I know JM doesn't recommend a laptop running the game....But!

[Flipant]

I bought a Toshibia Qosimio G30-Av4 october 2006.  By march 2007, I had major problems with it and had to send it in.  Turned out the mother board was gone.  They replaced it, the hell I had to go through to send it out and get it back, was something I never thought of when I bought this machine.  There is not one Toshiba authorized dealer in my area, way up north in BC, so I had to send it to Vancouver.  Anyway, long story short, it came back a month and a half later.  Ran fine.  I run up to Seasons, no fun packs.  About 1.8 gigs of downloads, my hacks are from maty. 

I bought this machine because of the specks, being told also by the sales people that it would run TS2 without a problem.  It has intel Core 2 Duo T7200 - 2.0 GHz, 2 GB ddr2, 220 GB HDD, Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 256 mb graphics.  Windows Xp Media. 

Never did have any problems running the game.  Then come March, getting major bsod's ,my screen goes wierd, green stripes down it, funny crap happening, couldn't boot into windows, that I could see because of all the funny crap on my monitor.  I send it out, which I won't get into, but god dam does Toshiba suck for customer service! Sent the thing down to Vancouver, and it was the motherboard, they replaced it.  The computer was only 5 months old. 

Now here I am, same shit happening, Toshiba tells me that the motherboard they replaced it with, is only under warrenty as long as the computer is, which was last october.  I have extended warrenty, if I drop it, spill on it, whatever, i get a new one.  They tell me once again to send it to vancouver.  There goes another month of my life.  Now, besides my bitches about Toshiba, with these specs, TS2 should NOT be the problem, am I right?  That's what I want to know, cuz i don't do anything with this computer but play TS2, Simcity, surf the net, and talk on msn.  Msn was acting up just before the crash, if I tried to do a video call or set my web cam settings, msn would freeze up and I'd have to cold boot the machine because msn wouldn't close or do a dam thing but sit there pissing me off.

I'd just like to know from the great one, is it TS2 screwing me up, or did I just get a dam good dud of a laptop?  Yes yes, i may be non awesome, but I need to know for sure!  lol  Any help is appreciated, I paid a good penny for this laptop, just so I could play my game when we are on the road, and if it isn't the machine for it, I will smash it and collect my accidental damage warrenty!  lol  Didn't pay all that money for nothing.

Thanks all, even if there are sarcastic remarks, I will appreciate them. 

PS:  Oh great JM, the machine has never once heated up while running TS2 or anything else.

[J. M. Pescado]

Your specs should be sufficient, given that you have an actual graphics card in it, but the problem with powerful laptops is that they have major heat dissipation issues, and likely your laptop is frying. Fried boards from overheating typically exhibit symptoms like that. Also, EWE NEED MOAR RAMS. With 2 GB of RAMs, you should not be using that much CC.

[Ellatrue]

TS2 shouldn't give you hardware problems. If you are worried about heat, do what I do and get a little cooling pad with fans in it to stick under the computer. They're about 20 bucks.

[J. M. Pescado]

Also, try misting the boards with liquid nitrogen.

[Jelenedra]

Don't play with the computer on your lap. Your body heat doesn't help the laptop keep cool.

[J. M. Pescado]

Don't play with the computer on your lap. Your body heat doesn't help the laptop keep cool.

I find it amusing that a laptop no longer goes in your lap, either because it will give you severe burns, or because it will overheat if you do.

[Jelenedra]

Well, if people didn't complain about lappy being 15 pounds and thick as a phone book we wouldn't have this problem. Thin laptops = no air flow and no cooling systems.

[J. M. Pescado]

Pssh. They're a bunch of wussies. In my day, Lappies were an extremely portable 42 pounds. AND WE LIKED IT! Mine still is!

[Jelenedra]

I remember when you HAD to get a backpack to carry your lappy, because they wouldn't fit in a briefcase.

[Flipant]

Thank you so much, didn't want to give up the game on this machine.  I never use it on my lap, have a little computer tray.  I will check into getting more ram while it is in getting fixed.  Mean time, I'll try REAL hard to cut back on my download folder.  Much appreciated.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Definitely keep it off your lap if you're a guy, as there's evidence your sperm count will be reduced because of the heat transmitted by the laptop.  On the other hand, that could be a method of cheap birth control.   

[Lorelei]

Mine sits on a lap tray (bed tray? what are those things called?!) which has a lip around the edge. Since it is a large laptop, this works well. I put a paperback under the other edge to keep it even, and it has lots of airflow beneath it. No heating problems here.

[Dark Trepie]

Definitely keep it off your lap if you're a guy, as there's evidence your sperm count will be reduced because of the heat transmitted by the laptop.  On the other hand, that could be a method of cheap birth control.   

This has been the case ever since laptops were an "Extremely portable 42 pounds".

[Ambular]

I'm partial to the idea of taking a regular desktop tower and bolting a handle on top and a flat-screen monitor to the side.

[Argon]

I bought a Toshibia Qosimio G30-Av4 october 2006.

I was actually about to get that one, but decided it was too huge and expensive and opted to get the Satellite P105-S9722 a month later. Haven't had any problems with it since I tried installing my free Vista upgrade, but that's just because Vista sucks. When you say it couldn't boot into Windows, did it show the Toshiba logo at boot and then the Windows XP screen with the progress bar? It could have also been a driver issue, OEMs never release up to date drivers for their hardware especially video card drivers.

[Flipant]

Argon,

It was booting the toshiba screen but the screen became so garbled that I couldn't tell if it was in windows or not.  When it came back though, I had a heck of a time with my graphics card.  I finally found the correct driver upgrade and it ran tickety boo after that.  I backed all that stuff up a few days before she blew, thank goodness.  It has been an awesome computer short of this motherboard thing.

  My problem is the that I have to send it out puralator every time I have a problem.  Even Dell has an authorized dealer here, and their closest is Edmonton?  Doesn't make sense to me, don't see dells on the shelves here but lots of toshiba's!  lol Bitching doesn't help, why would they care. 

I'm thinking of getting a local shop here to build me one next time, then they can take care of it for me.  Thanks all for you help on this.  It made me realize that I need more ram on my desktop, it's on order!  lol  Game slows down and I look at downloads, never ram. 

[Cynarra]

I had same problem with my desktop and Sims2.  It is your hardware, not the game.

I have the problem narrowed down to bad motherboard or video card on my system.  After 4 months of reformating and it still not fixed, I took to a local shop for $29 to tell me exactly which piece of hardware is bad.  I should know shortly what piece is bad and if it will be cheaper to rebuild or buy new.

Good luck!

[Hegelian]

OEMs never release up to date drivers for their hardware especially video card drivers.

This is not true.

[socurious]

OEMs never release up to date drivers for their hardware especially video card drivers.

This is not true.

Maybe "never" isn't the best term, but I've had my laptop since '06 and there has yet to be an updated video driver.  I check regularly. 

I play Sims on an already outdated laptop (I even actually use it on my lap - gotta lift it up every once in a while or my legs get hot, but meh...) and it seems to work wonderfully.  It's probably because I don't know what I'm missing, because I haven't used it on a PC.  I've had little or no problems - knock on wood.