Laptop switch off on rendering :(

[MCronin]

Some computers have software or bios settings that throttle the CPU down when it is under load and begins to overheat, if this is not enabled the PC will just shut down when the CPU hits a certain temperature. You should check the bios settings on your laptop and see what sort of features it has in this regard. Obviously you don't want the thing to shut down, and throttling the CPU is almost as bad because it will run at a fraction of your CPU's actual speed. If this is the case you will want to look into an aftermarket cooling solution for your laptop or try underclocking your CPU.

It's also possible that your Windows is throwing and exception, crashing and shutting down. THe default behaviour for Windows in recent releases (after XP) is to just shutdown and not show you the BSoD. What you can do is check the advance settings under MyComputer/Porperties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery, and uncheck automaticly restart on system failure. Try rendering something and if the computer is crashing it wil show you a BSoD with the error and you can go from there.

[Bliz]

I use a laptop for 3D work and what I had to do was disable any screensavers and power saving schemes. I was still getting frames rendering but they would take about 1000% longer to render when the screen saver had kicked in because the laptop thought it wasn't being used and so throttled down the speed of the CPU.

If you disable the screensaver and power saving schemes but you still get the shutdowns then I'd agree with MCronin about the overheating. Pentium4 CPU's in laptops get really hot which is part of the reason Intel developed the slower clocking but cooler Pentium-M range.

Also, when you render does your laptop page out to the hard drive? I'm just wondering if 512meg is enough RAM for rendering? If your HD is being used as RAM, that could heat the whole system up and cause a shutdown. If so upgrade the RAM to a Gig.

[save often]

hay, my p4 hp laptop did exactly the same thing. at first it maybe shutdown once a week from new then after time it would shutdown after just booting up. it got to the point were i just stopped using it. money down the drain. then i did some forum hunting to see if anyone was having the same problem. looks like i wasn`t the only one. seems to be a common problem with these kind of desktop replacements.

so whats the answer, well one thing, buy a can of compressed air and give the insides a good old clean-out and use a hoover to suck out all the dust, then leave it dry. also buy a laptop stand to lift it off the desk, this allow the air to flow under the fans.

i did all this, bar making my own stand and my laptop been sound for about 3 months, no shutdowns. but i would give it a good clean out ever couple of months.

hope this is some help.

[popoff]

Some computers have software or bios settings that throttle the CPU down when it is under load and begins to overheat, if this is not enabled the PC will just shut down when the CPU hits a certain temperature. You should check the bios settings on your laptop and see what sort of features it has in this regard. Obviously you don't want the thing to shut down, and throttling the CPU is almost as bad because it will run at a fraction of your CPU's actual speed. If this is the case you will want to look into an aftermarket cooling solution for your laptop or try underclocking your CPU.

It's also possible that your Windows is throwing and exception, crashing and shutting down. THe default behaviour for Windows in recent releases (after XP) is to just shutdown and not show you the BSoD. What you can do is check the advance settings under MyComputer/Porperties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery, and uncheck automaticly restart on system failure. Try rendering something and if the computer is crashing it wil show you a BSoD with the error and you can go from there.

... thanx so much ... I`ll check the advance settings ...

[popoff]

I use a laptop for 3D work and what I had to do was disable any screensavers and power saving schemes. I was still getting frames rendering but they would take about 1000% longer to render when the screen saver had kicked in because the laptop thought it wasn't being used and so throttled down the speed of the CPU.

If you disable the screensaver and power saving schemes but you still get the shutdowns then I'd agree with MCronin about the overheating. Pentium4 CPU's in laptops get really hot which is part of the reason Intel developed the slower clocking but cooler Pentium-M range.

Also, when you render does your laptop page out to the hard drive? I'm just wondering if 512meg is enough RAM for rendering? If your HD is being used as RAM, that could heat the whole system up and cause a shutdown. If so upgrade the RAM to a Gig.

... I already talk with guy from PCstore for 512mb RAM more ... thanx for reply ...

[popoff]

... please look at pic below , and tell me is taht waht you mean :

http://www.sharepic.info/userfiles/popeye/power.gif

previous option was : Toshiba Power Saver ... I already switch off screensaver ...

[popoff]

... the default options are :

http://www.sharepic.info/userfiles/popeye/startup.gif

... is that OK ... ?

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