I use my laptop at least 90% of the time. It is also an I7 with 8GB and I Have never had a problem with even 3plus hour renders. I do use a cooler fan on all my laptops to off-set any problems.
Yes drives are fine and nothing has changed except for the fact that I had just installed the latest update
Would that have re-set the time line length and if so how do I extend the time line length? I can’t find that setting
I don’t think this is the problem though as both audio and video are already on the time line and work well