I figured it might be MSI. :P At that price did you buy it used? $160 is really cheap for a laptop that sells new at $1,000 (at least in the US). If you bought it used then there's the problem. You probably wouldn't have a warranty to fix or return it.

So you'd need to go inside and fix it yourself. Clean the fans (or get new ones), apply new and better thermal paste, then put it back together. If you do it correctly it'll run cooler than before. If you do it incorrectly then it won't turn on ever again. But if you bought it used for very cheap then it's worth fixing this way (or getting a good repair shop to fix and install the new fans for you).

Send the laptop to warranty.

I thought 85 degree would make your laptop auto-shutdown?

Check if your VSYNC is correctly enabled. Disabling it has sometimes caused me issues in other games in the past.

Yep. I think it is unlikely I will buy a new desktop anymore, I am pretty much a laptop gamer only from now on. I couldn't possibly bring a desktop and monitor with me to e.g. my summer cottage or when I just were abroad for a month, or move around at my home either. Laptops are just much more convenient to me.

I've used my laptops for playing games (also higher end ones) for years now, and yet to fry them. One 10 year old laptop needed to be retired when its fan got broken (which did cause overheating problems of course), but I had a replacement for it already so I didn't seek to replace the broken fan either.

Also for retrogaming purposes, keeping e.g. 3-5 gaming laptops around from different eras is easier than keeping around 3-5 desktops. You know, like some PC for playing mainly Win98SE and XP era games, some for Win7 era games, some for the latest games etc. I've noticed that having several PCs in your possession is the best guarantee you can play games which may have backwards compatibility problems. Like Gorky 17, it has serious problems on my Geforce-powered gaming laptop, but runs beautifully on e.g. my Intel HD 4000 powered laptop.

85 Celsius degrees is pretty high, but the auto-shutdown (or even CPU throttling) values are usually higher than that, e.g. at 95 C degrees or so.

EDIT: For instance CoreTemp utility seems to consider (Tj. Max) 105 C degrees as the point for the CPU temperature when the CPU should be throttled down or even shut down, on this laptop where I am writing this, if nothing else helps to cool it down. But naturally it makes sense to run it as cool as possible.

This thread is so hot it sent me into menopause... and I'm a man! Someone turn down the lights and crank up the AC!

Is that true?

Because I had a laptop that run modern games like sins or a solar empire rebellion well, but it is in Windows 8 and older games like populous a new beginning keep crashing on me.

Some months later I am so disgusted by the old games crashing and metro that I reformatted it to dual boot Linux and Win7
My old games run like a charm now, but modern games overheat my laptop quickly till it suffers Blue Screen. Even with the same games that have no problems when I still use Win 8.

I had to literately blow a fan at the ventilation of my Laptop to avoid the overheat blue screen.

I always thought it is a software & hardware syncing problem. Because the laptop initially come with a function that improve performance when charged, and power save mode when on batteries. I thought reformatting Win 8 away broke something.

CPUs and GPUs have safety measures for overheating. Automatic throttling down to cool it down, and as a last resort shutting it down. It is not like you are supposed to know yourself with a touch whether your laptop is about to burst in flames.

There may be differences with vendors I guess when it comes to laptop ventilation. My experience with ASUS ROG series has been pleasant so far, they have quite good and relatively silent cooling, but then these are their bigger and heavier 17.3" models where better ventilation is easier to achieve (then again so is the MSI model that the OP apparently has).

No, or at least not with ASUS ROG. I have played many high-end games (including TW3) on my couple years old gaming laptop, and it has stayed relatively cool. Yes, the fans start spinning faster, like they should.

Also if a laptop "spontaneously combusts", then there must be some serious manufacturing flaw in it because the CPUs and GPUs will throttle themselves down, and as a last resort shut down the system, in case the temperatures go anywhere near critical levels.

But before I reformat it to dual boot Linux & Win 7 I am playing Sins fine without the need for a fan. So I assume it is software / hardware sync problem.

Later I would open up my laptop and see if there is any hardware or fan blockage.

Is there any "gaming laptop" (which usually means it is twice as fast as my 6 year old desktop system which is built for low energy consumption and low temperature), that can really be used without an additional cooling pad, external keyboard and mouse?
I can't imagine using a laptop keyboard for proper gaming anyway, even the cheapest $10 Logitech keyboard is usually better suited for the job.

Anyway, those three items are really inexpensive, so if one has $1600 for a notebook, there surely are about $40 left for the three thingies.

From my experience, ASUS ROG series. They have good cooling, at least the 17.3" models.

I sometimes use a wireless external keyboard with it, not because the keyboard is too hot, but because a detached (wireless) keyboard gives more freedom to e.g. be a bit further away from the laptop, or raise my legs up etc. Naturally I also use an external mouse, touchpads are not preferable for gaming (or anything for that matter).

I don't really care that much about those additional "cooling pads", I don't believe they really help as much some people believe. The main advantage with them is that they elevate your laptop a bit (to make sure there is no pillow or something obstructing the airflow), but the fan itself... come on, it is basically trying to cool the bottom of the laptop case. As if that really helps that much to cool the innards of the laptop. It is as if you'd try to cool down an overheating car engine by pointing an external fan at the bottom of your car, or on the top of the hood. Yeah, maybe that helps to dissipate heat by 1% or something.

The main things trying to keep laptops cool are:

- Try to tidy up the innards from dust, with compressed air. When I did that to one laptop, its CPU temperatures instantly lowered by 10-20 Celsius degrees if I recall correctly (I had been using it for several years without cleaning it).

- Use the laptop on a hard surface or otherwise make sure there is nothing obstructing the airflow. A cooling pad can help with this, but so can a simple tray. Don't keep the laptop on top of a pillow or something.

- Naturally the room temperature etc. matters too, ie. are you running the laptop in 40 C degrees where the sun is shining directly at it, or a nice (air con if needed) 23 C room temperature.

well as others already stated - TW3 is a very resorce demanding game - so ya your gaming laptop will be fully utilized and also will most likely turn quite hot. From what you are telling it turns too hot though - so if you have a walk-in-store in your city i would tell them about the overheating problem and let them run a proper burn in test - maybe your cooling solution is faulty/badly installed

Burning Hands are from a different game.

Mrs. Frisby, man. Mrs. Frisby.

I started using a desktop clip-on fan to blow on the top of my laptop when playing games that demand more grunt. I have no idea if the heat is causing a problem or not, but the area above the GPU DOES get toasty and the fan cools that area and my hands. Cheap and easy solution, and the fan can be used for other cooling needs besides just the laptop.