Back last spring, my 3 year old Lenovo laptop died and the guy at the local computer repair shop (pretty well rated by online reviewers) said that it was a known problem with computers using an AMD chip, that the processor can overheat and fail, and the only options are to dump the computer, or get a new motherboard. I went with the new board, although it cost $200 and I only paid $300 for the computer, but it seemed to be less hassle than shifting everything onto a new PC. The guy said he couldn't promise that the new motherboard would be any better than the old one, but so far so good.

Now my wife's HP laptop, the same age as the Lenovo, has failed--not with quite the same symptoms as mine, but the repair shop diagnosed the same problem. We've got a third, newer computer now, so we haven't had the HP fixed. But I'm wondering if this is really a pervasive problem and whether anything can be done about it; I'm typing this on the Lenovo, but now I wonder if it's going to quit any moment. One thing I did after a web search was install a program called Core Temp, which can apparently give a readout and a record over time of processor temperature. It says the rated max for the chip is 100C, and so far I've never seen it go over 55, so that seems very safe. I'm wondering what I could ever do on the computer that would stress it beyond a safe temperature level; but maybe it's a question of operation at lower than the maximum temperature over an extended period of time. Or could it be that the processor chips just die randomly, and the computer shop guy tells all his customers "It overheated" when he should really say "Who the hell knows"?

 

You can simply buy cooling pad.

Also clean out the dust from inside every few months. There is usually a panel that you can remove on the bottom. Take it off, blow the dust out, put it back.

In my limited experience (Acer Aspire 3000, AMD Mobile Semprone, Win Xp Home), the lappy shut down when it overheated. I had CoreTemp running so I got warning and it even asked me if I wanted to shutdown the lappy.

 

Thanks for the response. I was hoping someone with experience would comment on that claim that AMD chips are prone to destructive overheating. It's not that I doubt that the thing failed, but I wonder if it's a convenient story to give customers to explain just random failures. There's nothing I've been able to find on the Internet that really says "This is a notorious weak point of AMD processors..."

So now I've got Core Temp running and it's never shown a temperature reading above the mid-50s. On the other hand, I know it works because if I get the processor to do something (just starting the browser will do it) there is an immediate small increase in the temperature. With the measured temperature so far from what's said to be dangerous, I wouldn't worry, but then is that measurement really the right figure, and could the really vulnerable point be hotter? And as you mention, there should be a warning or a shutdown before it gets damaged, and it didn't happen with either my wife's computer or mine. The computer should protect itself against overheating, and here are two computers that didn't--and the guy in the shop says it's pretty common.

 

Our company use AMD chips in all it's PCs and same with my personal PC, never seen a problem with overheating and some of the company laptops are AMD based and they never have a problem. But everything we use runs on linux and has done for the last 5-6 years and linux doesnt have the bloat factor Win seems to have with its OS, so it may be an OS problem, rather than chip. Seen the same with intel, some laptops overheat a bit using WIn, but not linux. I'd be looking at what resources are running on your system, it may be a case of to many unnecessary things running and shutting down some may fix your problem.

 

And as you mention, there should be a warning or a shutdown before it gets damaged, and it didn't happen with either my wife's computer or mine. The computer should protect itself against overheating, and here are two computers that didn't--and the guy in the shop says it's pretty common.

Let me add some details.

The Acer Aspire 3000 (AMD Mobile Semprone, Win Xp Home) would shutdown without warning. It is kinda old by today's standards (old cpu architecture, old video chip architecture). What I observed is that when I tried to play youtube video, the lappy would shut down. So I put CoreTemp on it (my go to temp utility), and I replicated the result, went to play youtube, the temp shoot the hell up and lappy shutdown.

CoreTemp is very nice program. You can set it up to pop up a message window for you. That is what I have now. I run CoreTemp and I bought very cheap cooling pad. I have not had any problems. But that lappy is basically in the living room and it never moves from there.

Honestly... these days... I would go to pawn shop and just pick up a lappy that works.