Hey guys,
 
I bought SC2 the other day and it's great. It ran fine, even on 4 or 5 hour marathons. Last night though, I was in the middle of a match online when the screen just went blank. The laptop was still switched on but nothing at all was on the screen. I waited to see if it would sort itself out but it didn't, forcing me to hold the power button to turn it off. I just thought it would be a one off but now it does it about 10 - 15 minutes into every match I play. I even tested it just now by starting the game and just leaving it on the menu and it still happened! My laptop is fine with other games, it runs WoW fine and a few other games.
 
I noticed too that the laptop gets pretty fucking hot while running the game, I currently have a massive fan on it while playing but it doesn't seem to have solved the problem. Any ideas? Thanks.

Try dropping your graphics settings (in-game) absolutely as low as they can go and see if it still cuts out. From what you've said it seems like it could easily be a temperature issue, so if dropping the settings stops it overheating/cutting out, you know that's your issue (probably). 
 
EDIT: oh crap I just realised I missed the part where you said it happens in the menu also, you should give the blizzard fix for the uncapped frame rate a try , ill paste it here  

" Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient. This is because the game has nothing to do so it is primarily just working on drawing the screen very quickly. A temporary workaround is to go to your Documents\StarCraft II Beta\variables.txt file and add these lines: frameratecapglue=30 frameratecap=60 You may replace these numbers if you want to."      

" Try dropping your graphics settings (in-game) absolutely as low as they can go and see if it still cuts out. From what you've said it seems like it could easily be a temperature issue, so if dropping the settings stops it overheating/cutting out, you know that's your issue (probably). "

I tried the suggestions, I thought it had worked but it just happened again during an online match! This is getting very frustrating. I don't know what to do about it.

Something might have gone loose on your laptop, like a fan. Check to make sure it has airflow and report any heat spikes when playing.

" @HB: Bummer :( it's worth mentioning on the bombcast Jeff mentioned that one of the engineers had a problem where his monitor would occasionally lose the video signal while playing, so there's still the outside chance its a bizarre bug and might get fixed.   One thing it would be useful if you could try is finding out whether the computer itself is locking up or like Jaserno suggested your'e just losing the video signal, you could try leaving it in the menu and then Alt+f4'ing till your computer shuts down (or remembering the key presses to exit starcraft and reboot, something like that) "

It's an HP Pavillion DV6. It does stay on sometimes with just the screen completely black. I cant alt tab out or ctrl alt delete or anything. I think it literally melted one of the rubber grips off of the bottom of the laptop earlier too =S I'm not sure if it did though. A black liquid just came from the bottom last night but it may have just been water from somewhere on my black desk. The rubber grip is gone though.
 
I need to get it working. I paid £40 for this game and have the recommended sys req for it, there's no reason for it to be doing this. Every other game I have on here runs very smoothly. They need to fix this! Brad mentioned on the podcast that it constantly uses 100% of the video card's power no matter what. There must be some option to stop that. I don't klnow what changed but it was running really nicely for 5 hours non stop when I got it. There must be a way to get it back to that.

Heres what I got during a small 15-20 unit battle. Is anything abnormal here? I have no clue.
 

" They need to fix this! Brad mentioned on the podcast that it constantly uses 100% of the video card's power no matter what. There must be some option to stop that. I don't klnow what changed but it was running really nicely for 5 hours non stop when I got it. There must be a way to get it back to that. "

I did try it and it didn't seem to change anything but I just looked at it and it's not there anymore. I'll give it a go again, thank you.

Ah, seems like taking it apart has worked for that guy, but I'm not really clued up on things like this. I'm too worried that I'll just break it while trying to do it. I might have to give it a go soon. Thanks.

" It's an HP Pavillion DV6. It does stay on sometimes with just the screen completely black. I cant alt tab out or ctrl alt delete or anything. I think it literally melted one of the rubber grips off of the bottom of the laptop earlier too =S I'm not sure if it did though. A black liquid just came from the bottom last night but it may have just been water from somewhere on my black desk. The rubber grip is gone though.  I need to get it working. I paid £40 for this game and have the recommended sys req for it, there's no reason for it to be doing this. Every other game I have on here runs very smoothly. They need to fix this! Brad mentioned on the podcast that it constantly uses 100% of the video card's power no matter what. There must be some option to stop that. I don't klnow what changed but it was running really nicely for 5 hours non stop when I got it. There must be a way to get it back to that. "

Not to totally de-reail, but I did not think this warranted its own thread:
 
I am also running SC2 on a Laptop (Toshiba Satellite).  Is it better to drop screen resolution and boost graphics or up rez and lower graphics.
 
Thanks.

" Try dropping your graphics settings (in-game) absolutely as low as they can go and see if it still cuts out. From what you've said it seems like it could easily be a temperature issue, so if dropping the settings stops it overheating/cutting out, you know that's your issue (probably). 
 
EDIT: oh crap I just realised I missed the part where you said it happens in the menu also, you should give the blizzard fix for the uncapped frame rate a try , ill paste it here  

" Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient. This is because the game has nothing to do so it is primarily just working on drawing the screen very quickly. A temporary workaround is to go to your Documents\StarCraft II Beta\variables.txt file and add these lines: frameratecapglue=30 frameratecap=60 You may replace these numbers if you want to."      

"

" @borodin said:

" Try dropping your graphics settings (in-game) absolutely as low as they can go and see if it still cuts out. From what you've said it seems like it could easily be a temperature issue, so if dropping the settings stops it overheating/cutting out, you know that's your issue (probably). 
 
EDIT: oh crap I just realised I missed the part where you said it happens in the menu also, you should give the blizzard fix for the uncapped frame rate a try , ill paste it here  

" Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient. This is because the game has nothing to do so it is primarily just working on drawing the screen very quickly. A temporary workaround is to go to your Documents\StarCraft II Beta\variables.txt file and add these lines: frameratecapglue=30 frameratecap=60 You may replace these numbers if you want to."      

"

O do not see a Variables.txt in my SC2 folder. So do you even know how to do this? Or does anyone know where this file is?  "

" Not to totally de-reail, but I did not think this warranted its own thread:  I am also running SC2 on a Laptop (Toshiba Satellite).  Is it better to drop screen resolution and boost graphics or up rez and lower graphics.  Thanks. "

 
@zman8 said:

" Not to totally de-reail, but I did not think this warranted its own thread:  I am also running SC2 on a Laptop (Toshiba Satellite).  Is it better to drop screen resolution and boost graphics or up rez and lower graphics.  Thanks. "

Drop screen resolution and drop graphics, try to find the balance I think, but keeping the resolution low.  "

" @Jaserno said:

 
@zman8 said:

" Not to totally de-reail, but I did not think this warranted its own thread:  I am also running SC2 on a Laptop (Toshiba Satellite).  Is it better to drop screen resolution and boost graphics or up rez and lower graphics.  Thanks. "

Drop screen resolution and drop graphics, try to find the balance I think, but keeping the resolution low.  "

Thanks I will try this when I get home...Stupid job. "

" @zman8 said:

" @Jaserno said:

 
@zman8 said:

" Not to totally de-reail, but I did not think this warranted its own thread:  I am also running SC2 on a Laptop (Toshiba Satellite).  Is it better to drop screen resolution and boost graphics or up rez and lower graphics.  Thanks. "

Drop screen resolution and drop graphics, try to find the balance I think, but keeping the resolution low.  "

Thanks I will try this when I get home...Stupid job. "

Where do you live in the world to still be working? I'm in the UK and it's 11:36 PM. So you're either somewhere where it is early morning, or late afternoon. "

" @Jaserno said:

" @zman8 said:

" @Jaserno said:

 
@zman8 said:

" Not to totally de-reail, but I did not think this warranted its own thread:  I am also running SC2 on a Laptop (Toshiba Satellite).  Is it better to drop screen resolution and boost graphics or up rez and lower graphics.  Thanks. "

Drop screen resolution and drop graphics, try to find the balance I think, but keeping the resolution low.  "

Thanks I will try this when I get home...Stupid job. "

Where do you live in the world to still be working? I'm in the UK and it's 11:36 PM. So you're either somewhere where it is early morning, or late afternoon. "

Mid-west law firm.  I wont be done working for five more hours. "

Seems weird.  Have you tried playing a different game to see if it is still the overheating issue?  It may be that the overheating has damaged the thermal paste used in the laptop and you have to fix that.  I would try to rule out the hardware first by running other hardware intensive stuff like other games.  Then go back to see what else you can do.

I have games like WoW, Spore, Civ 4, Portal. They all run excellently. It just seems to be this game. I wish I could just have a look at the fan to see if there's dust. It looks complicated and dangerous though.

" @The_Laughing_Man said:

" @borodin said:

" Try dropping your graphics settings (in-game) absolutely as low as they can go and see if it still cuts out. From what you've said it seems like it could easily be a temperature issue, so if dropping the settings stops it overheating/cutting out, you know that's your issue (probably). 
 
EDIT: oh crap I just realised I missed the part where you said it happens in the menu also, you should give the blizzard fix for the uncapped frame rate a try , ill paste it here  

" Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient. This is because the game has nothing to do so it is primarily just working on drawing the screen very quickly. A temporary workaround is to go to your Documents\StarCraft II Beta\variables.txt file and add these lines: frameratecapglue=30 frameratecap=60 You may replace these numbers if you want to."      

"

O do not see a Variables.txt in my SC2 folder. So do you even know how to do this? Or does anyone know where this file is?  "

Mine is there, it's listed as this  C:\Users\Jason\Documents\StarCraft II 
 
@zman8 said:

" Not to totally de-reail, but I did not think this warranted its own thread:  I am also running SC2 on a Laptop (Toshiba Satellite).  Is it better to drop screen resolution and boost graphics or up rez and lower graphics.  Thanks. "

Drop screen resolution and drop graphics, try to find the balance I think, but keeping the resolution low.  "

" @Jaserno said:

" @The_Laughing_Man said:

" @borodin said:

" Try dropping your graphics settings (in-game) absolutely as low as they can go and see if it still cuts out. From what you've said it seems like it could easily be a temperature issue, so if dropping the settings stops it overheating/cutting out, you know that's your issue (probably). 
 
EDIT: oh crap I just realised I missed the part where you said it happens in the menu also, you should give the blizzard fix for the uncapped frame rate a try , ill paste it here  

" Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient. This is because the game has nothing to do so it is primarily just working on drawing the screen very quickly. A temporary workaround is to go to your Documents\StarCraft II Beta\variables.txt file and add these lines: frameratecapglue=30 frameratecap=60 You may replace these numbers if you want to."      

"

O do not see a Variables.txt in my SC2 folder. So do you even know how to do this? Or does anyone know where this file is?  "

Mine is there, it's listed as this  C:\Users\Jason\Documents\StarCraft II 
 
@zman8 said:

" Not to totally de-reail, but I did not think this warranted its own thread:  I am also running SC2 on a Laptop (Toshiba Satellite).  Is it better to drop screen resolution and boost graphics or up rez and lower graphics.  Thanks. "

Drop screen resolution and drop graphics, try to find the balance I think, but keeping the resolution low.  "

My doucments does have SC2 but does not have that Txt file.  Im also having issues with the client. It first says battle net is down. Then says im using a client version not reconized by the battlnet  "

Right. I have finally just gotten through a whole game with like 200 units fighting and no problems! I have to put my laptop on a box smaller than itself to let air escape from the vents, and I have a big tower fan that I've been using this summer pointed directly at the laptop. It's working fine now. Thank you for all your advice =D

" Try dropping your graphics settings (in-game) absolutely as low as they can go and see if it still cuts out. From what you've said it seems like it could easily be a temperature issue, so if dropping the settings stops it overheating/cutting out, you know that's your issue (probably). 
 
EDIT: oh crap I just realised I missed the part where you said it happens in the menu also, you should give the blizzard fix for the uncapped frame rate a try , ill paste it here  

" Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient. This is because the game has nothing to do so it is primarily just working on drawing the screen very quickly. A temporary workaround is to go to your Documents\StarCraft II Beta\variables.txt file and add these lines: frameratecapglue=30 frameratecap=60 You may replace these numbers if you want to."      

"