Windows 7 installed - now overheating - any solution?

Hi. I recently bought a used (about 5 years old) Sony Vaio VGN-NS10L/S Windows Vista (which had been removed), to upgrade to Windows 7 for an elderly relative who can't get on with her Windows 8 laptop. I decided to upgrade some of the hardware too, so the laptop didn't die on her too quickly, so installed the maximum 4gb of ram (originally had 3gb) and Windows 7 64 bit, after fully wiping the drive and testing it.

The laptop got very hot within the first couple of hours and got hotter and hotter! Then started crashing during the final lot of Windows updates. The fan was working, I blew out the dust - no difference. I contacted the seller, said the laptop ran dangerously hot and asked for a refund. He said it was strange as it hadn't run hot before, but offered to give a refund, and asked if I would return it with a Linux operating system on (ie rather than no operating system).

So I put the original 3gb of ram back in and installed Linux - and suddenly no overheating - laptop running perfectly fine for hours! So - I thought it must be something to do with the ram - so have now installed Windows 7 32 bit (due to having less than 4gb of ram now). And guess what - it is overheating again?

This model is supported for Windows 7 upgrade by Sony and all the drivers are available. Is there something I can do about this? The first time when I installed Windows 7 I didn't install any drivers from the Sony site, and just kept running Windows update to get the drivers installed.

Do you think, if I installed the drivers from Sony first, before doing any updates, this might stop it overheating somehow? Don't want to fry the laptop!

If it helps - it is upgraded to latest bios and it does have a 64 bit processor but had Vista 32 bit installed orginally. The only reason it didn't have the Vista on when I bought it was because the seller had wiped the drive with Sony software and the recovery disks wouldn't work afterwards. I then wiped it with wipedrive to make sure the disk was clean before installing Windows 7.

Yes, I would absolutely install the drivers from Sony, provided they offer Windows 7 64 bit drivers. If they don't, you could try the Vista 64 drivers installed in Compatibility Mode.

It might also help to do a BIOS reset (restore Defaults) just before installation.

Hi - thanks - resetting bios is a good idea. It is 32 bit drivers as am now sticking to 32 bit - and the original ram. Have just realised, after reinstalling, that the Windows drivers install from the disc, before you even connect to the internet. So am now thinking I might need to get Vista Recovery discs and do an in place upgrade of Windows 7, using all the Sony drivers from scratch.

The Windows drivers are usually just generic drivers to get systems up and running. You normally install the Sony driver afterward - over the Windows ones. Sometimes Windows cries and says that the driver you already have is better and won't let you. But there are ways around that. Sometimes the Windows drivers are better, depending on how old the Sony ones are. There should be no reason to upgrade from Vista to get W7. A clean install is always best.

Thanks. It seems ok now - now it isn't working hard doing all the updates, so I guess it just didn't like 64 bit. Have left the Windows drivers as they are.