Recently my laptop has started getting pretty hot and shutting down while playing BF2 and other games (and even while running AutoCAD). I took this temperature reading while in-game (after it had crashed twice, within ten minutes of each other). What’s the verdict? Are these temperatures bad?
YES.
here’s a comparison, this is my laptop when the fan was completely broken;
It could have died, and so could yours. I’d get it looked at asap mate.
Thanks for the response, will definitely go check it out.
On second thought, it only seems to happen when running games. Maybe my PC’s trying to tell me something 
I thought you said it did it in AutoCAD too? Either way both are CPU intensive so creates more heat. Those temps are way too high. If the laptop is still in warranty send it off to get fixed, if not open it up, give it good clean with air spray and see if that helps.
these temperatures are not good… just like GuitarJim said: either send it off to get fixed under warranty, or air-clean it. if that does not work, you might have to cut some holes in you casing. I know that worked for my acer when it was acting up.
Submerge it in liquid nitrogen.
that or just clean out the dust.
Your laptop can now double as a water boiler. Make good use of it.
wow 100 C…
I don’t have any laptop, but around what temperatures is a normal laptop on?
remove dust, new thermal paste.
the 100C+ value seems bogus, the maximum is 101…
temp reading software often reports false temperatures due to incompatible chipset or some other reason like broken thermal sensor
That said, your CPU could probably withstand up to 85C no problem, your GPU up to 95, but if it’s crashing well, find a way to boost the fan speed or buy a laptop cooling pad, and please disable windows Aero “Glass”, I don’t understand why people run it on laptops, it’s just another way to get your laptop to die faster.
Guess the compressed air worked…no longer can cook egg on the underside. Funny thing is, I already had a cooling fan underneath, but that was dusty as well. Thanks guys 
But I’m not disabling Aero anytime soon. Basic looks horrible.
Jesus Christ! And I thought the temps on my desktop were bad!
this ^^
Anytime your PC is randomly turning off while playing games or doing anything intensive it’s probably a good sign that it’s overheating. Even though you’ve cleaned out the dust keep an eye out for high temps; you may need to reapply your thermal paste.
That laptop won’t last long at those temperatures. Capacitors have a maximum safe temperature of 105 C, after that they could start to leak which is dangerous because it will fry your laptop. I’m not even going to start about hard drive failure.
Clean the heatsinks, make sure you allow for good airflow by placing the laptop on solid surfaces.
If the computer shuts down that means downclocking the computer didn’t result in a drop in temperature therefor it often just shuts the whole PC down to avoid permanent damage.
Suit yourself. It will get dusty faster with aero enabled, that thing forces your graphics card into gaming mode always, that can’t be good for a laptop.
And you can install much better themes than aero basic. Try Glow Air Final (you need to install 3 custom dll files in windows 7) it has a beautiful non-glass theme and an even cooler glass one.