My laptop turns off without any reason
After I turn on my laptop it works fine for 25-30 minutes and after that just turns itself off without any warning. When I turn it on again, it works for some time and then shuts down again. What is going on? How can I fix it?
Most likely you experience a laptop overheating problem and it would be fixed by cleaning the cooling module – the heat sink and the fan. The notebook processor produces a lot of heat when the notebook is turned on. The cooling module helps to keep the CPU cool when the laptop is working. The cooling module includes two parts: the heat sink and the cooling fan. The heat sink is attached to the CPU and helps to conduct the heat from the processor to the radiator. The cooling fan blows on the radiator and helps to disperse the heat produced by the CPU. The laptop will overheat if the heat sink radiator is clogged with lint and dust or if the cooling fan stopped spinning.
If your laptop shuts down after some time without any reason and warning, check if the cooling fan spins. Usually it makes some noise and you can hear it. If the fan works fine, then check if the heatsink is clogged. In some cases you can clean the heat sink with compressed air, just blow inside the fan openings on the laptop bottom. If the heatsink is completely clogged, then it is necessary to remove the heatsink for cleaning.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:20 am
Hi,
I have a Gateway 7330GZ Laptop. Pentium 4 3.2GHz with 992MB RAM. Its a year old, its got windows XP, Lately its been shutting down on its own after running for about 30 or so minutes. It doesn’t turn on if I try to turn it on immediately but if I let it be for 15 or so minutes then it turns back on and runs like normal(for another 30-45 minutes). I can follow the link in this post and try to make sense of them( I have no idea where heat sinks , cooling fans etc are)provided you can tell me that the directions for my computer are no different from that for a Toshiba.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
January 8th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
I have a compaq armada M300, You try to turn it on, it will go off in 3 – 4 seconds. Disconnected battery and tried A/C and still same problem. this is done at a cold start up. Any ideas ?
January 9th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Ray,
Start minimizing the system. Remove the battery, DVD drive, hard drive, wireless card, etc… Try turning on the laptop after each removed part. Reseat the memory modules, move RAM stick from the slot A to the slot B (if you have two memory slots and one module). Disconnect the keyboard and test the laptop again. In short, minimize the system until you have only three parts: motherboard, memory and CPU (with the cooling module). If the laptop still shuts down even after you completely minimized it, you might have a bad motherboard. From my experience a bad CPU or memory module will not force the laptop to shut down after 3-4 seconds, you just cannot start it but it usually stays on.
BTW, here’s one more thing. Disconnect the video cable from the motherboard and test the laptop with an external monitor. A few month ago I had an HP laptop with a similar problem and I solved the problem by reseating the video cable on the back of the LCD screen.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Hi,
I’m having the same problems. Fan just died, and i’m pretty sure it’s the processor fan. And yes, this is a laptop. I was thinking maybe some drivers or something were gone really bad, but everything seems to be working fine. But the fan just won’t move.
It’s not stuck, i’m sure about that! Recently cleaned the entire thing. Any possibility for fixing it with yor own hands? I might be pretty good at it
February 7th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Hi, I have a dell inspiron 8200. I removed a couple of unused application, did a disk clean-up through systems tool, and a disk defrag. Then I reboot my laptop and all of a sudden, it just start shutting down for no reason with no error message. Does it have something to do with the disk clean up or defrag after the software uninstall? I wasn’t sure since it works up until the reboot. Please help
February 8th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Magni,
Sure, take apart the laptop and replace the fan.
February 8th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
George Fernando,
How much time the laptop works without shutting down? Try booting the laptop in safe mode and check if the laptop still shuts down. If the laptop works fine in safe mode you might have a software related issue.
February 9th, 2007 at 7:01 am
I have a Sony Vaio VGN A140P
Problem: I was running on battery(100% charged) and my laptop just shut off by itself. Then I pressed the power button and nothing happens. So I take out the battery and put it back on, the laptop turns on but turns of during boot up.
So I think it may be the battery and remove the battery and began to work on the AC and it was working fine. Then unexpectedly the Laptop turns off by itelf without warning, and it did not turn on immediately after that. So I put the battery back in and I am running fine on the battery.
What do you think the problem is?
February 9th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Nas,
After the notebook shuts down do not turn it back on for 15 minutes and then test it again. Will the notebook work longer if you let it cool down for a while? Isn’t it hot if you touch the bottom? Can you hear the fan running?
February 11th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 notebook. Today it just shut down by itself and it won’t start. It isn’t the adapter because when that is plugged in the green light is on. I have tried to turn it back on and the lights flash, but then it just shuts down. I actually got it to load my desktop, but then it froze, again. I called Dell, but they weren’t much help. They had me take my battery out and push buttons. Nothing worked. They want me to ship my laptop to them, but I have school work that I need asap. Any suggestions??
February 15th, 2007 at 4:06 am
i have HP nx9110 laptop. it turns off, when i put the battery. it works fine without battery. what can be the problem? can any one please help me.
February 16th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
My problem is similar. I have Gateway 600ygr and a week ago when tried to turn the power button on it nothing happened. But, when I unplugged the power cord and then pluged it back in, the lights and fan sarted going. Unfortunately only for 2 seconds and then the laptop died. Eventually I have discovered that besides the trick with the power cord, I could power on the laptop by presing the little button that puts the computer in the stand by mode when closing down the screen, unfortunately for only 2 seconds. When I press this litle button and hold it down, laptop starts normally, but the screen does not lights up. I can see a little under the right lights, but cant manage to see the mouse to get into the windows. External monitor does not work either. I even changed the little circuit board on which this little “sand by mode” button is located with no change. I don’t know where else to look. I hate this Gateway, but that is all I have. Any help I will appriciate very much.
February 26th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Dear Laptop Freak,
Are you the young man holding the laptop and the tool bag at the Toshiba disassembly site?
I am impressed with your knowledge of laptops and general use of deductive reasoning in your diagnosis of computer problems. Your maturity of expression when responding to inquiries are much admired by me.
I have looked at your site several times and used it when repairing an A65. I intend to make a small donation every time I use your site for disassembly.
Keep up the good work.
Walter
February 26th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Walter,
That’s me. I’m glad that you like my sites and I enjoy developing them.
Sounds like a really great idea!
March 6th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
My Dell D600 shuts down with no warning. This may be a clue. When I plug the power adapter into the wall the green power light comes on the cord but when I plug the cord into the laptop the light goes out.
Thoughts?
March 7th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I can not open my NEC laptop since few days. I forget to check the available space in hard drive. when I try to unzip one big file (containing number of files) may be remaining space in the hard disk is not sufficient. During unzipping process the laptop shut down suddenly after then I try to reopen but I can not open the laptop. How can I solve this problem?
April 11th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Dear laptop freak,
Somebody try to hack into my computer last night and they jammed my keyboard system and they also put a virus that I can’t turn on my laptop anymore, do you know how to fix the problem. My laptop was working fine till last night when somebody try to hack it, now my laptop will just turn on for a second not even for a minute and then show me a flash and turn it of by itself automatically, do you know what the problem is and do you know how to fix it?
I’m also having problems with my keyboard, somebody try to hack into my computer last night and now they jam my keyboard and I can’t make it work and I can’t type anything, the letters and the numbers on the keyboard doesn’t work when I try to press it to type something, do you know what the problem is and do you know how to fix it?
Is my broken keyboard the problem that my laptop isn’t working or is it a different problem, please tell me.
Thank You
April 11th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Dear laptop freak,
I forgot to mention I have a Hewlet Packard DV 6000 as my laptop so can you get to me back ASAP how can I fix the problem and tell me what the problem is?
Thank you again
April 15th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
My laptop is a prestigio 109, and it produces 11 short beeps then shuts down automatically.. my brother used this laptop and when it got back it became really slow so i tried to format it.. but everytime i format it, either on the boot menu or anywhere near the system inspection of the windows xp installation it would then beep and shuts down (mostly after the loading of all the components needed for the installation) in adition to that i cannot delete the partition on my drive as it says “boot sector virus: overwrite y/n” … i thought using fdisk/mbr would work.. but the problem is still there… i managed to install windows 98 (from time to time the beep-shut down stil happens) at this point when i format any floppy disks it also goes into the beep-shutdown process… what seems to be the problem????
July 11th, 2007 at 5:05 am
Hi there, Currently Im using HP DV6000T. Its keeping to turn off in around 30-45′ or so. But after it turn off, I can instantly turn in on. And its run around 30-45′ and off again. But sometime its run like ages and never off. Like when I watch movie, its run smoothly, but when I play game such as Lineage 2 its run around 30′ and off. And 1 side note, I just upgrade RAM from 1GB to 1.5GB with replacement of 1×512MB. I wonder if there is a problem with RAM that I replaced. Because before upgrade the problem is not existed
. So what do you think is the problem?
July 12th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Kevin,
If the problem didn’t exist before the upgrade, apparently it’s somehow related to memory. Try installing the original memory stick back and test the laptop again. It’s possible that your new memory module is faulty.
You can test laptop memory with Memtest86+ utility, you’ll find a link to this utility on the right side of the website in Useful Links.
BTW, check the heatsink/fans. Make sure that fans are not clogged with dust. If they are, clean them with compressed air and test the laptop again. It’s possible that the laptop shuts down because it overheats.
July 16th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
My Gateway laptop turns off when it heats alot .. most probably while playing games but now it shuts down after about 30 minutes or 5-10 minutes if i turned on again without waiting for it to cool .. The fan is working .. but I feel of hot air from it .. While I touch the laptop where the fan located .. I can feel alot of heat ..
July 27th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
I have an HP pavilion ze4400 and it was overheating so I cleaned out the fan, then when I put it all back I turn it on then shuts off and turns on again and repeats that over and over again.
July 28th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Tyler,
Make sure the memory module/modules are seated correctly. Reseat the memory and try again.
July 30th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
I have an acer laptop. its a little over a year old. of course the warenty is up. my laptop would turn off from time to time when running any type of game in the disc drive or at times at night, i thought it was over heating because it would always be extremely hot. i got a cooling system for underneath the laptop, and it seems to work, the laptop is not as hot and the air that the fan is blowing seems to be a lot cooler, but again it shuts off, its getting more and more frequent each day. it never gives a warning and completely shuts down screen, everything. i restart it and it works again, but i never know when it might just stop working again on me.. any thoughts?
August 8th, 2007 at 8:05 am
hi i’ve been having similar problems with my laptop. i have an hp pavilion zd7160us and for about a year now its been shutting off unexpectedly. its really random about it but i have noticed it does it mostly when i do copy/paste actions. its strange. at first it would only do it when i used photoshop and would do copy paste or work on a large image so i thought it was something related to photoshop but then its done it while i’m using Word also and Excel. it just shuts down completely. nothing remains running, no lights, no fan running. the laptop has always gotten hot to the touch ever since i bought it but i figured that was expected since it’s such a huge laptop so i bought a stand for it to keep it cool underneath. but even with the stand its still warm and shuts down on me. it doesn’t do it constantly just randomly and not too often but i’d say 3 out 5 times i use it. i never know when it’s gonna happen which is actually more annoying. and when it does happen i can turn it back on right away i don’t have to wait like the other people on this site say they have to wait. i can just turn it right back on and it’ll work as if nothing happened.
any suggestions? thanks!
August 14th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
my compter aoutomatically restarts on it own what should i do
September 18th, 2007 at 4:52 am
I have a sony vaio VGN-A115M. I was using the laptop with the battery (lots of battery power remaining) and the laptop just switched off suddenly and the screen was black. Since then I haven’t been able to turn the laptop back on. I have tried to contact Sony and they tried to get me to reset it by holding down the on key etc.. but this still did not work.
Please help because I’m going to university next week and need the laptop!!!!
Thanks
September 18th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Hi
My laptop won’t startup or shutdown properly. I have tried starting in safe mode and then shutting down but that still does not work. I have had some major overheating issues with my laptop but I am pretty I have taken care of it. Any ideas in whats going on?
Ron
September 18th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Sasan,
Do you get any LED lights when you turn on the laptop? Can you hear any noise coming from the laptop when you turn it on?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Ron,
Does the hard drive make any strange noises? Test the hard drive first. You can use Hitachi’s drive fitness test, check Useful Links on the right side of the website.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:31 am
Thanks for the quick reply but I get nothing.. no LED lights and no noise..
September 19th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Sasan,
1. Test the AC adapter with voltmeter, make sure it provides power
2. Remove the battery and try starting the laptop from the AC adapter
If you are using a known good AC adapter but the laptop is completely dead, you might have a problem with the motherboard.
September 20th, 2007 at 1:05 am
I think it is the motherboard.
Thanks for the help, I will send it for repair!!
September 21st, 2007 at 12:28 am
i have a hp pavilion dv 1000 series laptop, for some time now its been switching off totally, at random times, nothing specific like the 35-40 minutes i see in your forums, and afterwards i can simply switch it back on and it responds or not. recenly i heard a pop sound, when tryin to start it up after it auto-shut-down itself again, and now only the board comes on, the monitor stays off, any ideas?
October 8th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Mine is intersting one;) HP DV6000, i cant install Windows, coz its shuts down ussualy 2-10min, depends how long it was running before, i managed to run live cd Ubuntu and install it, im using now for 4 months, it runs only when i set to 800 Mhz. When i do on 2Ghz it works same as i triyng install windows..;) any ideas?:)
October 10th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Hi,
I’m a law student with a brand new HP dv2500t which I’m beginning to hate right now. Regardless of how much battery power I have or even if I have the AC power pluggedd in my laptop just shuts off randomly without any warning.In order to turn it back on it will not respond to me jsut pressing the power button.Instead I have to hold it down for several seconds. Once it starts it says that it was shut down improperly and asks if I want to run the laptop in safemode or normally. What is going on here, this laptop is brand new and it does this unpredictable shutdown every few weeks or so. Help! I can’t have this happen during my exams. Ps it is always on and occassionally in sleep/hibernate mode but there is no overheating that I am aware of.
October 11th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Joshua,
I think you laptop shuts down because it overheats. Check the cooling fan, make sure it’s not clogged with dust. Buy a can of compressed air and spray inside the air intakes on the bottom of the laptop, it will help to clean the cooling module.
October 11th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
AH,
Check the BIOS version installed on your laptop and after that find out if HP has a newer version of BIOS available for downloads. Update the BIOS if needed, it might help. If it doesn’t help, probably you’ll have to send the laptop to HP for repair.
November 29th, 2007 at 7:00 am
hi i have a hp pavillion dv9000
i have read some om those problems ppl have written here. but my problem is something else. when i start my computer. it shuts down after 2-3 sec. then it starts, then it shuts down, starts and then shuts down. the screen is always black. fter 5-6 times the laptop really turns on and useful. why?
my integrated wireless network card is totally unusefull. laptop can not find it. have innstalled driver many times but it wont work. formted my computer and still dont work. some times it just happend that my laptop says it has recognaized a new hardware and innstalled broadcom driver. THEN it works. after turning off computer and on. it would not recognize my wireless agen.
December 15th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
My laptop goes off with the littlest touch, even if i’m just adjusting the screen. It’ making me crazy!
It’s a HP pavillion dv9000
December 15th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
I have a Toshiba laptop
I am having trouble with the page or game I am playing the page will minimize to the taskbar. I will have to click the page from the taskbar and it will come back up. This happens about every 10-15 minutes. I don’t lose anything but it is a big nuisance.
Any suggestions???
December 30th, 2007 at 3:25 am
I was wondering did anyone have the answer for the problems with the Gateway laptop, becuase my laptop does the same as Insane does. “My Gateway laptop turns off when it heats alot .. most probably while playing games but now it shuts down after about 30 minutes or 5-10 minutes if i turned on again without waiting for it to cool .. The fan is working .. but I feel of hot air from it .. While I touch the laptop where the fan located .. I can feel alot of heat ..”
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:39 am
i am having trouble with my Evesham laptop. it turns off without any reason. when i turn it on is fine, then after about an hour or two it turns off. th times cahnge though. i had it on for the whole day without using it but it didnt turn off and when i went on it. after half an hour it shut down. can you help me?
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:13 am
I have a “dead” acer notebook that suddenly just stopped working.nothing.NO power. Will NOT even turn on.replace cmos battery,but nothing.
can anyone help????
January 5th, 2008 at 9:33 am
guys plz help me out, ive got a hp nc6000 laptop.few days ago its battery died forever, after that it started switching off on its own, and now for the last three days it doesnt even turn on, whenever i press the power button, only the fan runs but nothing else happens.
by the way i have been running my laptop on AC supply since the day my battery crashed.i ve changed my adapter , even cleaned the fan and heatsink, nothing seems to help…….
may be its motherboard has given up, and by the way can anybody tell me what does a new motherboard costs like???
January 6th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Nicky,
This sounds like overheating problem. Blow off the cooling fan with compressed air. It might help.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Did you test the AC adapter by any chance? Maybe the AC adapter is dead?
January 7th, 2008 at 12:15 am
I think it could be bad memory.
Do you know how many memory stick you have installed into your laptop?
If you have two sticks, remove them one by one and find out if the laptop works with one of the sticks, try installing memory sticks into different slots.
If you have only one memory stick, remove it and install back, try moving to the empty slot. Also, try replacing it with a known good memory.
That’s what I would try first. It’s possible that there is nothing wrong with your motherboard.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I also have an HP Pavilion (zd7000), and like a previous poster, when I’m using Photoshop, and copy an image to paste into another document, nearly every time I do so, the laptop just totally shuts down, is unresponsive for a second, makes a kind of ‘pop’ noise and then restarts. It’s incredibly annoying, and I want to know why it happens, and what I can do. Any ideas?
February 13th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Dear Laptop Freak,
i have a gateway laptop and it turns itself off for no reason. i thought it was overheating problems, but now it does it even a minute or two after i turn it on…so it’s not possible for it to be cold.
i cleaned off the heatsink and fan to make sure everything would be running properly, but it still shuts down.
what steps should i take to troubleshoot this? is this a common problem?
i even tried starting it up in safe mode and it still shut down.
even once or twice it has shut down while windows xp was booting up.
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:45 am
I have a Dell Inspiron 1100 Laptop. It works fine for 25 or 30 minutes and then become extremely slow than usual and sometimes turns off automatically after a hour or more. The fan is running perfectly, but I don’t know where is the heat sink? Please tell me what to do in this case. I’m very boring due to this problem.
I shall be waiting for help.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Rahman Zeb,
The heatsink is located near the fan. Make sure the heatsink is clean, you can blow off dust with compressed air.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Thank you very very much for helping me. I think It has solved my problem.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I have another problem and that’s in the battery. I charge it, but works only for 3 to 5 minutes. What I should do in this case. Should i repair it or replace it with a new one.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
hey my computer turns off by its self can you help me when i play a game to it just turns off. the fan is working fine and i have seen in side my lap top just a few weeks ago it was clean so i heard it could be the power supp or somethinnk like that if you know what it might be just e-mail me moneymaddness@hotmail.com
April 21st, 2008 at 6:58 am
My HP DV8301 laptop had a broken power jack, so I took the entire thing apart and replaced it. After I put it all back together, it started shutting down after just 2 or 3 minutes, so I took it apart again and realized I needed new thermal compound (the old stuff was like this double sided tape thing and it was no longer sticky), so I replaced that and cleaned the heatsink. At first I thought it worked, but it started shutting down again. At first it lasted almost an hour, and the time it would last without shutting down got shorter and shorter, and now it’s back to shutting down after about 2 or 3 minutes again. Any ideas? Thanks!
April 21st, 2008 at 11:51 am
Khatana,
Did you check the cooling fan? Maybe you forgot to plug it in? Does the fan work at all when the laptop is on?
April 21st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
What if the laptop turns off before it has time to overheat? This seems to be a major problem with my laptop. I checked the heat sync and it was fine, and the fan turns on when the laptop is powered on. I have no idea where to go!
Thanks in advance, Rob.
April 21st, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Robert,
Test the AC power adapter with voltmeter. The voltage is normal?
Remove the battery and try starting the laptop from AC adapter. Does it start at all? Maybe AC adapter is bad?
The laptop turns off even before Windows is loaded?
April 21st, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I’ll have to check with a voltmeter when I have some time. I will also check with the AC adapter. I do remember the laptop shutting off sometimes before windows if fully loaded. (it has that XP screen with the little bar that looks like it’s moving beneath it)
yea, sometimes the laptop just shuts off right there.
Other times I can get the laptop to stay on for about 5 minutes, but regardless it turns off abruptly without warning.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Well, it’s definitely plugged in, and the fan works, although I’ve only noticed that it starts, perhaps it’s shuts down and I don’t notice? I’ll try checking for that.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Khatana,
It looks like you are comfortable with taking your laptop apart. Here’s what you can try. Disassemble the laptop and start putting it back together testing after each step. For example:
1. Connect three main parts – motherboard, CPU and memory and try turning it on with an external monitor. If the laptop works fine, go to the step 2.
2. Now plug in the LCD cable and test the laptop again. If it works fine, go to the step 3.
3. Plug in the keyboard and test again, etc…
April 21st, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Robert,
Here’s what you can try. Remove the hard drive and turn on the laptop. Will it shut down after a while when the hard drive is removed?
Try running memory diagnostic test, you can use Memtest86+ utility. This can be memory related problem. Try reseating the memory module and maybe even replacing it with another known good module.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 am
i will check out your suggestions this weekend, can i do the memtest 86+ without the hardrive? if the computer doesn’t start up fully and it does require the hard drive, how can i do the test if the computer isn’t on long enough for that to be possible?
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Robert,
Yes, you can run Memtest86+ when the hard drive is removed.
In the previous comment you mentioned that your laptop shuts down while loading Windows, so it’s possible the laptop will work fine on the BIOS level. That’s why I suggested removing the hard drive and testing the laptop without it.
Here’s what you can try without removing the hard drive. Turn on the laptop and enter the BIOS setup menu by pressing ESC or F1, or F2, etc… Will it shut down even while in the BIOS setup menu? If not, you’ll be able to run and finish Memtest86+.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 am
Yes it has shut off in the Bios Menu before.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:33 am
Robert,
If the laptop shuts down in the BIOS menu, then you will not be able to run Memtest86+.
But this problem still can be related to the memory. Find another good memory and test the laptop.
As a last resort you can try this.
Minimize the laptop as much as you can until you have only three major parts left: motherboard, CPU, memory (known good module). It should be enough to start the laptop. If it still shuts down, one of the above mentioned parts is bad, most likely there is something wrong with the motherboard.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Hi, how do I troubleshoot a laptop cable, power supply or motherboard problem? The computer works fine sometimes and sometimes works 2 min. The fan works. If you bump the computer or cable it will turn off.
(battery is not connected)
Thanks, Cozmo
May 1st, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Cozmo,
I test the power adapter with a voltmeter. If voltage cuts off when you move the power cable, apparently it’s bad and there is short inside the power cable.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:04 am
I have an Acer Aspire 9100 laptop. Recently it has been turning itself off without warning, on rebooting it runs a scandisk and always finds problems – not always the same ones. In most cases where it has turned itself off, it has been doing something that scans the HD, like Norton Antivirus, scandisk, chkdsk etc, and occasionally just when a programme such as word is running. I also noted in the weeks leading up to this, that the laptop was frequently not shutting down properly. I thought perhaps the HD was corrupt, so I decided to do a system restore. I then discovered that I cannot enter the BIOS long enough to change the boot sequence – laptop quickly turns off, so system restore from recovery disks is out! I dread the thought that my laptop motherboard is fried – as I am towards the end of writing my PhD thesis! Any suggestions?
May 13th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Gavin,
1. It’s possible that your laptop shuts down because of overheating. Buy a can of compressed air and clean the heat sink. Just spray air inside the air intakes on the laptop.
2. Sounds like you have a problem with the hard drive. Test the hard drive. You can use Hitachi’s DFT, I linked to this utility in “Useful Links”. If the hard drive fails test, you’ll have to replace the hard drive and reinstall OS.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Hi Laptop Freak,
I have tried another HD in the PC and the current hard drive has been removed and scanned externally and no problems have arisen. It is not overheating, the laptop has been both vacuumed out and blown through with compressed air and often it does it just after startup. I think it could be the memory that is corrupt – and my theory is two-fold:
It always switches off under memory laborious tasks: i.e. when trying to shut down the computer, running anti-virus.
I also though this would explain why it switches off when I enter the BIOS. From my own understanding the BIOS is ROM, therefore the first thing the PC does is transfer the BIOS data to part of the RAM memory – that way it can be amended and changed etc, also why a PC cannot boot without memory.
Does this make any sense, I would like to confirm this before I go out and buy new RAM.
Regards
Gavin
May 14th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Gavin,
You can test laptop memory before you buy new RAM. Download Memtest86+, burn it on a CD and boot the laptop from this CD. If you are getting errors during the test, most likely you have a problem with the memory module and it has to be replaced. I linked to Memtest86+ in “Useful Links”.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Hi,
I do not seem to be the only one with this problem. Although my laptop turns itself off when the fan is obscured (not good fan clearly) it turns itself off when playing games even when I raise the laptop to give the fan space. Could it be related to the processor usage related to running a game. I am sure this is not a software problem?? I live in Sierra Leone and computer fixers are few and far between, what can I do myself when spare parts are not available?
May 14th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Niall,
When the heatsink is clogged with dust, raising the laptop will not help to prevent overheating. You’ll have to remove the dust. I posted your question here: Laptop shuts off when playing games.
May 24th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Hello. i have the same broblem with my laptop (that it turns off with no reason)…. the only differance is that it happens only when i am playing games.. not to heavy games either.. and it is not making any wierd sound.. or even getting as hot as it i am used to. i buyed this laptop one year ago. it is an 2.00 ghz dual intel processor, geeforce 8600m gt video card, windows xp…. is it possible to fix, and what is the problem.
Thx
sorry for my baad english
May 27th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I got a HP Pavilion dv5030us and my notebook keeps powering off at the windows loading screen. I tried formating it and it wont let me, and now when it starts up it says error loading operating system on startup, tried operating system dvd and nothing seems to work.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I have a Gateway 7330GZ, I turn it it gets to the Windows XP then to the blank screen right before the desktop and shuts down, What’s the problem, any help please? John
June 9th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
My laptop makes 3 loud beeping noises, then turns off. When i turn it back on, it just shuts down again. If i leave it a couple of hours it usually works. What is this problem?
July 10th, 2008 at 7:54 am
hi
i just upgraded a acer aspire 3000 from
256mb ddr 2700 and put in extra 512mb ddr 2700
different brands, works fine. as soon as i unplug the ac adaptor it blue screens or resets
tried ram sticks individually and just with the new stick i get the problem.
run mem test x86 and it seems fine with no errrors ?
i have ordered 512mb from ebay to see if that fixes it, but yeah ?
kind regards hal
July 11th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I have a Dell Inspiron 9100. Mine kept on shutting down randomly and eventually got worse. I got a laptop technician out and at first he thought it was overheating but it turned out to be the AC plug going into the back. Everytime it moved about it turned it off. This implied that it was something to do with the Motherboard. I only use this as a spare laptop now, but want to have a hand at fixing it myself. What would you suggest? Is there any kind of botch job I could try before buying a whole new motherboard?
Thankyou!
July 11th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
nicky,
I posted your questions and some suggestions here:
Dell Inspiron 9100 shuts down when AC plug is moved
July 11th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Hal MCdonald,
That’s a really weird problem. I’ve never seen something like that. Make sure you have the latest BIOS version installed. Update it if needed just in case. Maybe there are some compatibility issues with the memory brand you installed.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:56 am
I have an hp pavilion laptop
its works fine..bt whn the battery dies n i connect the AC charger 2 it….within 50mins or so it automatically shuts down!!
wot is the problem!!
plzzzzzz help me!!
July 28th, 2008 at 8:17 am
I have a very similar problem. My laptop turns off when I open the lid. Also if its been used it also turns on when I open the lid.
However if it has not been used for a while the laptop turns on like normal and if I use it like a normal laptop and leave the lid open it turns off automatically within minutes.
The only way for me to use my laptop if using it with a monitor and leaving the lid closed. If I leave the lid closed and just use the monitor it works perfectly.
I am wondering if it is the same problem (a over-heating problem) or is it something different.
I greatly appreciate your help.
Thank You
-Eric
August 1st, 2008 at 3:17 pm
HP DV1000 NOTEBOOK SPECIAL EDITION
PROBLEMS:
`ALL LIGHTS COME ON AND STAY STEADY INCLUDING KEYBOARD LIGHTS AND FRONT BATT POWER PROCCESSOR LIGHTS.
`FAN DONT MOVE AT ALL
`NO BOOT SCREEN & SCREEN DOESN’T BLINK, COME ON OR NOTHING
WHAT I’VE TRIED:
`CLEANED THE WHOLE COOLING FAN UNIT
`TOOK OUT RAM AND SWITCHED SLOTS
NOTHING WORKS
HOOKED UP EXTERNAL MONITOR[4 DIFFERENT ONES] AND GET NOTHING
IS MY MOTHERBORAD FRIED?
August 20th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Hey
I’ve had an Acer TravelMate 2501LC (completely rubbish) for the past 3-4 years, way beyond its warranty. Until roughly six months ago it had been fine, but then it started turning its self off. I did everything I could, called companies, cleaned the heatsink and cooling fan. Replaced the heatsink and cooling fan. But still it turns itself off. Strangely though mine could be on for 8 hours or be on for five minutes before it turns off. Usually at the most annoying time ofcourse. I’ve learnt to live with it though doesn’t bother me too much. Upgrading to an “AlienWare” computer soon.
August 27th, 2008 at 7:57 am
marshall.de.meillon@gmail.com
i have a acer travelmate 2500….specifically. the 2501LC…when i start up, the processor in task manager stays constantly at 100%!!!! please please please help!!! it then shuts down after 20-30 mins and it,s not the heat-sink of fan, i checked….
please mail me if you can help in any way
September 10th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Hey,
i have a HP DV5000 laptop, and i decided to do a full PC recovery, so when it tells me to put in 2nd disk, once i put the disk and press ok after a couple sesonds while its trying to load it, it powers off automatically, i turn it on and start it over and it still does the same thing. I have never experienced that before, i have done pc recoveries alot of times before. Please help me, i have contacted hp support they do not know the problem.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
karbon,
Not sure if I know the answer to your question but I posted your question and some suggestions here.
Maybe somebody else knows the answer and can help you.
September 26th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
my acer aspire 5520 laptop was working good all day then all of a sudden it cut off every since then its been cutting off everytime i take it from my lap if its on my lap it works fine because its on my lap now and i dont hear the fan anymore and i’m scared to take it apart i think i’ll just take it to bestbuy and ask them what’s wrong.help please
October 1st, 2008 at 8:12 am
Hi i have an Acer Extensa 5420g 4 GB ram and i have the same problem, when i am playing a game, like crysis after like 10 minutes of non stop gaming it turns of, i dont know how to fix it, probally you know it. I would be very happy if you find the problem och mayby an sollution
October 9th, 2008 at 7:02 am
hi ,
recently i was getting registryfix error so i thought to format the harddisk i was able to format it but while installing i got a ntdlr error ,i tried putting other disk also later now when i turn on the laptop within 3-4 sec it restart again ,before i was getting the windows screen but now its black nothing comes ,the fan turn on when i restart but in sec it turns of every 3-4 sec plz help me ,
laptop model nc6000
October 16th, 2008 at 3:57 am
You’ll probably find that there are dry joints on the mainboard that are causing it to restart irratically, or potentially a crack in the mainboard… Make sure to totally illiminate overheating problems first, try replacing hardware with spares (if possible, dont go spend money on this as yet), if you’re uncomfortable doing this yourself, take it to a Computer shop and get them to do it fo you.
October 26th, 2008 at 11:35 am
hi umm, i got an ferrari acer 4000 series
well as the same with the others it turns off when im opening programs like games like that but its not because of the video card or etc. because when i remove my battery chargers its working fine but when i put my charger back on the fan goes faster and it gets hotter then it goes off im just wondering why is it like that when i have my charger off it works fine but when i put it on it turns off can u help me fix this please email me if its ok thanks
November 28th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I just wanted to say thanks. My computer had this problem, but after cleaning out the heat sink (which was completely covered in a heavy layer of dust), problem solved. No wonder it wouldn’t work. That stuff seemed like some pretty effective insulation.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:22 am
Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 and for awhile it has been shutting off completely all of a sudden. I thought it was because my charger was torn up and my battery cells were nearly dead but I have replaced both and it still does the same thing so I don’t think its the charge. It does not happen often. It’ll range from 1 -2 times a day and then sometimes not happen for a week or 2 and happen again. I have heard maybe the motherboard is shutting down due to overheating, but sometimes it is not even hot. Please let me know what you think it might be. I have final exams in this next week and a half and my laptop is very important!!
December 1st, 2008 at 9:02 am
Kay, try reading the article. If you try to remove the laptop’s case lid where the CPU is and check how much dust is there, it should give you a clue as to whether or not this article is your answer.
December 1st, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Jonas, thanks for responding. The reason I haven’t done that is because I’m clueless when it comes to taking apart and putting together computer parts and I’m scared of doing the wrong thing so I was hoping to get a definate reason for whats going on before I do anything.
Would I just screw out the tiny screws on the bottom and remove the whole thing? Or is it a section of it?
Thank you!!!
December 1st, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Kay,
I wouldn’t take it apart unless you know exactly what you are doing. You can damage the laptop.
Try cleaning the laptop with compressed air without taking the whole thing apart. Buy a can of compressed air in a local home improvement store and spray the air inside the heat sink grill on the back. After that spray it inside the air intake on the bottom.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Hey, thanks for your advice to others, my HP laptop dv6000 Special Edition was shutting down on its own. I never turn off the laptop, so its been on for a good 4 months.. I just tried blowing into the fan and getting all the dust, and my laptop went from uber hot to chilled nice room temperature within a matter of seconds, and, it doesn’t shutdown anymore at random.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Hi, i have a vaio sz3xwp/c model.. recently a burning smell was coming from the laptop and i assumed it was the fan so replaced the fan.. and laptop used to switch on for a minute or so then went off.. someone suggested heat compound for the processor.. ive tried this and still teh laptop switches itself off after a minute or so.. any ideas anyone?
December 21st, 2008 at 2:49 am
Hi,
I have recently purchased a new Dell studio 1537 Laptop with vista Home Premium.
The problem is that it shuts down automatically quite often,during working.
please assist.
regards,
Gaurav
December 21st, 2008 at 7:13 am
I have Hp dv 2700 laptop. I use microphone to chat on messanger/gtalk. It was working fine. But now the microphone of my head phone is not working. I can lisen the voice of m opponent. But they can’t here me. I had checket in volume control, the non of the opton was mute. I try to up date drivers in device manager, but it stopped up dating in between, what should i do now, pl. give a best solution.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:38 pm
i hav a HP 520 laptop. with CPU T2300 @ 1.66 GHz and 2.49 GB RAM. The region where the fan is lacted gets heated up when i play a game like cricket 2007 or fifa. and then turns off suddenly. can u plz help me??????????
January 26th, 2009 at 4:44 am
hi, my laptpo BENQ JoybookR45, its shutdown sddnly n its will show the problem is becse of the software i install……… when i scan for virus, its clean……. wat should i do????????
February 10th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
i just cleaned out the fan on my laptop. it helps to remove the dust to keep it from over heating. trust me my computer used to run at 50 celcius to 60 idleing and up to 75 under load but after i cleaned out the dust it ran much cooler 30 celcius idle 45 under load a big improvement and no crash
hope this helps
February 11th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Dear Laptop Freak:
I have an Averatec 3700 and I been getting the message “New Hardware found” then my wireless will only work for like 20 minutes and the laptop restarts automatically. I Can’t update Bios because I don’t know my Supervisor password. I also think it may be a heating problem but i’m not sure what is going on with my Laptop.
Cordially,
Beto
February 18th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Hi all i have a hi grade 330!. Before the point for the power supply snapped off so i gave it to this guy to fix. when i had it back i went to turn it on and now ive got to hold my finger on the power button and then it will only stay on for about 5 seconds now the lights comes on the disc drive spins but no fan as the guy cant find it but he will get me a new one sooon (i hope) have you ever come across something like this and please help me as its too good to waste!!!
February 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Hi all i have a hi grade 330!. Before the point for the power supply snapped off so i gave it to this guy to fix. when i had it back i went to turn it on and now ive got to hold my finger on the power button and then it will only stay on for about 5 seconds now the lights comes on the disc drive spins but no fan as the guy cant find it but he will get me a new one sooon (i hope)plus it gives 2 short beeps before shuting down plus no display!!! Laptop Freak have you ever come across something like this and please help me as its too good to waste!!!
February 21st, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I have a Q2 laptop and when its still on and i take the charger off it just turns off? What do I do to fix it?
February 25th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Hi,
I have Dell Inspiron 640m and it just turned off while using it for about an hour.
Tried to turn it on again,but the screen is black,
Caps lock and scroll lock led light were continously flashing at the same time.
Tried below procedure:
1.Reseting RAM but it didn’t work.
2.Removing the battery and operating it by AC didn’t work as well.
March 8th, 2009 at 1:17 am
while surfing around i came across this forum i have a little bit of advise for the guy with the gateway 7330gz as ive personally owned one and its older sister m520 both suffer from the heatsink getting clogged with dust/dirt ive found ive had to dismantle them and clean the fans and the heatsink assembly as often as once every 3-6 monthsits actually fairly simple to do after you remove the keyboard and then the plate under it as well it takes paitence and a bit of time but after doing it once i learned a few shortcuts to make it a faster process and always remeber to clean the old thermal grease and apply new for best results another thing is the cloth filters on the side pannel and the buttom board can also become clogged i removed mine possibly why ive had to clean mine so frequently lol
March 8th, 2009 at 1:29 am
and now to the reason i was hunting info this morning i have a hp dv 1000 series that has the typical power issue ive tracked it to a bad diode which i tried to replae to a similar one but without knowing what its value actually was the original was in two pieces and fried the upper half had no markings it is small rectangular it is maybe an 8th of an inch long its black soldered to the board on both ends it is located under the plastic isolator between the mainboard and heatsink assembly i am guessing it is labeled as component pl75 but could be mistaken thanks for any help i recieve and to those who read this posting
March 20th, 2009 at 5:43 am
Hi, My laptop seems to switch off whenever I touch the bottom right corner or anyhting on that side. It would switch on andthen immediately switch off. It just suddenly started doing that. What could be causing this?
Pleas help. its driving me crazy.
its a HP Compaq 6730b
April 8th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Hi.
I have a dell I’ve had for about 2 years now. For the last 5 or 6 months, when the laptop gets a little warm, it’ll shut down on me.
I did some research and found out about a thermal failsafe with my battery. I don’t know if that’s it, but if it is, is there a way to turn the failsafe off? It gets annoying when I’m in the middle of a game and my laptop suddenly shuts down.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
April 20th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Hello. I’ve got an N1 Smartbook laptop and the same with you, I’ve got the same problems. Only, there’s something worse that I can’t fix alone. My laptop computer turns down by itself and then reopens by itself. Or when you’re using it, if you shut it down it restarts alone and then keeps working for some time. It will eventually shut down again and then later, open again. It only cools off when its battery loses charge. I just manage to use it this time. Can you help me.
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Hey im having trouble with my laptop it turns on then off.I left it on for 3 days downloading a movie after that i turned it on and it turned off in 2 seconds. the light flashes on and off and no fan signal. what can i do to fix this problema please help me
May 19th, 2009 at 7:02 am
I was having this problem out of no where as well when the screen would not turn on but i would hear the fan and the computer seemed to boot up. This started to happen right after i was trying to use my recovery cd’s to recover windows. Half way the computer would turn off and when booted would say ntldr is missing, or “Inf file txtsetup.sif is corrupt or missing, status 14. Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit.”
I thought the discs were dirty so i went on a journey to fix the discs and even tried using brasso metal polish “thanks to searching google on how to cheaply repair cd’s” the cd’s came out better and so i tried it again and again the same result. I tried clearing the cmos by supposedly holding down the power button for 30 sec with no power source attached and … It didnt work. I scratched my head and dived into google for hours, searching desperately for a solution that wouldnt mean sending my laptop in for repairs and thus throwing away my lunch money for a year! It turned out to be that the fan was dirty and was causing the computer to shut down halfway thru installation and not letting the screen come back on. Make sure your fans are clean. A computer can get very!!! Hot! And the only thing keeping it cool is a small fan. Hope this helps
July 19th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
my lap top switches OFF whenever I ask to do something too complicated. for example, I watch a video and do not like it so I stop it and click on another one, ater a few seconds power goes OFF.
I and whenever I switch ON again, the laptop may reboot totally or it may not.. best to leave it for several hours then start again… but take it easy. last time it caused problem was due to pics in the email not as attachment then when I finally was able to get laptop working again, tried to delete that email , laptop switched OFF ,
only cure I have found so fat is to re-install everything from the start……..but …. it happens again when the “load” get to be too much for it…
October 11th, 2009 at 12:00 am
My laptop turns off when im on certain games.. like habbo uk people are saying its about the fan and the heat sink how do i clear the fan ?
October 11th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Aamir,
Buy a can of compressed air and spray it into the air intake on the bottom of the laptop until all dust is gone. After that spray air into the fan grill on the side.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Aamir,
Buy a can of compressed air or even better find an air compressor and spay air inside the fan grill on the bottom of the laptop. This will remove mode dust from the fan and heat sink.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Hi
Tried compressed air, doesn’t help,added a fan unit under laptop,does not help.
How do I get at the CPU heat sink?
Have a emachine laptop M6811
appreciate your help
Dave
November 4th, 2009 at 2:37 am
After I turn on my laptop it works fine for 20-35 minutes and after that just turns itself off without any warning. When I turn it on again, it doesn’t works at all.What is going on? How can I fix it?
November 13th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Hello Laptop Freak,
I have Advent 7104 laptop. It starts OK, runs OK, after about 10 mins it locks up for about 1 sec then it shuts off. I turn it back on it then last for about 2 mins and turns off again
I have completly stripped the laptop, cleaned the fan & heatsink, still the same, I have even amended the registry to see if there is a report in the event log, but nothing shows.
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Nick
November 13th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Nick,
Can you see the cooling fan working? Maybe the fan is bad and the laptop shuts down because of overheating.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:58 am
My Lenovo Thinkpad T400 turns off when I close the lid. I double-checked the settings and it is set to sleep on close. When I restart it it says that it was not shut down properly. I checked and this happens if i just shut the lid and open it again right away.
I am running Vista Home Premium.
Thanks
December 30th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I have a macbook and am really frusturated when I close it because it goes into sleep mode but when I hit the key pad and even the keys nothing happens.
I have to re-start it and THEN it tells me I didn’t shut it down right – well no kidding if I couldn’t get it to come out of sleep.
Anyone have this trouble?
February 9th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
i have a hp notebook laptop andit turns off when i go on the internet what could this be ?
May 20th, 2010 at 6:19 am
i have the same problem. my laptop is an old model of 7years old toshiba satelite. when i turn on my laptop it automatically turns off without the bios it is full black like it was when it is shutdown or not in used. i have to charge it and open the lcd for an hour or days. the first thing that i discoverd is the sound, a soound like click coming from the hdd just a guess and fan doesnt seems to be work.
May 22nd, 2010 at 2:14 pm
My Acer laptop shuts down when I move it, anything I could do without going to a tech or do I need to get something changed? Thanks if you can help.
May 29th, 2010 at 1:20 am
My laptop turns off seemingly randomly but 95% of the time it turns itself back on again. Most of the time, it won’t make it all the way through a boot before it turns off again and on.
Here is what i have tried but has not solved the problem
1. As mentioned above, i opened up my laptop to clean out all the dust.
2. Wiped my HDD, set to factory condition, formatted and reinstalled O/S from Manufacturer.
3. Wiped my HDD with Manufacturer provided program and reinstalled O/S.
4. Ran computer with power adapter plugged in until battery at 100% then unplugged. Worked for a few weeks. Then it didn’t.
5. Charged battery to full with computer off, unplugged and turned on.
6. Charged battery to full with computer off, kept plugged in and turn on.
7. Removed battery and plugged in adapter.
Just when i thought i’d figured out that it was the power adapter, my laptop turns off without the adapter plugged in.
8. Ran computer and played game. Power adapter plugged in. Accidentally hit alt tab and returned to windows. Too slow to return to game. Turned off and on. Repeated, intentionally hitting alt tab, waited and turned off but not on occasionally.
I was going to try my spare battery but I’ve misplaced it so i’d like to exhaust all my options before i go out and purchase a $140 battery, or a $60 laptop power adapter.
I’m starting to think i have a short somewhere or didn’t clean well enough.
My technical trouble shooting skills are average.
Can someone please help me?
June 15th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Toshiba M35X-s3112 screen went blank and appears to be in hibernate. I removed battery, ac adapter, tried all the ‘tricks’ published on various sites.
Turning on power bios used to access dvd, now nothing. Screen is completely blank. Changed memory removed memory, no error codes via sound. fan comes on as it should when starting then it turns off as usual as the laptop is not hot. I have disassembled. not much dust inside machine at all. have connected to monitor still nothing. Does not appear to be hibernate switch. I had been using the laptop and was clicking on an icon when the screen went black.
June 28th, 2010 at 10:46 am
As well as cooling fan issues they’re can be power faults. Its best if you open it up and check that nothing is damaged – Mine was doing it and all the motherboard had cracked somehow (WARNING: PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF JESUS DON’T OPEN IT IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING. I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE) also had connection problems on the solder. Just check it out.