mads
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 11:23 AM |
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laptop turns itself off sporadically
Hey up all,
Been given a laptop to try and repair for a colleague's daughter. It is a 2-3yr old Toshiba (if that makes any difference). the problem is that
it turns off at random moments. There appears to be no pattern in how long it will stay on before it switches off (doesn't auto-reboot).
I thought it may be the hard drive going but I took it out and plugged it into my machine as an external hdd and it worked fine. No noises, no
nothing.
I also thought it might be a virus but ran a check and spyware check to find nothing. Plugged it back in to the laptop to try and re-install Vista on
it, thinking it may be a corruption but as I'm loading the files from the recovery CD the machine shuts down so I can't even do that.
I've now run out of ideas... any suggestions on what else it might be?
Cheers,
mads
We gain knowledge faster than we do wisdom!
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip!"
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mcerd1
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 11:30 AM |
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overheating ?
could be choked up with dust inside....
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McLannahan
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 11:45 AM |
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As Mcerd...Overheating I'd say.
I've an Advent laptop to repair at the moment that does this but it's sadly the motherboard that's gone - dry joints. Not really
worth repairing the Advent.
Nothing's made to last these days is it?
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hootsno1
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 12:13 PM |
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lift the laptop up a few inches and let the air flow under it or pc world do a cooling stand for them that blows air under it
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Humbug
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 12:44 PM |
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Ditto... trying blowing/hoovering the dust out, raising it up a bit, or buying one of the USB-powered fan stand thingies - I got one from ebay (for
£5-7 IIRC) for SWMBO's old lappy and it has fixed it for the time being...
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mcerd1
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 01:47 PM |
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if its really choked up inside you may have to take it apart to get it cleared out (obviously this will be a total PITA)
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mads
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 01:56 PM |
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thanks for the replies all.
if it isn't overheating, any other suggestions on what it might be?
We gain knowledge faster than we do wisdom!
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip!"
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ReMan
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 03:34 PM |
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Heat induced deteriation of the solder joints on the motherboard
Google the model, many suffer from it
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hughpinder
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 04:38 PM |
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Faulty power supply or joint?
Bad battery connection, or battery fault?
Faulty power switch?
Does it only do it if you move it about? Does it only happen when on battery, or when its on mains as well?
You should be able to tell how hot it/if its choked with dust is by feeling the exit vents to see if ther's any air flow and if so how hot it
is.
Regards
Hugh
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mads
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 05:24 PM |
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cheers ReMan and Hugh.
Will try and check what you have suggested.
As for when it happens. It happens when stationary, on both battery and mains.
We gain knowledge faster than we do wisdom!
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip!"
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RichardK
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 06:55 PM |
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Check to see if the cpu fan is running, if it is'nt, then sometimes you can stick something through the fan vent to stop it turning (every thing
switched off and battery out and cd tray out) then use an aerosol air (or air compressor) to blow through all the vents.
Nothing to lose if it buggered, also can try reseating all the ram chips.
You may get lucky
Cheers
Rich
Gallery updated 11/01/2011
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mads
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 09:40 PM |
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cheers folks. looks like I overlooked the fan bit. it's dead so going to look to replace it and see if that works. anyone know what type of fan
I need? (only used to working with PCs)
We gain knowledge faster than we do wisdom!
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip!"
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RichardK
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 10:40 PM |
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Nah mate, unfortuanatly you'll have to take it out first to see how big it is, you should be able to get one though although you may have to
solder the plug on the end from the dead fan.
Cheers
Rich
Gallery updated 11/01/2011
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Ninehigh
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| posted on 18/2/11 at 12:45 PM |
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Cream crackered battery, mine has been on pretty much 24/7 since I got it and after 2 years the battery was pants to the point that I only ever
unplugged it when I closed the lid. I found it often "ran out of power" when the battery was 30-50% "full"
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mcerd1
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| posted on 18/2/11 at 03:45 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Cream crackered battery, mine has been on pretty much 24/7 since I got it and after 2 years the battery was pants to the point that I only ever
unplugged it when I closed the lid. I found it often "ran out of power" when the battery was 30-50% "full"
^^ its probably not worth doing in that case but alot of laptops have a battery meter calibtation tool you need to run when its starting to wear out
or when you get an new battery (the tool is in the BIOS settings on mine)
doesn't make it last any longer, just lets it give you a better estimate of how much juce its got in the tank so to speak
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Ninehigh
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| posted on 18/2/11 at 10:47 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by mcerd1
quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Cream crackered battery, mine has been on pretty much 24/7 since I got it and after 2 years the battery was pants to the point that I only ever
unplugged it when I closed the lid. I found it often "ran out of power" when the battery was 30-50% "full"
^^ its probably not worth doing in that case but alot of laptops have a battery meter calibtation tool you need to run when its starting to wear out
or when you get an new battery (the tool is in the BIOS settings on mine)
doesn't make it last any longer, just lets it give you a better estimate of how much juce its got in the tank so to speak
You'll like mine then! Basically it goes like this:
Switch it on and leave it on until the battery dies.
Switch it on again and repeat until it doesn't even switch on.
Then plug it in and switch it on
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