laptop overheating?
 

I suspect I have an overheating problem, but don't know.
I have a Dell i5000e (since Oct. 2000) laptop. The hard disk is partitioned into a C: and D: drive. C: is smaller with Win2k & software. D: is larger for data. Lately, it has been prone to get a blue error screen. When I reboot with a Win98 boot disk, the BIOS indicates a garbled volume ID for the hard disk. Any files or folders show up with wacky scrambled names. If I wait a few hours or days, the system appears to work fine again. However, at least once after reboot Win2k said that the D: drive was unformatted and I had to re-format it. I was able to boot with the Win98 boot disk and copy some small files from D: onto a floppy before reformatting.

What kind of problem is my system having? The crash seems to occur after doing CPU-intensive work and a few times when I tried to gently move the laptop. Can you recommend system-monitoring software that can warn me when I'm getting close to a crash condition? Is it simply time to get a new laptop? If so, feel free to recommend models that have a 1600x1200 resolution screen like this one.

http://www.techwarelabs.com/download...on=file&id=144

Also, go to the Start menu and select Run. Type "chkdsk d: /r /x" and press ENTER.

If you find out that there are high temperatures, try to get rid of excess dust by using Endust, or any other compressed air can.

If the problem occurs again, I'd suggest promptly going to the BIOS to see system temperatures there, if you don't have MBM installed at that time.

Re: laptop overheating?
 

Are you having any lock-up issues? Any other problems like some files taking longer to execute? If its working fine and it locks up after a while, probably over-heating...if the problem is intermittent it could be something else.

Thanks for the advice. The system does not lock up. It just gets the blue screen and reboots. After reboot, some BIOS settings have changed (to their defaults?) and an NTDETECT error occurs. I have to reinstall Windows 2000 to use the system. This is why I put the OS on a separate partition.

It doesn't require a lot of CPU usage to crash anymore. Just using Powerpoint for a while kills it. Also, I checked that the fan still runs. Apparently, the BIOS does not have temperature printouts.

The system is vintage 2000. Maybe the motherboard has gone bad? Would replacing it be worthwhile (cheap)? I'm also interested in replacing the CD-RW drive since the front panel has become detached (although it's still useable).