Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

Question

DearPrudence 0 Newbie Poster

17 Years Ago

I have a 2005 Toshiba laptop with a celeron processor. For some reason my computer will just shut off without warning. You've got about 15 minutes tops to use it before it'll just turn off unexpectedly. If you're doing something a little more complicated, like running a virus scan, it'll turn off within a few minutes. I think the longest it's stayed on in about a year is half an hour. It's just been sitting on the desk for over 6 months without use because it's not even worth my time to try and use it. You can look at a few webpages, then it shuts off. Sometimes you can't even get that far. It'll load the desktop and before it even loads any programs, like an antivirus program or something else, it'll turn off. That's less than 1 minute of time right there.

I tried turning off all unnecessary startup programs like messengers, players, etc but that only bought me about a minute of extra time with it. I also deleted pretty much anything extra on it because I figure I'll lose it soon anyway so I transferred everything to another computer. I have close to zero music, pictures, videos, etc.

Any ideas what's wrong with it? I don't even know if it has a virus because I haven't been able to run a scan in ages without it shutting off first. I'm very careful about not putting myself at risk for viruses, though.

I just want to know what's wrong with it and what I can do to fix it. Keep in mind that I don't have much money to get it inspected by a professional. Even if I can't fix it myself, it'd be nice to identify the problem.

Thanks.

troubleshoot-hardware

Edited 11 Years Ago by Dani because: Temporarily deleted because Google is flagging this article as containing malware and I don't know why

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Chaky 191 Posting Virtuoso

17 Years Ago

I agree with Janine. Rechargeable batteries are very lifespan-limited.

I could add 2 thoughts here:

1. Bad battery could be the symptom and not the cause. The cause could be bad charger/PSU that is not producing enough power to feed the machine and recharge the battery.

Btw, do you get any extra work time if you pull the battery out?

2. Also sounds like an overheating problem. Make sure that all the fans are spinning and no heatsinks are loose.

matrix4495 0 Newbie Poster

14 Years Ago

its a heat up problem for sure, the the cpu fan checked. and make sure you do not use it on any fabric, it should have atleast .6 cms clearance for hot air to pass through.

PcTestCard.com 23 Junior Poster

14 Years Ago

Check if there is any dust clouded the Fan.
The CPU could be heating up and shut down.

Hope this helps!
Bill
Tech manager

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JANINE 33 Practically a Posting Shark · Answer 1 · 2007-04-08T02:28:42+00:00

This doesn't sound like a software fault but more of a hardware fault - predominantly the battery and charging circuit.
As with all rechargeable batteries laptop ones get to become useless after x amount of charges.
have you tried replacing the battery?
What happens if you run the PC on the AC power? Does it stay on or not?

DearPrudence 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 2 · 2007-04-08T08:52:18+00:00

Well there is a power problem. The battery is only good for about 20 minutes so I keep it plugged in the wall. However, the place where you plug it in is loose so you have to put the cord in just right and keep very still. The old cord was worn out from all of the ridiculous propping up I had to do so I bought a new cord, it stays in a little better, but the "jack" itself is still messed up. Even if the cord stays in okay, though, the laptop still shuts off.

hendersonmitch 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 3 · 2007-04-09T04:44:01+00:00

I have a 2005 Toshiba laptop with a celeron processor. For some reason my computer will just shut off without warning. You've got about 15 minutes tops to use it before it'll just turn off unexpectedly. If you're doing something a little more complicated, like running a virus scan, it'll turn off within a few minutes. I think the longest it's stayed on in about a year is half an hour. It's just been sitting on the desk for over 6 months without use because it's not even worth my time to try and use it. You can look at a few webpages, then it shuts off. Sometimes you can't even get that far. It'll load the desktop and before it even loads any programs, like an antivirus program or something else, it'll turn off. That's less than 1 minute of time right there.
I tried turning off all unnecessary startup programs like messengers, players, etc but that only bought me about a minute of extra time with it. I also deleted pretty much anything extra on it because I figure I'll lose it soon anyway so I transferred everything to another computer. I have close to zero music, pictures, videos, etc.
Any ideas what's wrong with it? I don't even know if it has a virus because I haven't been able to run a scan in ages without it shutting off first. I'm very careful about not putting myself at risk for viruses, though.
I just want to know what's wrong with it and what I can do to fix it. Keep in mind that I don't have much money to get it inspected by a professional. Even if I can't fix it myself, it'd be nice to identify the problem.
Thanks.

CHECK ALL YOUR SCREENSAVER SETTINGS AS WELLAS YOUR POWERSAVING SETTINGS
R CLICK ON DSKTOP+PROPERTIES+SCREENSAVER TAB, OR POWER TAB

hendersonmitch 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 4 · 2007-04-09T04:45:55+00:00

CHECK ALL YOUR SCREENSAVER SETTINGS AS WELLAS YOUR POWERSAVING SETTINGS
R CLICK ON DSKTOP+PROPERTIES+SCREENSAVER TAB, OR POWER TAB

ALSO CHECK SETTINGS FOR LOW BATTERY WARNING SETTINGS

caperjack 875 I hate 20 Questions Team Colleague · Answer 5 · 2007-04-09T06:39:49+00:00

sounds like you need the power jack/socket resoldered to the motherboard,
had to take my friends A70 , to shop and have it resoldered

JANINE 33 Practically a Posting Shark · Answer 6 · 2007-04-10T03:40:15+00:00

the fault with the Power jack/socket wasn't mentioned before in the beginning of this thread so I am siding with you Caperjack.
If there is a bad connection somewhere then of course its going to creat no end of problems. The jack being loose is evidently going to cause a bad connection. It shouldn't be loose by any means

Delosian 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 7 · 2008-04-28T11:26:18+00:00

I am having the same problem. The CPU runs for about 6 seconds at 100% and then the laptop powers off suddenly, usually when doing a virus or spyware scan. I notice that when I reboot it runs through the BIOS startup but then windows just sits there blank until I reboot again and then it goes through perfectly. I'm going to assume it is an overheating problem as it also does it in safe mode when I try and do a virus scan.

caperjack 875 I hate 20 Questions Team Colleague · Answer 8 · 2008-04-28T12:24:51+00:00

sounds like heat problem ,try a can of compressed air ,blowing out all opening's to the innards of the laptop like heat sinc's and fans

Delosian 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 9 · 2008-04-28T12:56:38+00:00

I pulled the laptop apart and there was about a centimeter of highly packed dust in the heat sink. I've turned it back on and it's currently doing a virus scan happily enough now. No more problems so far.

My clue to the dust in the heat sink was that Toshiba is currently being sued for selling 5000-series laptops with a known heat problem. Apparently they have something in common: The filter is on the inside of the laptop.

jdrollette 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 10 · 2009-06-29T07:29:38+00:00

I have an Toshiba Laptop as well 2004 i believe, and its started to do the same exact thing, It will stay on for alot longer then yours but it shuts off about 4 hours later once its turned on and i know that its because the laptop is overheating, you could try buying a can of compressed air to try and blow dust off from the fans in your laptop or you will have to try and get the fans inside of the computer replaced, I believe that i will have to get my fan replaced which could be costly.

dguzun 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 11 · 2010-04-20T21:26:44+00:00

I have a 2005 Toshiba laptop with a celeron processor. For some reason my computer will just shut off without warning. You've got about 15 minutes tops to use it before it'll just turn off unexpectedly. If you're doing something a little more complicated, like running a virus scan, it'll turn off within a few minutes. I think the longest it's stayed on in about a year is half an hour. It's just been sitting on the desk for over 6 months without use because it's not even worth my time to try and use it. You can look at a few webpages, then it shuts off. Sometimes you can't even get that far. It'll load the desktop and before it even loads any programs, like an antivirus program or something else, it'll turn off. That's less than 1 minute of time right there.
I tried turning off all unnecessary startup programs like messengers, players, etc but that only bought me about a minute of extra time with it. I also deleted pretty much anything extra on it because I figure I'll lose it soon anyway so I transferred everything to another computer. I have close to zero music, pictures, videos, etc.
Any ideas what's wrong with it? I don't even know if it has a virus because I haven't been able to run a scan in ages without it shutting off first. I'm very careful about not putting myself at risk for viruses, though.
I just want to know what's wrong with it and what I can do to fix it. Keep in mind that I don't have much money to get it inspected by a professional. Even if I can't fix it myself, it'd be nice to identify the problem.
Thanks.

There are of course several points to test:
1)battery; 2) ac plug and receptacle - for testing the receptacle you might have to open your laptop casing; 3) and, things can get overheated - unfrotuantely there quite a few of those.
Most likely you have something overheating.
You will have to disassemble your laptop and clean the fan. cooling duct. Also, make sure that the contact between the cooling and the CPU is good enough to have nice thermal conductivity. Perhaps, applying some thermal concuction paste (white stuff) is necessary in order to eliminate the air gaps between the CPU and the cooling parts. In my case it turned out that the CPU was overheating. It could be though that other parts get oveheated as well: CD/DVD drive, RAM chips and other parts that are really colse to the CPU. If remove those and check the boot up and then you can pin poing which ones is overheating. Hope this helps.

fcarson 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 12 · 2010-05-22T05:36:20+00:00

I have this issue as well, but with an HP Pavillion with XP and 2GB RAM. Not a heat issue...battery works when power is unplugged, so not a battery problem...it will simply power off instantly whether I am in the middle of doing something, or is is simply sitting there with no activity...no apps running, no scans, nothing...across the room I can hear it power off. Strange thing is that I can also MAKE it happen in a couple of ways...one way is if I create or scroll a MS Word document with a line across the page...instantly turns it off. I have run multiple virus scans, defragged the disk to move the files, done disk checks for errors....cannot figure out how to make this happen if I wanted to do it on purpose...simply baffling....

I have also swapped the memory chips, blown it out and cleaned it...when it powers off, I can power it right back on and 95% of the time it boots right up no issue, sometimes it does a disk check...but I can always continue with no problem...I have done multiple registry cleans, disabled services and startup apps....nothing seems to change the random behavior...one day it may shut down 10 times and the next day 2 times....and there is nothing in the event viewer pertaining to the problem....I have also downloaded all the driver updates from HP that I could find...

Chaky 191 Posting Virtuoso · Answer 13 · 2010-05-22T06:18:43+00:00

Might be failing CPU.

There's program called prime95 somewhere on the net. It is used to calculate prime numbers, but that's besides the point. It features CPU/RAM stress-test, and it is a good way to indicate failing CPU. If the CPU is causing such shutdowns, it will take a minute or two of the torture test for the error to occur.

Also, overclocking does cause such errors too.

fcarson 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 14 · 2010-05-23T07:56:33+00:00

Thank you, Chaky...I took your advice and ran prime95 for 6 hours in two different modes, with no issues...3 hours later I was scrolling SQL records in an RDP session and lights out!....rebooted and 90 mins later as I scrolled IE7 lights out again....the only absolutely consistent trigger is scrolling an MS Word document with a line across it....any thoughts?

Chaky 191 Posting Virtuoso · Answer 15 · 2010-05-23T14:41:41+00:00

Windows update. "Automatic" update by default means you need to leave the machine running over night, but you can always go to the microsoft update yourself and check the situation yourself.

jaggy67 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 16 · 2010-07-19T00:20:51+00:00

I have the same problem. I have a HP laptop and it suddenly stops running without warning. In addition, I have the battery charger connected so I am not low on the battery. I feel it is overheating as well. The next day it is fine.

vikascslko 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 17 · 2010-07-30T15:09:23+00:00

my lappy lenovo-y410 suddenly shut down without any message.....
no more heat occur....

ckwink 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 18 · 2010-08-16T09:52:58+00:00

I have the same problem but only when running on battery power. Do not have this problem on when the computer is plugged in with or without the battery.

Definitely its the Battery(the battery needs to be replaced)

tatane 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 19 · 2010-09-30T20:00:06+00:00

Laptop shuts down without warning.HP Windows XP
I have the same problem. My laptop shuts down after Windows come up and a bule screen shows a message that Windows has encounter a problem and needs to shut down. The message also states that if a new program has been installed to uninstall it and re-intall. However, I have not intall any program neither downlaoded one.
What could the problem be? what do I need to do?

Nydatapc 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 20 · 2010-10-01T04:29:30+00:00

First of all, after it's restart by itself, are you able to turn it on again? If yes...overheating problem, if not power problem.
For overheating, you can start with the air pressure can, blow it at the fan, and in all the open spots you may find on the back of your laptop BUT WITH THE LAPTOP TURNED OFF AND NO SOURCE OF POWER. If no results, get a screw driver, Google it ...how to open your laptop , open it and clean it...DON'T FORGET to change the thermal paste ...it's between CPU and cooling fan.
For power problem, check first the AC adapter, maybe you can find one at your friends, and check to see if it's good(in 70% of cases the AC adapter it's bad, not the Power jack). If this will not fix it, you need to solder back or replace the power jack, should be no more than 100$ at any computer repair stores. Good luck.

DanChristman 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 21 · 2010-10-10T12:35:08+00:00