Ugh...my home computer clearly needs some hardware help. No Man's Sky isn't the only game causing it to shut down under load.
I guess it's time to figure out whether the power supply needs to be replaced or I just need to blast a couple year's worth of dust bunnies off of the CPU fan.
Actually it can't be that long, I replaced the graphics card last summer just before the chip shortage started driving prices sky-high (damn that was lucky timing), and I'm sure I would have cleaned it out at the time.
Looks like it's the CPU cooling. Started monitoring the temperature and found that under heavy load it was climbing up to 70 C. Max operating range is 61.
So tomorrow I get to open up the case, clear out the dust, make sure all the fans are working, etc. I'm hoping either that'll be enough or just putting new thermal paste on the heat sink does it.
Whee.
A voice in the back of my head wants to use this as an excuse to upgrade & I keep telling it "no, only if it's actually necessary."
Meanwhile the laptop has been experiencing major lag on Minecraft over the past week. More or less since Apple released the latest security update...which didn't actually install.
Hoping it's just a case of the stuck update slowing things down. I've had that happen on my work computer too.
Computer repairs (+)
The Macbook no longer lags after forcing a reboot and ensuring it actually finished installing the latest OS update. (This shouldn't be a thing, but it is.)
The desktop is no longer overheating now that I've cleared out the dust & replaced the thermal paste. CPU barely broke 50 C even with a zillion mobs attacking me.
Computer repairs (+)
@KelsonV
wish I could have you replace the thermal paste on my old 2009 mbp ;)
Computer repairs (+)
@FiXato I remember an even older MBP (maybe 2005?) that I ended up having to set on a cooling rack from our baking supplies in order to let it have enough airflow to stay running!
I really don't want to spend the 3-day weekend fixing computers 😟