Laptop... overheats...

[Vinny]

I know my laptop wasn't meant for gaming but I figure that if a game meets the specs, it should be able to run some games fine.

So I try the Indigo Prophecy demo and run it at the minimal settings except with bilinear filtering and environmental effects on (looks just like the Xbox version). It runs perfectly fine...

But as soon as the game stars, my fan turns on meaning my processor is getting kinda hot. And it's not surprising seeing as how the takes up 99% of my processor power.

So I was wondering, is there any way to keep my laptop running cooler?

Here are the specs in case you guys were wondering:
1.7 GHz Pentium M Centrino
512MB Ram
32MB integrated Intel GPU

Yeah, told you it wasn't a gaming laptop.

Also, I can't do any of the actions in Indigo Prophecy... I changed the controls to use WASD and the arrow keys- I can move fine but I can't do any of the actions with the arrow keys. Any help with that would be nice too.:)

[RAMSTORIA]

if youve had your laptop awhile you might want to clean your fans, same thing happened to me, laptops are really bad with getting rid of dust, get an air can and blow that baby raw... if thats not enough you might have to take your computer apart and really clean the dust out (im tellin ya i was shocked how much dust my computer had accumulated in 8 months) after i did that i had no more over heating problems

[Vinny]

Nah, my laptop is barely 2 months old... that can't be the problem. I can see some of the stuff inside, no sign of dust at all (like you usually can see on the fans).

[megaseadramon]

Just make sure none of the fans are being blocked while playing. Same thing happened to me when I played UT2k4. My little rubber stoppers were ripped off my computer and with out those my fan was blocked and would just lag the hell down and use 99% of my resources. I set it on my lap and it played perfect because nothing was blocking the fan.

[jesta2817]

try a laptop cooler like this one: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=306230&pfp=SEARCH

[m6oo]

I would be concerned about that laptop cooler being powered off of the USB. You definitely want the option for that when going mobile, but when you're home, you'd like to be able to use external power.

At home, I just use a small desktop fan like this one:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=11138349&RN=81

Blow the air right across the laptop near where the vents are. It will make sure that the internal fan is taking in the coolest air possible, and it will cool the exterior which will help dissapate heat through the case.

I was going to say that the fan is also cheaper than the "notebook cooler" but I see that it is on sale for $10 (after MIR).

Maybe you already have a spare fan lying around the house.