My VAIO has been over heating for some time now, but I never use it so
I have been ignoring it.
Then why did you turn it on again until it'd been rectified?
Overheating is a gradually destructive process, it's not a
matter of just catching it before it pops, but every minute
there is potential degradation in lifespan for some parts
and subcomponents.
However now it is rendered useless. I run
Ubuntu linux on it, and after 20 minutes it shuts down and spews
Overheating errors on the screen.
Did you consider finding the fault?
Is it in a high heat environment (room)?
I assumed it was the fan so I opened it up but the fan runs. I have
bought an Antec notebook cooler to help but do you know what else it
could be?
So it's a notebook??
Is it only the CPU that overheats?
You might take off the 'sink/plate/whatever-it-uses if all
else fails, but expect to need to clean off thermal goop and
have some HQ thermal grease on hand... I'd probably use
Arctic Alumina.
How about the vent holes, does it have them directly under
the fan or does it pull the air from somewhere else? Point
being, make sure they're unobstructed by dust, that you're
using it on a flat surface, etc.
Various spyware/viri/etc can cause a system to run at
(nearer) full load, which can cause a seemingly overheat
situation but certain notebooks may not have been engineered
so well to run at full load indefinitely... but you didn't
tell us the specifics about this system beyond a model
number, and many people won't go out and research this when
you could just tell us instead.
