[mandilly]

My computer recently crashed, and the person that I was speaking to suggested that it may have been caused by overheating issues, since my laptop runs naturally hotter than other laptops, and I probably needed to clean the dust from the fans. Well, after repartitioning my harddrive, etc., etc., I blew the dust out of the laptop and purchased a cooling table. Now I'm looking to install a working temperature monitor so that I can let the company know what happened if my laptop should crash in the future. The problem lies here: my laptop is an Alienware, so the motherboard is an Alienware model, which means that I cannot run Motherboard Monitor, like most people have suggested to me, since they don't have the Alienware motherboard listed.

I recently download a program called Speedfan, but I believe that it isn't fully functioning. It provides me with 4 separate temperatures: the HD, Temp1 (ACPI), and Core 1 and Core 2. However, I've found that the ACPI temp, or temp 1, isn't actually fluctuating. All other temperatures are fluctuating normally, and in a good range, but the ACPI temp has been STUCK at falling 88 degrees F. It doesn't change at all. The last time I restarted my computer, it was again stuck, but last time it was STUCK at rising 126 degrees F. I don't believe that the temp 1, or ACPI temp monitor, is functioning.

I'm hoping to find a temperature monitor that will function before I call Alienware about a possible overheating problem again. When the ACPI temp was stuck at 126 F, it displayed a flame icon, indicating that the temp was too high. However, since the temperature was stuck there, for over a day until I restarted my computer, I really cannot call Alienware and give them accurate data about the temps that my laptop is running.

Does anyone have a program suggestion that will be compatible with an Alienware?

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Speedfan just feeds you the temperatures of all the sensors it can get its hands on. It's got no way of knowing what belongs to what. Some temperatures don't fluctuate that badly, I mean the CPU temperature only rises when the thing's in use, otherwise it'll stay pretty steady. 88 deg is only 31 C, after all.

Anyway, what makes you think the computer is overheating? Not the most common cause of crashing.

[Neil Jones]

Speedfan just feeds you the temperatures of all the sensors it can get its hands on. It's got no way of knowing what belongs to what. Some temperatures don't fluctuate that badly, I mean the CPU temperature only rises when the thing's in use, otherwise it'll stay pretty steady. 88 deg is only 31 C, after all.

Anyway, what makes you think the computer is overheating? Not the most common cause of crashing.

[mandilly]

Well, I thought that when I clicked on Configure, that the temp and the related chip that it's reading from would tell me where it was overheating? Of course, I don't know this definitely.

The laptop itself used to get hot to the touch, and would often heat the desk it was on to a high temperature. The keys on the keyboard would also be warm to the touch. When I described this to the technician, he thought that it may be overheating. Granted, I also attribute this conclusion to the fact that I haven't received any blue screens since cleaning out the fans and getting a cooling table.

A temp of 88F doesn't sound like something that is accurate for a laptop that has been running night and day for the past 4 days, either. I've been leaving the laptop on constantly to try to get another blue screen to make sure that the problem is/isn't something to do with the memory, hard drive, or motherboard.

[Neil Jones]

Some laptops do get hot to the touch and continue to run quite happily. However if the keyboard is hot to the touch you have very serious issues with that laptop that require urgent attention as soon as possible, preferably yesterday. How long have you had it and is it under any warranty? This is nowhere near normal behaviour, in fact I'd refuse to use that laptop if it gets so hot that you can't touch the keyboard and I wouldn't leave it unsupervised either because it sounds like its a potential fire hazard. I wouldn't worry about the blue screens, I'd worry more about the amount of heat its generating.

[mandilly]

Some laptops may, but not all do, and mine was one of them. I never said the keyboard was 'hot' to the touch, I merely said the keys were warm. It's also far from a fire hazard.

Regardless, I'm still in need of a decent temperature monitoring program, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.