Overheating laptop

[Ozor Mox]

I wonder if anyone can help me. My laptop, that is only a couple of years old, I think is overheating. The symptoms are that after about 10 minutes of use it simply powers itself off. It feels quite hot on the bottom underneath where the CPU is, and the fan sounds kind of rattly, so I don't know if maybe it has failed? When I switch it on again after this happens, it beeps about 8-10 times while booting up and some of the lights on the front flash.

I installed a temperature applet for the GNOME panel, and it reports the CPU at about 65-70C and the GPU at 75-80C at the time it shuts down. This is while the computer is doing almost nothing, i.e. only Firefox open with two tabs.

Anyone got any ideas, I don't really know where to start

[sandyd]

youll want to use a can of compressed air to clean out the fans and get rid of the dust thats inside.

[Phrea]

See if you can open up the back, a lot of laptops have panels on the back that can be removed so you can clean out the fan and heatpipe radiator.
Use a small brush to get out/loosen the dust and then use the above suggested compressed air can to get rid of it.
Be careful with the fan tho, they are fairly sensitive and can break fairly easy.
Open all access panels on the back, and if there's any dust there too, clean that as well.

[forrestcupp]

After you get your fans fixed, get yourself one of those laptop pads with a built in fan. They really help a lot if you do processor/GPU intensive stuff.