Computer Conundrum

[Irving]

...while it's on a wire rack that I can put over my alp and it still has a couple of inches...

I had to read this sooooo many times before I figured out that you had a typo and meant to say "lap." heh.

[ruthabagah]

I am thinking thermal event. I bet you if you check the bios at startup you will find that the fan are set to low rpm to minimize the noise, instead of really cooling down your mobo or CPU. Dell and hp used to ship their laptop with a low rpm setting so that they would sound quiet on the store shelves....

[Irving]

Also, what is the cheapest place to order lap top batteries from. It sure as heck isn't Microcenter.

[StagLefty]

Also, what is the cheapest place to order lap top batteries from. It sure as heck isn't Microcenter.

I just replaced mine 2 weeks ago from buy.com for a Dell ran me about $30.

[Irving]

I just replaced mine 2 weeks ago from buy.com for a Dell ran me about $30.

Perfect thanks. I can buy 4 of them for the same price as the ones at Microcenter.

[Beprepared]

I was having issues last year with high performance settings. Stays plugged in now and on battery saver.
Byte I'll give you a call at a reasonable hour.

[Beprepared]

Plugged in without battery, adjusted fan speed from automatic to high. May have gotten a few more minutes out of it? I'm going to try to swap hard drives with another computer.

[AR_ART]

DOS and Windows have so much "crap" it loads.... I absolutely HATE it. Over time it slows down and you have to defrag. Thats IF you can because you can't cause you've run out of disk space.

I installed ubuntu, linux based. It does everything I need a PC to do without the headaches of Windows.

I highly recommend it. It does not play games, yet. But I don't spend alot of time playing PC games, so it s moot point.

BTW, I do understand what I've stated doesn't solve or address your current issue, just a thought for the future....

[Zundfolge]

I installed ubuntu, linux based. It does everything I need a PC to do without the headaches of Windows.

I highly recommend it. It does not play games, yet. But I don't spend alot of time playing PC games, so it s moot point.

For a machine that you're just doing basic web surfing and simple office type work and you don't need any specific Windows programs (or games) I would also recommend Linux (but I'm going to recommend Linux Mint which is based on Ubuntu but it is a little more Linux newbie friendly).

But yeah, the OS is probably not the issue with the OP's machine.