There have been a few times, both while just playing and while raiding, that I've had to log and reboot. Here's my explanation.

Recently my video card has been crapping out. It doesn't do it when I'm just working on regular stuff... only when I'm in WoW. Probably because nothing else I do pushes the card as hard as WoW does.

The system is a 3.0 GHz P4, 1GB System RAM, ATI 9700 w/ 256MB RAM, and some other shit that's doesn't make much of a difference.

The first two are it getting weird on me while still being playable. The last three are it going completely unplayable. The very last one being tonight after the guild event.

The screen shots are all halfed in resolution so they would fit in the size requirements for posting.

Anyone want to donate to the "Raps needs a new laptop" fund? lol

What you have there is possibly a heat problem. Have you cleaned the laptop of all dust, and ensured all fans are operating?

Yep, that looks like a burned up video card. I've had more than one of those.

ATI 9700

Well there's your problem!

Do you have V-Sync turned on? If not, do it.

What you have there is possibly a heat problem. Have you cleaned the laptop of all dust, and ensured all fans are operating?

I've taken as much of the case apart as I can to remove all dust from the heat sinks and fans. From what I can tell... they are all working properly.

Do you have V-Sync turned on? If not, do it.

I'll check for that. Thanks.

That's what my laptop looked like after I fell on it and before it started refusing to boot up.

Course, mine was cause my screen was shattered.

I've made some changes both to the video card settings, and the video settings in WoW. Seems to help, but only slightly. Still getting the same problems, just takes a bit longer now.

In light of this, I'm going to look into justifying a new laptop. I've heard good things about the Dell XPS since they bought Alienware... I simply have a problem with Dell. To me Dell is the Yugo of the computer world. If someone would like to state differently, I'd love to hear it.

So I'm looking for suggestions on a laptop, specifically for gaming. I'd like to stay under $3000.

I just ordered mine from AVA Direct. Impressed with the service so far. Was a tossup between them and Puget Custom Computers. I think I'd get a desktop from Puget, but I liked AVAs laptop options better.

RCUSTOM NOTEBOOK, Clevo M570RU/NB8E-GTX Core™ 2 Duo Gaming Notebook, 17" TFT WSXGA+/WUXGA, NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 1600M / GeForce® 8800M GTX 512MB GDDR3 Graphics $2555.94 UPDATE $2555.94
# CLEVO, M570RU/NB8E-GTX/SM Core 2 Duo Notebook Barebone, Intel® PM965, 17" TFT WSXGA+ Matte, DVD±RW SM, BT, FPR, PCIe x16 MXM-IV/III Discrete Graphics
# INTEL, Core™ 2 Duo T8300 2.4GHz Processor, 800MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache, 35.0W, 45nm, Retail
# ARCTIC SILVER, Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound, Polysynthetic Silver
# VIDEO, NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800M GTX 512MB GDDR3 Mobile Graphics Card
# OCZ, 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz SDRAM SODIMM, CL5 (5-5-5-15), Non-ECC
# SEAGATE, 120GB Momentus 7200.2, 7200 RPM, 8MB cache, 9.5mm, SATA 3.0 Gbit/s, OEM
# OPTICAL DRIVE, Super-Multi DVD±RW Optical Drive (Included)
# NETWORK, Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN Card
# INTEL, Wireless-N WiFi Link 4965AGN, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/Draft N, 11/54/300 Mbps, Internal PCIe Mini Card
# ACCESSORY, Bluetooth Card (Integrated)
# MODEM, 56K V90/92 Fax/Modem (Integrated)
# NOTEBOOK ACCESSORIES, AC Adapter 100/240V (Included)
# ACCESSORY, Built-in Fingerprint Reader (Included)
# COOLERMASTER, NotePal Cooling System for Notebook / Laptop Computers, Aluminum
# MICROSOFT, Windows XP Professional Edition w/ SP2c, OEM
# SERVICE, OEM System Recovery (secure HDD partition only)
# MICROSOFT, Office Basic Edition 2007, OEM, No Media
# SERVICE, AVADirect System Binder
# WARRANTY, Standard 1 Year Warranty for Clevo Notebooks

So I'm looking for suggestions on a laptop, specifically for gaming. I'd like to stay under $3000.

I'm getting a new one from hp. A d something or other. It was reasonably priced and I had it loaded to the max. Friend of mine uses the same brand when she raids and has no problems.

I got the Gateway FX and really dig it.

Try one of these 'Chillmats' to help with notebook heat. They actually work very well. It might buy you some time to save up for one of those WoW notebooks.

http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=pa248u