Well, shoot.

[Starwhip]

Seems as if my laptop is going the way of the Whackjob. I can't put it to sleep anymore; it will never wake up. And if I try to play KSP on it, it goes "CLICK" after a few minutes and "shuts down" (stops working). That's the overheat signal. I think the damn thing is just up and dying on me.

Even though it is a Pentium processor, it can run KSP at around 30 FPS, and I'm sad to see it going. (By all definitions of a "gaming laptop", it fails every time)

It's also physically falling apart. The battery latch recently broke, and if you merely *tap* the battery it can shift and lose power. Basically, it sucks.

Oh well. At least I still have the old home desktop.

(Which isn't half bad: half-graphics at 40-ish FPS.)

[RogueMason]

Have you tried taping the battery latch to hold it in place? Also, get a cooling pad to help avoid overheating, and check the insides for dust build-up. I'm no expert by any means, but it seems like these things should help a bit...

[John Crichton]

Get an air-spray to clean your laptop inside. My Macbook Pro started overheating like that after 3-4 years and once I cleaned it, it was like new.

The battery issue is worse I'm afraid and I don't have a solution.

[Starwhip]

Well, I'll do the air-cleaning thing. That seems like it would help.

Let me tell you a little something, though; the Asus X401A is stupid. There are about 15 screws in the back, which you take out. Then you take out the battery, right? More screws. Take them out. And then you open up the monitor, put your fingers in the crack of the hinge, and you take off the entire keyboard/touchpad arrangement.

The battery has 2 latches, one on each side. One of them is like a switch; it moves from one side to the other and stays there. The other is springloaded. I think the switch one broke. I... wait, I'm plugged in One sec... Yep, it's the switch one. The thing that extends and grabs the battery is now inside the laptop. When I clean it, I'll try to superglue it back on and fix it.

[John Crichton]

Well, I'll do the air-cleaning thing. That seems like it would help.

Let me tell you a little something, though; the Asus X401A is stupid. There are about 15 screws in the back, which you take out. Then you take out the battery, right? More screws. Take them out. And then you open up the monitor, put your fingers in the crack of the hinge, and you take off the entire keyboard/touchpad arrangement.

The battery has 2 latches, one on each side. One of them is like a switch; it moves from one side to the other and stays there. The other is springloaded. I think the switch one broke. I... wait, I'm plugged in One sec... Yep, it's the switch one. The thing that extends and grabs the battery is now inside the laptop. When I clean it, I'll try to superglue it back on and fix it.

Good plan. Make sure to hold the air spray not too close so the cooling liquid doesn't drip onto stuff.

[Flymetothemun]

Well, I'll do the air-cleaning thing. That seems like it would help.

Let me tell you a little something, though; the Asus X401A is stupid. There are about 15 screws in the back, which you take out. Then you take out the battery, right? More screws. Take them out. And then you open up the monitor, put your fingers in the crack of the hinge, and you take off the entire keyboard/touchpad arrangement.

The battery has 2 latches, one on each side. One of them is like a switch; it moves from one side to the other and stays there. The other is springloaded. I think the switch one broke. I... wait, I'm plugged in One sec... Yep, it's the switch one. The thing that extends and grabs the battery is now inside the laptop. When I clean it, I'll try to superglue it back on and fix it.

Hope it works, mine was overheating and shutting down too, but I opened it up and cleaned the vents and fans and it ran pretty nice like John said. I also agree with you on laptop construction, I had to take out an innumerate amount of screws in the bottom of mine and then take the keypad off and then take out more screws just to take the bottom off.

[John Crichton]

Hope it works, mine was overheating and shutting down too, but I opened it up and cleaned the vents and fans and it ran pretty nice like John said. I also agree with you on laptop construction, I had to take out an innumerate amount of screws in the bottom of mine and then take the keypad off and then take out more screws just to take the bottom off.

At least there's something to take apart if needed. I have a new Macbook Pro...and while it's really nice overall, the fact that I can't even replace/upgrade RAM myself is pretty annoying.

[CaptainGiblets]

Same happened to my laptop, if I want to use for some crazy reason I have to have a fan next to it at all times. I think that laptops are good for everyday use but if you want to game, get a desktop.