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.
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 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 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 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!
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
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 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 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 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.
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.
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?
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 7th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Did you test the AC adapter by any chance? Maybe the AC adapter is dead?
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 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 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 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?
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 ..”
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 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
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.
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.
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 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 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?:)
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?
September 20th, 2007 at 1:05 am
I think it is the motherboard.
Thanks for the help, I will send it for repair!!
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 19th, 2007 at 3:31 am
Thanks for the quick reply but I get nothing.. no LED lights and no noise..
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.