My laptop keeps shutting off for no reason
I have a Toshiba Satellite A75, the problem I’m having is it keeps shutting off for no reason, I can’t figure it out, but the only way it won’t shut off is if I only use it on a fan. It feels kind of warm but sometimes it doesn’t have to be on for maybe 5 minutes and it happens too. If you could help me with this issue it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
If your laptop shutting off without any reason, then I am almost 100% positive that you are experiencing a laptop overheating problem. This is a very common problem with Toshiba Satellite A70 and A75 laptops and could be easily fixed if you clean the heat sink. Overtime the heat sink gets clogged with lint and dust. It ruins normal air flow inside the heat sink and the heat stops dissipating. As a result – the CPU overheats and the laptop shuts down. In some cases it would be enough just to blow off the heat sink with compressed air to get the laptop back to normal condition. Try to clean it with compressed air first. Sometimes it is necessary to take the laptop apart, so you can access the heat sink and remove all collected overtime dust and lint. I covered overheating problem with more details in this post.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I had a similar problem when I first got my Toshiba 205D laptop. It would just turn itself off. I called Toshiba support and was told to change “minimum processor state” power settings for both plugged in and on battery. I was skeptical, but it worked. No more problems. Go to Control Panel -> Power Options -> Edit Plan Settings. Then “Change plan settings” for whatever power “plan” it is set to. “Change Advanced Settings” will be a link near the bottom of the window. Choose that and then scroll down to where you see “minimum processor state.” Mine used to be at 5%. The support lady said choose 100%. I have since backed it off to 50% and still have no problems. Good luck!
November 26th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Ramon Tran Tang,
Check out this post about free repair from HP. Maybe they can fix your laptop at no charge.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:38 am
Hey guys..
I have a hp pavillon dv6000. I use this notebook for a year now and now its starts causing trouble. The screen keeps blinking at me, changing the light contrast from bright to dark every second.. I bought this expensive notebook for college and it’s just crapping out on me..
Please,, if possible suggestions ..
Thanks
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:30 am
Hey guys i have a Hp Labtop and for some reason its been shutting off for no reason and i kno whats goin on but i’m afraid if i take it apart i might forget how to put it back on
November 15th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Hey labtop freak, i have a gateway labtop, Model # 7405gx. out of no where i turned it on and it booted up like it normally would but the screen is blank “white”. i tried to use an external monitor and the same thing happened. someone told me it was the video card? is this true? also, if it is the video card could you be able to help me by telling me what video card to buy or which one i have and how to install it myself.??? please help me ASAP if you can, i feal naked without my pc. lolol thanks again anthony
November 6th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I have a Toshiba labtop A215 and every time I turn it on 2 min later a blue screen pops up and then my labtop shuts down what do I do it tell me something about a Bios shadowing but I don’t know what to do and I don’t want to mess my labtop up
October 24th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite A105 laptop, the problem I’m having is it keeps shutting off for no reason..Like if I do the McAfee quick clean it will shut down right in the middle of it…And the other day I was working on a picture in Photoshop and right before I went to save the picture it shut down and I lost the work I did on my picture… So I don’t know what is wrong or what to do…. So any help on this issue it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:11 am
my hp laptop shuts off after a few seconds, or sometimes minutes. I am sure my battery is almost dead or dead. I was told that if it is plugged in it doesn’t even need a battery. Can a laptop overheat in must a few seconds, or minutes.
Help.
Bonnie
September 16th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Dear friend,
I have a hp laptop and suddendly I turn it on, and a few seconds sometimes even minutes it turns itself off. What is your suggestion. I know the battery is probably almost dead or dead, yet I was told that a lap top plugged in to house current is sufficient. A battery isn’t even necessary to run a computor if it is plugged into the wall.
What do you think. The kids really need this computor for their school work. Can you help.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:35 am
SAM:
First off, im assuming your talking about the internal speakers set into the base of the laptop.
Do you hear any crackles/pops emitting from the speakers at all? There should be a headphone jack somewhere on the side/back of the laptop. After your speakers “die” plug in some headphones and see if that works. if not, there may be a problem with your audio driver, and you may need to install a new one. (you should check this: right click MYCOMPUTER/PROPERTIES/HARDWARE/DEVICE MANAGER/SOUND,VIDEO,GAME CONTROLLERS. double click all your audio devices and check for problems/conflicts.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:29 am
SAM:
First off, im assuming your talking about the internal speakers set into the base of the laptop.
Do you hear any crackles/pops emitting from the speakers at all? There should be a headphone jack somewhere on the side/back of the laptop. After your speakers “die” plug in some headphones and see if that works. if not, there may be a problem with your audio driver, and you may need to install a new one. (you should check this: right click MYCOMPUTER/PROPERTIES/HARDWARE/DEVICE MANAGER/
August 16th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
um. Yer guys… i need help… i use my laptop right and
after a period of inactivity of the speakers they stop working and i am not able to use them :1 this isn’t good. in order to fix them i have to restart my Laptop and i don’t really come on the laptop only to restart it after not using the speakers. Please help. my model is toshiba. Tell me how this could have been caused and what i can do to fix it? please, thanks
August 14th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Fan works fine after i cleaned it. I had the laptop running in bios for over an hour checking the HDD but as soon as i tried installing windows it died. It turned out to be the AMD sempiron, the whole line of those mobile processors are garbage. Luckily i had a friend with the same AMD, so I swithced it out and it was fine. The fan must have been clogged for a long time and the amd fried. im still grossed out by the solid brick of grime i found in the fan housing. Thanks for your help… I need to school my co-workers on regular laptop maintenance…lol.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Domaneeshu,
Maybe the laptop shuts off because the fan is not working? Can you hear the fan spinning before the laptop shuts off?
Did you check thermal grease between the heatsink and processor when you were cleaning the heatsink? Maybe thermal grease dried out and has to be replaced.
August 12th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Im trying to fix a HP Pavilion ze200 laptop for a co-worker. After about 4-6 minutes the machine shuts itself off completely without warning…Even in Bios(windows wont load due to pxe-e61 error, but that is solvable) I opened everything up to discover the entire fan/heatsink enclosure packed solid with dust and grime. I cleaned everything off including the motherboard itself… and nada. I cant format and re-install windows to fix the pxe error due to the quick power-downs. I’m clueless. I looked carefully and did not notice any burns on the motherboard. I checked voltage with the variance and everyting was well.My only deduction is something fried from overheating while the fan was out of commision. maybe a connection within the board itself? Im aware that most of these laptops power down automatically when the temp sensor reaches a certain point.. but the fan is working, and plenty of cool air and ventilation is available. Anyone have a similar experience? Solution maybe?
August 4th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
My friend has a compaq laptop and i was on it and it flashed then turned off and the screen is black. I plugged the cord in and everything but nothing has happened.. Im kind of worried cus its not my laptop and i need help fasttt
August 1st, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Hi, I have a Toshiba Satellite M45 and I am fixing it. The problem is It shuts down by Its seft. I tried everything. I cleaned the dust, I put some themal grease on the CPU, I changed the fan, I reinstalled its original O.S. (Windows xp HE), I tried to install windows vista, and I checked the AC power but the problem still there. Every time that I try to install an O.S. It shuts down. I saw that in save mode, in the Bios, or in DOS O.S, It did not shut down. Can you help me? please.
July 30th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Hi laptopfreak,
I’m running an Acer TM8210, recently, whenever i try to run games, my screen goes blank after a couple of minutes. The game is still running as i can still hear the audio. Please advise…~
July 29th, 2008 at 12:34 am
I bought a samsung X15 about a year ago, second hand. It has been giving me the same problem ever since. Sometimes it turns on absolutely fine, but majority of the times when I turn my laptop on it says OPERATING SYSTEM FAILURE. I have had my hard disc changed many a times, but after a month or two the problem persists.
Can you help me pleeeease? I am totally lost
July 27th, 2008 at 11:31 am
hi.. my dell inspiron 8200 shuts down by itself when i look at streaming videos.maybe its getting to hot. but the fan always run though.what do u think or suggest?
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
wezmeister1979 Says:
July 13th, 2008 at 3:33 am
hey.. i have a toshiba A40-151 and it says there is a problem with my cooling fan, error message appears on it saying take it to be serviced.. is there anything i can do to sort this..?? pls help..
( PLEASE NOTE: I am not a professional in computer repair or anything like that, I’ve just spent time on these and other forums. As well, I have learned over the years from doing simple stuff on my and my friend’s and family’s computers.) From what I’ve read on here and other forums regarding these Toshibas, the first thing to do would be clean it with canned air. Which initially be done from the outside by blowing out the vents really well. But if this doesn’t keep the error msg. from coming up, you would likely have to do a thorough internal cleaning inside the unit (as some have mentioned on this thread). Then if THAT doesn’t make the msg. subside, then you should probably consider having the laptop serviced.
UPDATE ON MY Toshiba Satellite m35x-s149: I have had it diagnosed and it needs a motherboard. Anyone know of another of the same model that the screen is bad or something like that, that would like to sell it for cheap? But only a situation that I could use the motherboard from of course. THANKS!
July 13th, 2008 at 3:33 am
hey.. i have a toshiba A40-151 and it says there is a problem with my cooling fan, error message appears on it saying take it to be serviced.. is there anything i can do to sort this..?? pls help..
July 10th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Tried the external monitor, no change.
July 6th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Russ Says:
May 12th, 2008 at 5:20 am
You probably already had this problem fixed, but I had the same problem. Called Toshiba tech support and downloaded a fix. One month now and no problem.
I went to their site and searched for “computer won’t turn on”, “blank screen” and “random shut down”, but couldn’t find a fix. However, I have not called them yet, as it is the weekend.
So here’s where I’m at (Many THANK YOUs in advance for any input, suggestions, etc) Like others above -
Toshiba Satellite m35x-s149 won’t turn on. Lights are on, even fn light comes on on keyboard when fn key is pushed. It randomly shut down while working on it last night and I hadn’t realized it beforehand, but the hard drive was pretty hot at that point. I should also mention that prior to last night, booting up would take an ungodly amount of time. Like 15 mins. sitting there blank until you finally would see the Toshiba screen.
I did get it to boot up once last night by pressing and holding pwr button several times (with lengthy breaks for how long booting up took before and for cool down to rule out a heating/cooling issue) but it abruptly shut down within 5-10 mins (and the hard drive was barely warm that time) and now it won’t boot back up.
- I can’t reload operating sys, since it won’t turn on.
- I did what the Toshiba site instructs you to do for ruling out a battery or pwr connection issue.
- I’ve shaken it a little to see if it is a loose connection. No change.
- Blew canned air to clean out the fan. However, I have not opened it up to clean-up the motherboard.
- Lastly, I have not tried an external monitor because I don’t have one here. I can get access to one though and it will be my next step.
Anyone got anything? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
THANKS!
June 25th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
theD,
Sounds like an overheating issue to me.
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:48 pm
my laptop toshiba keeps shutting down like in 30 minutes and i have to turn it back on and it says ur computer did not shut down properly when i am not even shutting off my computer may it damage my computer? And how do i keep it not to shuting down?
June 15th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
This is going to be totally off topic, but.
I have a compaq, no clue what the model is or anything, I’m not going to bother to look.
Anywho.
Everything goes back in time.
I sign into flickr, it takes me right back to the homepage which has sign in at the corner. I upload a picture on a thursday and it only shows pictutres I uploaded almost a month earlier. When I refresh the page, it returns to normal.
I sign into myspace it shows bullitens that were posted on the 23rd only, and people who were online on the 23rd are “online”
ANy clue whats wrong with it>
June 12th, 2008 at 2:20 am
I just got a hp compaq with turion x2 it keeps shutting off and won’t turn on again. is this also most likely an overheating problem?
thanks in advance
June 4th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I have a dell XPS M140 and I recently changed to a an extended battery, however, the laptop will turn off randomly if it is either lifted off a table or basically whenever it is moved…have you heard of anything like this?
May 13th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I have a acer 5050 labtop I bought in early 2007 and its worked fine until a month ago it will start up then all of a sudden the screen will turn off the the lights will butt the computer stays on and I restart many times and the same thing happens its really irratating.