OK, guys, got a technical-type question for you:
I bought my sister a new laptop, and she gave me her old Dell Latitude c640 that had been crapping out (freezing, crashing, etc).
I thought it was an overheat problem -- I installed the i8kfangui220 fan utility. The computer seemed to crap out when the processor hit 50C. So I set the fans running 100% 24/7, which works until you try to do a task (e.g. defrag) -- the temp gets up to 50C+ pretty quickly despite the fan.
So I thought problem solved, I'll just find a way to cool the laptop externally. Voila! I put it on top of a fan
So that kept the CPU, GPU, and HD <40C, but the m*****f***** still freezes up. The longest I've been able to keep it running is 5 minutes.
I've switched out the RAM and HD, did a clean install of winxp, reseated the heat sink with new thermal compound -- no difference.
So what do you guys think? Bad processor? Bad mobo?
I don't have much experience troubleshooting laptops, but I'm willing to destroy this laptop in order to learn