i will play the game when i get a new desktop then... So disappointing...I've been looking for a good recent turnbased combat rpg to play and the one i find turns my laptop into a toaster. Well, thanks again for the input.

[Victrola]

You have a pretty old laptop there. It's actually near the minimum specs, for a 2009 game. I use a desktop with i5 2500k, and AMD 6850 graphics card. So Zloth, your advice would make sense for me, if I wanted to download some 3rd party programs to try and force Vsync (the in-game frame limits don't do much). Without any programs, it uses 60% of my cpu across all 4 cores (I don't use a hyperthreaded 8 virtual core cpu, to avoid other issues with fun Unreal Engine 3 games I had in 2010ish). I'd be ok with that cpu use, except that it pushes one core to 100% at all times (as seen through ctrl+shift+esc, and viewing the performance). After trying to set up like over 40 options in the ini files, keyboard config with no mouse, learning the game mechanics, etc, I feel I've beat the game before I want to try and do that in the actual game by upgrading an ally characters weapon!

This game basically works around finely crafted texture quality, with no anti aliasing or stuffs that newer computers are made to handle in their workload. I don't want to bore ya with more talk, but you'd need a new computer, and even then it would be a chore to get this game running right!

[george]

Yeah, that's what i've been getting from googling too. It sucks though, because in the Minimum-Recommended System requirements,theoretically, i have most of the recommended. I even put my laptop specs on gamedebate to estimate if i could run it, and the response was it could, with a small concern about the 9600GT. The weird thing is that my laptop came out in 2008 so it is nearly inconceivable that it has such trouble playing a 2009 game. Maybe i have burned through the thermal paste of my heatsink with use, something i read on a forum post, and that's why i see such a rapid increase in heat. But i can't be sure since i don't know what to look for if i open it... Just when i finally understood how the combat system works.... Pity, at least it will still be in my steam library for the new pc, when i get it sometime...

[handsovereyes]

I've found that, even with a pretty good lappy, it heated mine to an almost scorching temp. My solution was to pick up a cooling mad - it has since brought the game down by 7C (which is a significant drop), as well as other titles by approx 11C

[george]

Thanks for the input. However i am using a cooling pad. Not a great one, but it throws air and i have adjusted the laptop so that it gets the most of it. Even with the use of a cooling pad though, the temperature gets very close to shut down temp... I am sad to say, that i have stopped playing the game because of the overheating issue. Maybe if/when i buy a desktop i will play it there.

[Lawsie]

turn on Vsync. Its very much needed, i havent played in aaages but i certainly remember that.

[george]

Alas, it was the first thing i enabled. I didn't really notice if there was a difference though. ... Thanks for your input too though.

[Lawsie]

limit frame rates to 60 i mean

[george]

I tried that too. Actually i limited frame rate to 30fps... I was desperate. Though, still boiling temps.

[la_nague]

you cant blame the game....your hardware CAN play the game, just as the specs tell you.

Its just that your PC is unable to get the heat away fast enough.
This is not a software error, maybe you should look what is wrong with your hardware. A PC should never overheat like this. It should be able to sustain 100% load. Sure, it gets loud and hot, but it should not shut down or be damaged.

[george]

What you say is correct, by all means. What troubles me is that since the game pushes my laptop to it's limits, the excessive heat will have an impact on my laptop's hardwares lifetime. If the temperatures were 10C less then i wouldn't be troubled. However, from the minimum specs my laptop should be able to run the game more than adequately without heat issues...

[Mållgan]

Have you tried enabling Power Saver mode in the power options? Also try and undervolt the cpu, it usually works.

I have a laptop as well and I'm currently downloading the game and will try it out. I will tell you if I will run into this issue.

My laptop specs are:

AMD Turion Dual Core x2 RM-74 2.2ghz
ATI Radeon HD 4650 Mobility
4GB Ram.

[george]

I did try to undervolt my CPU. From 1.5 to 1.0675V. It made no difference. The game still reached the same temeratures as if i had done anything. On full load run with other program i had 10C less. Topping at 83-84C. With the game still 94-95C... How undervolting didn't produce effects still amazes me...

[Mållgan]

Oprindeligt skrevet af george:

I did try to undervolt my CPU. From 1.5 to 1.0675V. It made no difference. The game still reached the same temeratures as if i had done anything. On full load run with other program i had 10C less. Topping at 83-84C. With the game still 94-95C... How undervolting didn't produced effects still amazes me...

Even with power options set to power saver?