Laptop: Severely over heating and shutting down - Help!

[#1]

Hi peeps
Well I've regretted buying this crappy laptop ever since the thing turned up and wasn't as described and had parts/features missing...
Anyway lately its started over heating. Then it just switches off. There seems to be nothing I can do to drain the heat away anymore either. Previously I was sitting it on a metal box to aid the transfer of heat away from the thing. That no longer works.
The laptop seems to be on its last legs due to this excessive heat build up.
I've taken it apart previously and removed the dust that had accumulated over the years so I can say there is not a dust problem.
I'm really stumped. It used to handle the heat with ease. These days it just wants to shut down.
What can I do? - Its all that keeps me sane in my lunch time at work!

[#2]

Is it a battery problem? If you run in on mains with the battery removed does it still get as hot?

[#3]

There are several monitors that will throttle the cpu back once it get to a certain temp I have used this in the past on bad pc that over heat as it keeps the temp down before it get critical.
You dont say the make of laptop and do you know what is overheating and by how much ie cpu hd etc. You need to know what is overheating there a few monitors try
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/Motherboard-Monitor.shtml
If its the cpu and it has a fan it could be its not making contact and need to be reseated

[#4]

first make sure that the fan is working.  get some canned air to blow through every orifice you can find.
second, get a laptop cooler.  they cost around £7 and will lower the temperature by up to 10C.
what model laptop is it?  modern dell's can be easy to get into to locate and examine the fan.  others are not so easy.
another problem that occurs is that the thermal paste used by the makers is not always the best choice as it can solidify, even though it's advertised as not doing so.  reseating the cpu with a sparing application of arctic silver paste can cure overheating problems. 

[#5]

Quote from: God

Is it a battery problem? If you run in on mains with the battery removed does it still get as hot?

Yes

[#6]

Hi Guys
It's a HP ZE4500. 1.86GHz AMD Mobile, 512MBDDR, 100GB HDD.
Here is the interesting bit though, it isn't the CPU that is excessively over heating. It it the area where the HDD is located. When I pulled out the HDD last night it wasn't far from boiling.
I could still boot it a few mins later but it would turn off again within minutes.
It seems to be the HDD which is (to quote Bob Holness) "standing on the hotspot".
Any ideas? The machine isn't the latest spec, but it is about 4 yrs old. While it isn't top of the range hardware it is a good basic laptop and has served me well as a work horse once I managed to get around the annoying niggles the seller forgot to tell me about. What I also love about this machine is that because it is a basic computer without onboard wifi etc, I can add on my own bits and use the drivers that come with it. No troublesome OEM windows and drivers you can never find etc.
Help!

[#7]

according to the manual, the hard drive sits next to the battery.  this can make it hot.  what happens when you run it on mains with the battery removed?

[#8]

With battery removed it still boils up. The battery itself stays fairly cool - It was only slightly warm last night.
@PJ No, it's not a 7200rpom drive. Its slower - 4800 if I remember correctly.
This is so annoying!!!

[#9]

My wife's got the exact same model. I use Speedfan to keep the fan on, but the first thing to do if you've got the standard 256mb RAM that it shipped with, is upgrade it.
With only 256mb it was constantly paging to the HDD; upgrading to 768mb (£30 for a 512mb module, well worth it) stopped the disk being thrashed and that reduced the temperature considerably.

[#10]

Mine doesn't have 256MB ramn. It has 512 - 2x 256 modules. It also has the higher than average 100GB HDD. Most seem to be 40GB.
It isnt really struggling either. The HDD doesn't show many signs of activity except when starting up or shutting down.
Its very annoying as I can't think of anything that could suddenly cause it to over heat so dramatically.
I also have speedfan installed but my battery drains very quickly when the fan is on. Not only that but the fan only cools the processor NOT the HDD.
Might end up disassembling it again at the weekend and having another look inside it. I'm still watching ebay for an exact match for spares/repairs but there are so many variants of the ZE4500 using different processors etc. That and all my spare cash is going into a head gasket repair on one of our cars this month...

[#11]

Notebook Hardware Control is a program I install on all laptops now. I'm pretty sure that has an applet that controls hard drive speed/temperature.