XP/Vista compatability

[maxi2]

My 4 year old laptop is due for retirement (it keeps switching itself off) and it appears that I am faced with no option but to go down the Vista route.

Will my existing copy of Microsoft Office 2003 be Vista compatible?

[Ethel]

Yes it will.

[maxi2]

Thanks Ethel

[Ethel]

Shame you have to replace your laptop though - what's wrong with it?

[maxi2]

Not sure. It gets very hot and I think there is probably a thermal cutout which kicks in. Both the fans work and all airways, vents etc are clear. It is clean inside as well. The processor is an "M" Pentium 4 which runs hotter than later chipsets. You're right - I would sooner stick with this PC thasn buy a new one. Any ideas?

[Ethel]

I was going to suggest cleaning the fan -but obviously that's pointless from what you have said.

Start a new thread about it, and hopefully somebody will come up with the answers. In the meantime, I'll have a think.

How many processes are running when you start up?

[ChuckFickens]

if all airways and fans are clear and it's still running hot I would be tempted to get some thermal compound and strip the thing right down, remove the heatsink from the CPU clean both CPU and heatsink faces reapply a little thermal compound and put the whole lot together again.

though depending on make and model stripping a laptop down to that sort of level can be tricky and not for the faint hearted.

[maxi2]

Not sure what you mean by "how many processes". The PC is a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo D1845 if that helps. Thanks all for your input.

[Ethel]

maxi - in your task manager, the number of processes running is listed at the bottom of the 'orocesses' tab

Task manager - right click on a blank part of the bottom bar

[Ethel]

Chuck - roughly how much would that cost if you paid somebody to do it?

[maxi2]

24 processes running. Is that good?

[ChuckFickens]

Personally I would charge about �50 to do it. but shops may be more, if you want it done at a shop then take it do a decent independent shop, a well known shop (pcworld) would probably charge a small fortune to do it!

if you google "Amilo D1845 overheating" you will also soon see that they are prone to overheating. some people have said that they have had success with using one of the laptop cooling bases that have fans built into them for extra cooling. However if that route is tried then make sure the extra fans in the base are blowing air into the correct place... There is no point at all running the laptop on a cooling base that is directing the air at totally the wrong area.

this sort of thing

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Notebook-Cooling-Pad-P ort-USB/dp/B000KEHMLG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=ele ctronics&qid=1229792375&sr=8-3

[ACtheTROLL]

got to disagree on this one ...
unless maxi has started doing something very very different like rendering 3d graphics or recoding video the processor load shouldn't have changed drastically.

i installed x and now it overheats is a valid reason .... it just started ... means something changes

I don't see how the process count could suddenly start causing overheating
they would cause the machine to slow down ... more than overheating ... processes tend to do a job ... and so their load is variable (look at task manager ... they "blip"
unless it's some sort of malware

a thought ... older machine ... how full is the HDD? ... if it's got less than 20% free it's possible that the swapfile is thrashing the HDD and is overheating ... or maybe it's just failing - either way adding this extra heat to an already hot processor ...

just cause the airways are clear doesn't mean that a dust bunny isn't lurking deeper in the gubbins ...
(think laterally - where is the heat build-up ... you should be able to feel the hotspot)

something like this might help ... but it's not a cure

http://www.google.co.uk/products?sourceid=navc lient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GPTB_en-GBGB295 GB295&q=laptop%20cooler&um=1&sa=N&tab=wf