Laptop overheating/Locking Up

[scarredtaka]

Hi,

I have a ASUS G72GX Laptop, and like to work with animation as a hobby. Poser (http://poser8.smithmicro.com/dr/index.html) is my tool of choice, and is a simplified/entry level posing/animation tool.
I am having problems with rendering animated scenes on my laptop.
Whenever I try to render my final animations, which are usually no more than 1000 frames@30 frames per second, the laptop will not complete them.
It will get part way, usually over half and then hard lock. This is usually after 3-4 hours. I often get this message from event viewer:

The speed of processor 0 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report.
This would indicate the computer is overheating, no? I've tried running the laptop in it's power saving mode and the problem still occurs.

Task manager reports that Rendering consumes between 50 and 80 percent of my processor, and I don't use the computer for other tasks while it is rendering.
The laptop is on a stand for better air circulation, and is not connected to a external monitor. Other than rendering, the computer is stable.
It games fine for hours, and is also prime95 stable overnight. I live in Anchorage, AK, so it's not terribly hot here. (70F in the sun)

Also, this is the 4th computer that I have had fail me. I've previously gone through 2 macbook pro's and a home built computer. All had parts fail from overheating.

What am I missing? It seems odd that the computer would be fine in prime95 and still have this issue.

Thanks for any advice/help,
-ST

 

[seemlessthunder]

Poser is a beast when it comes to what it's processing needs are. Not very optimized for animation. Does it actually crash or does it just lock? Often for rendering a machine will get unresponsive and you just have to let it run until it finishes. Another option is to split the animation into multiple shots like you would in a normal movie instead of trying to render the whole thing in one go. And then use a tool to merge the chunks back to one video clip after the fact.

 

[scarredtaka]

It locks up, but it locks up long enough that I can tell that it's not doing anything anymore (ie overnight 8-10 hours.)

I try to split up animations when I can, but some things, like trying to do cloth simulation is difficult to split up.


-ST