Here's the kinda long-ish story:
Last time I tried to play BF2, I decided I'd just play a quick single player round. I know the game version is up to date and that BF2 is working properly. Game loads, select 16 single-player Gulf of Oman, loading screen, then I'm in game. Spawn as USMC, quickly move two more AI's into my squad, then hop in a hummer and drive to the closest flag. I order everyone out to capture the flag more quickly, and then I get out of the hummer. This is like only a few minutes into gameplay. Then it goes downhill in a matter of seconds. The ground disappears, you can see everything. The skin for the weapons disappear, everyone's holding gray guns now. Then the guns disappear. Then BF2 crashes, QUICKLY. Then the Blue screen of death flashes for like 1-2 seconds, then my computer is off. No shut-down period, just instantly off. I put my hand underneath - it's sweltering - I imagine my laptop overheated, which caused various parts to fail (first, notably the GPU). So I'm worried, dig around in my crap, and find the little pamphlet that is like discovering gold. It's my Office Depot 3-year warranty.
My laptop is a Sony Vaio FS660P/W (Click here for every stat...or click here for stats too) by the way.
After some calls and shipping, my laptop is in Florida for repairs. I get a call from the repair company informing me that they couldn't find anything wrong with my laptop - it passed the air-flow test (meaning it was properly ventilating), and all the components, according to them, are in working order. The only thing they did was reset the OS (which is Microsoft XP Pro). I'm hoping that reset will help, but I think I might need to be proactive in preventing my computer from overheating.
So, I'm looking to purchase a cooling pad to help keep my laptop from going Chernobyl again, as I so affectionately refer to the incident I described above. I'm totally open to your suggestions, but here are my requirements:
===If it's a really good cooling pad, I'm willing to pay around US $50, so that's about my spending limit.
===It'd be nice if the cooling pad could fit in a backpack sleeve, but it's not mandatory.
===The pad CANNOT have a lip on the front - I have jacks/switch I need to have access to on the front of the laptop, so the lip would only get in the way.
===My laptop blows the heat out the back right corner, but it gets warm all along the back edge, so that's probably where the majority of the cooling needs to be directed, aka a cooling pad without any ventilation on the back edge won't cut it.
===It needs to fit my laptop, which is a 15.4" Widescreen model, dimensions 14.33(width front/back) x 1-1.41(height) x 10.41(sides) inches
By the way, I'm cool with newegg.com and amazon.com, especially amazon --> through a friend I have Amazon Prime = 2 day shipping for free!
Here's some I've just picked out that seem to have good reviews, but I'm unsure as to which I should buy. Again, I'm totally open to your comments, even saying that the ones below suck, but PLEASE, make a recommendation to a better unit then! Thanks so much!
(Click picture for link to product page)
(picture below is top of device, link to amazon shows pic of bottom of device)
Last time I tried to play BF2, I decided I'd just play a quick single player round. I know the game version is up to date and that BF2 is working properly. Game loads, select 16 single-player Gulf of Oman, loading screen, then I'm in game. Spawn as USMC, quickly move two more AI's into my squad, then hop in a hummer and drive to the closest flag. I order everyone out to capture the flag more quickly, and then I get out of the hummer. This is like only a few minutes into gameplay. Then it goes downhill in a matter of seconds. The ground disappears, you can see everything. The skin for the weapons disappear, everyone's holding gray guns now. Then the guns disappear. Then BF2 crashes, QUICKLY. Then the Blue screen of death flashes for like 1-2 seconds, then my computer is off. No shut-down period, just instantly off. I put my hand underneath - it's sweltering - I imagine my laptop overheated, which caused various parts to fail (first, notably the GPU). So I'm worried, dig around in my crap, and find the little pamphlet that is like discovering gold. It's my Office Depot 3-year warranty.
My laptop is a Sony Vaio FS660P/W (Click here for every stat...or click here for stats too) by the way.
After some calls and shipping, my laptop is in Florida for repairs. I get a call from the repair company informing me that they couldn't find anything wrong with my laptop - it passed the air-flow test (meaning it was properly ventilating), and all the components, according to them, are in working order. The only thing they did was reset the OS (which is Microsoft XP Pro). I'm hoping that reset will help, but I think I might need to be proactive in preventing my computer from overheating.
So, I'm looking to purchase a cooling pad to help keep my laptop from going Chernobyl again, as I so affectionately refer to the incident I described above. I'm totally open to your suggestions, but here are my requirements:
===If it's a really good cooling pad, I'm willing to pay around US $50, so that's about my spending limit.
===It'd be nice if the cooling pad could fit in a backpack sleeve, but it's not mandatory.
===The pad CANNOT have a lip on the front - I have jacks/switch I need to have access to on the front of the laptop, so the lip would only get in the way.
===My laptop blows the heat out the back right corner, but it gets warm all along the back edge, so that's probably where the majority of the cooling needs to be directed, aka a cooling pad without any ventilation on the back edge won't cut it.
===It needs to fit my laptop, which is a 15.4" Widescreen model, dimensions 14.33(width front/back) x 1-1.41(height) x 10.41(sides) inches
By the way, I'm cool with newegg.com and amazon.com, especially amazon --> through a friend I have Amazon Prime = 2 day shipping for free!
Here's some I've just picked out that seem to have good reviews, but I'm unsure as to which I should buy. Again, I'm totally open to your comments, even saying that the ones below suck, but PLEASE, make a recommendation to a better unit then! Thanks so much!
(Click picture for link to product page)
(picture below is top of device, link to amazon shows pic of bottom of device)
Last edited by commandochristian (2008-02-14 22:20:32)
