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First some background: I have a Dell Inspiron 15R M050, it is still under the Dell limited warranty and the Best Buy Extended warranty. I am currently dual booting Debian Squeeze and Windows 7, the only reason I go into Windows is to play video games specifically steam games.

Issue: When I play my games in Windows I am capable of playing for anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours before I suffer a hard-lock. I cannot alt-tab, ctrl-alt-delete, ctrl-shift-escape do anything for 2-3 minutes. After this hard-lock period everything runs fine, I can continue the game for probably another hour at least before I suffer another lock.

Games: Borderlands, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Starcraft 2, Garrys Mod

What I have tried: Running the diagnostic suite in the dell bios, restoring the OEM Windows recovery partition on the HD, fresh installing Windows 7 Professional, updating BIOS, Calling tech support and having them run a software Hardware Diagnostics suite.

The question: I think from the research that I have performed that it might be a lack of thermal paste on the CPU, would I be able to go to Best Buy and have them do a hardware diagnostic from the hardware level then have them be able to tell Dell that there is a hardware issue? Or would there be a different problem?

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Could you donwload CoreTemp32 and see how warm the computer is getting? (although if it is overheating it is likely to shut down rather than freeze) – tombull89 Jun 22 '11 at 8:02
Sits in the ~80 degree Fahrenheit area when a game is running and ~60 normally. – Sion Jun 22 '11 at 8:07
I assume you mean 80 centigrade. – CarlF Aug 19 '11 at 17:50
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4 Answers

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A heat related issue would likely not recover without a reboot. This symptom is more likely a process taking up 100% CPU for a few minutes. Try running a process logger and see if you can figure out which one.

[edit] You can choose CPU History as a graph column with the tool above.

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Actually overheating may sometimes be "solved" by reboot. depending on how system is set up, the time needed for OS to boot may be enough to cool down the system to a stable operating temperature. – AndrejaKo Jun 22 '11 at 15:55
I agree. Often a reboot is enough to cool a CPU/GPU down enough to function for a short time. However, I was saying the OS will not recover after overheating locks it up, even if the machine cools down. A reboot is required to restore the OS to an operating state. – Chris Nava Jun 22 '11 at 17:14
Then I must have misunderstood you. From my experience, I agree with that statement. – AndrejaKo Jun 22 '11 at 22:31
I attempted to run the process logger when I was playing for a couple hours last night. I didn't freeze. So I think I shall just run that whenever I am playing in the future just in case something happens. Thank you for the suggestion. – Sion Jun 24 '11 at 3:23
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up vote 2 down vote

I'd be surprised if the problem is actually a lack of thermal paste, as a CPU overheating would probably cause more than a temporary hang. But who knows? And the physical cause of the problem isn't really the point of your question.

Have you called Dell with the issue yet?

I personally wouldn't trust Best Buy to diagnose a hole in the wall, but if they are your nearest authorized Dell service center, they may be your best bet anyway. But I'd start by calling Dell. There's no point in preparing to "fight" if they're agreeable from the beginning.

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Yep, spent an hour in a chat session with them explaining that if it was due to the lack of a dedicated graphics card I would be lagging all of the time rather then erratically hard-locking. I would trust best buy to only diagnose the problem because I am more likely to be able to reproduce the problem in front of them. – Sion Jun 22 '11 at 8:05
Yeah, I see your point. Hopefully the BB techs will have the patience to play Splinter Cell for up to 2 hours to see the problem. :) – Flimzy Jun 22 '11 at 8:07
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up vote 0 down vote

Don't bother. Exchange it. Once it has been exchanged it is not your problem anymore.

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How would I exchange it? Tell Best Buy that I am no longer happy with it? I am outside of that window of opportunity. To be honest I bought it in October and Just a month ago the problem has become rather apparent. – Sion Jun 22 '11 at 8:00
Seconded. If it is under warranty, grab your work from it, then get it replaced. – tombull89 Jun 22 '11 at 8:00
Put 3DMark on it, hook it up at the store, and run it. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jun 22 '11 at 8:01
vazquez-abrams: I shall see if that is capable of recreating the issue in the morning, I just looked at the clock. – Sion Jun 22 '11 at 8:08
vazquez-abrams Running 3DMark caused my computer to lag tremendously to the amount that I was incapable of determining if it was lagging or not. – Sion Jun 24 '11 at 3:25
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Sounds like a software issue, oddly enough. If Debian never freezes but Windows does so reliably, it really can't be hardware. If Debian does sometimes freeze you should have said so.

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