I've been having for the past 2.5 weeks a laptop (inspiron 1520 that I got in Fall 2007) has been overheating and freezing.
Do i need to get a new hardware fan?
Or a laptop cooler?
Or am I as they say, SOL and just need a new laptop?
Originally, being the noob I am at computer stuff, I thought I had to get a new driver, but my friend said that was not the case.
Anyways, He's not sure what to do, he doesn't do hardware stuff but he does everything else...so i'm thinking if he doesn't know what to do that means either a new laptop or hardware
If anyone can help me i'd appreciate it. If this is not the right forum for a question like this, I apologize, I'm just at my ends here. Websites I'm searching on are inconsistent so I do'nt know where else to look.
Narrow down the components that are overheating. Use Speedfan and maybe something like Furmark to stress test your video card. Feel for the fans that should be blowing on the obviously placed vents on the sides. No air blowing either means it's broken or you didn't install the correct drivers (probably chipset drivers).
Re-installing the OS is probably the easiest way to fix the freezing. It's also the least time consuming since you think you're an absolute dolt shy when it comes to computers. Kidding, but don't be. Don't be afraid of research either if you're not willing to do that.
SpeedFan is just fan speed control and let's you view the temperature from the sensors near various components in your laptop. Furmark is just a GPU video card benchmark that can tell you when your video card dies at certain temperatures. Use those things to see what temperature it overheats at. if it's above 70 degrees Celsius, then there might be problems. I think SpeedFan should be all right on a Dell Inspiron 1520 if run with Administrator privileges under Windows Vista or 7.
