Is Gaming Dangerous on a Laptop?

I see your point, however, like I previously stated, I have a medium-sized desk fan that sits next to my laptop when I play the sims 3, and I also ordered a cooling pad. If computers aren't really made for game playing, I'm not sure why games are programmed and written for the computer platforms when in time, they supposedly shorten their lifespan. But, you need to have fun somehow...as long as you have enough airflow, then there shouldn't be too big of an issue.

I Googled the issue last night in regards to the sims 3 crashing like it does on me when the physical memory reaches a certain point. One user on a forum said that it's because Windows has a setting enabled by default called Data Execution Prevention (DEP). Adding all of the sims 3 games and expansion packs to the list will prevent Windows from terminating the process or "interfering". I have yet to have success with that because I have not added all the expansion packs to the list. Hopefully it fixes the issue I am having with the unexpected terminations I get with the game.

I am starting to ponder something...

After adding all my Sims 3 games (including expansion packs) to the DEP list I mentioned, the game is still freezing up and quitting. A friend and me get together about every other weekend and play the game together on our own laptops. She has a Dell, I have an ASUS, and she never has that problem with the game quitting on her. Thinking and comparing her system to mine, I am wondering something...would my security product POTENTIALLY be interring in some way with my gaming experience? I gave her a copy of Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2012 and I have Kaspersky Internet Security 2012.

Like I said, I'm starting to wonder...
Who else plays The Sims 3 and what do you have on your system for protection? It seems like since I added these games to the DEP list, the game crashes aren't as frequent like they used to be. I feel like I am getting close and closer to the solution...

I didn't originally have Trend Micro installed on my PC, I had Kaspersky. However, I have removed Kaspersky and installed Trend and will test the game and see what happens. If the game crashes like it has been with Trend installed, then I know that Kaspersky wasn't too blame. My reasoning for thinking this was I've noticed in the past Kaspersky can be very finicky, touchy on certain things, and very sensitive and sometimes can "overprotect" you on files that have no malicious intent whatsoever. Because I have seen that firsthand, that just immediately got me thinking...

I will see what happens and post my findings.

I am amazed! After removing Kaspersky, the game lasted me at least 45 minutes before it quit on me again.
I was so happy! Here, I thought I solved the issue. The physical memory reading during game play averaged between 70%-74%. When I would save the game, it would jump up to 80%-85%. I left the game idle for about 10 minutes and returned to my PC to find the physical memory at 88%. When I moved the mouse in the game to continue playing, the window turned white and it wasn't responding.

What on earth could be causing this!?! The laptop is getting plenty of air intake during game play, DEP is set correctly so I'm not sure what else could be causing the issue.

Suggestions anyone?

Msconfig is the next item on my list. However, I am not marking this threat as solved just yet, however, I was reading somewhere on a forum long and far away on the internet tonight about a user experiencing an issue similar to this. They disabled the custom content before playing the game and didn't have an issue. They also had the games added in the DEP list. I disabled the custom content in my game and played the game for about an hour with no disruptions whatsoever. I am noticing that since Trend is installed on my system that the memory during game play and "work time" on my PC it is relatively low. When Kaspersky was installed, it jumped around a lot and during game play, it was ALWAYS high!

Perhaps I may have found my answer...not sure yet...

I see some questionable processes running. I don't know if they would be culprits to my game crashing on me or not. (See attached)

The only one that I know of for sure in the bunch is the winlogon.exe but the other ones look a little strange...

Games are not really designed to work with laptops, you could go and improve the memory, hard-drive and the graphics card (I'm sure most laptop graphics cards are onboard anyway), but at the cost of more heat?

Excessive heat can melt components and cause long-term damage; my friends laptop got so hot that the case started to produce a weird burning smell of plastic with the CPU shutting the system down eventually.

If I was you, I would buy some cooling pads or additional fans, with regular cleaning of the fans inside the laptop and air vents on the laptop with compressed air or raw lung power :P