VGN-A117S Crashes when playing graphically intensive games.

[Iniaes]

I have had my laptop for over 2 years now and for reasons it has started crashing whilst playing games such as Dawn of War, or Nexus the Jupiter Incident. I have not had this problem before and wonderd if it may have been an update but I do not know which. There is no problem running multiple windows or watching video on the computer. The model is the Sony VIAO VGN-A117S and the graphics card is the Mobility Radeon ATI 9700. I have already reinstalled the card to no effect. Any advice would be greatfully recieved.

[acecooper]

Hey there,

Hmmm, given that your laptop is 2 years old, there are loads of possible for why your games crash- spyware, virus', dusty interior causing your graphics card to over heat etc.

If your sure its not some 3rd party software on Windows then it could be your RAM chips- more of your RAM is used when playing intense games and if one of these chips are faulty then the game would crash and you'll be back at your desktop with a 'memory read error' or something. There are plenty of free programs that can check your RAM- google it! or visit download.com .

If its not your RAM try cleaning some components- if your computer gets REALLY hot during play then dust etc could be restricting airflow around the laptop.

If its not this then try re-installing windows- when clueless this usually sorts the problem out!

Hope my 2 cents helped!

[Iniaes]

Thanks for your advice, unfortunately, I have had the laptop cleaned and serviced, ran updated spyware and anti-virus software and rebooted the entire system, all to no effect. The machine still insists on crashing during graphically intensive games. Any more advice would be welcomed, the laptop is still insured with PC World, could I claim for a replacement machine? Or a new integrated motherboard, these are the only other options I can think of, or maybe some 3rd party drivers for the graphics card (yes i know this is one of those shades of grey!)